This story is being continuously updated…. New updates are being added at the bottom…..

Original story (from February 03, 2020) follows:

While more and more devices from various phone makers continue to bag stable builds of Android 10, some users are crying foul. Honor Play and Huawei Nova 3/3i are just some of the devices that don’t meet the minimum requirements for Android 10, at least according to their maker.

This is heartbreaking for these phone owners are these devices, despite being a little old at this point, are still very capable in terms of performance. This is especially bearing in mind that the lower spec’d Honor 8X has already received EMUI 10/Android 10.

honor_play_blue_front_back
Honor Play

Frustrated Honor Play users are really not taking this lightly. While pointing out that the device does pack Huawei’s own flagship HiSilicon Kirin 970 chipset, Honor Play users, just like Honor 3/3i users, are marshaling up a campaign to have Huawei reconsider and update the device to Android 10.

In a new petition on Change.org that has since been signed by over 2,383 users, the group wants an Official Android 10 build developed as devices from the same era from competing OEMs have already been updated.

honor play petition
Honor Play petition (Source)

Should Huawei decide to truly abandon the Honor Play, these users also want Huawei to consider unlocking the bootloader and giving them more power over the device’s system. As any Android fanatic knows, unlocking a device’s bootloader allows for a bunch of interesting things.

galaxy_s3_lineageos_16_about_device
LineageOS 16.0 (based on Android Pie) running on 2012’s Samsung Galaxy S3!

The aftermarket Android firmware community is a very vibrant one and unlocking the bootloader is the key. This means that should Huawei agree to unlock the bootloader on this device, users can resort to installing custom ROMs to further extend the life of this device past the Android Pie.

Huawei’s stand on unlocking bootloader is simple. As from mid-2018, the OEM really doesn’t want users unlocking their bootloader as the company discontinued the online tool that allowed users to request proprietary keys necessary to do so.

huawei_bootloader_notice
Well, that’s quite straightforward

Released back in June 2018, Honor Play is powered by a 2.36 GHz octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 970 processor, sports 4/6 GB of RAM, 3,750 mAh battery and its storage starts from 64 GB. The phone was launched with Android 8.1 and has since been updated to Android 9 Pie.

Update 1 (February 28, 2020)

Honor Play EMUI 10 (Android 10) update hopefuls sadly won’t get to unlock the bootloader as the application has been “terminated.”
Complete coverage here.

Update 2 (March 18, 2020)

VoWiFi calling is coming to the Honor Play as part of the March 2020 security update. Get the full story here.

Update 3 (May 13, 2020)

Honor Play picks up Android 10 via Pixel Experience ROM. Head here for more coverage.

PiunikaWeb started as purely an investigative tech journalism website with main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.

Clinton Madegwa
1118 Posts

A cybernaut grasping at all things tech. Lover of Android, Linux, and custom ROMS. A nerd, a writer, an avid reader.

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