There’s been a lot of talk this week regarding Huawei’s Harmony OS 2.0 launch, since the platform is supposed to reach Huawei phones and tablets over the next weeks. We also learn that a full fledged device with this OS installed will be launched on December 21st. We have more details below.
The new device will be a Smart Screen, you know that unusual combo between smart speaker and tablet that has been growing ever more popular lately. The official poster of the device can be seen above, as a teaser for it. It says something like “why can you change the channel without the remote control?”. It also says “Why dou don’t need to look at the phone when playing on the phone”. It all hints at deep integration with mobile phones. The Huawei Smart Screen S is closer to a TV set than a tablet, thanks to the 55 inch 60 Hz screen.
It also comes with 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage. It could have smart multi screen features, smart acoustics and a camera for videocalls and fitness apps. HarmonyOS 2.0 is actually quite fascinating, seen by many as a solid upcoming Android alternative. It actually runs Android apps and it can already be previewed by developers on the Huawei MatePad Pro tablets. It’s an OS based on a micro kernel, able to run on devices with a few MB of RAM and also ones with 64 GB of RAM, being highly scalable.
It runs on watches, tablets, phones, TV sets, auto systems, but also data centers and powerful PCs. It also has an UI right now derived from EMUI 11 and looking 90% like it. Huawei is working on emulators now, porting and development tools and already has a dozen or so device makers interested to install the platform on mobile devices. Expect to see it spread in 2021.
Before anything else I want to highlight that HarmonyOS 2.0 is just in Developer Beta and can’t be installed by the average user.
