HarmonyOS 3: Huawei's Android alternative promises improved battery life, responsiveness and new features

While Huawei's Summer 2022 Smart Office Launch event focused on new hardware, the company also presented an updated version of its in-house operating system. To recap, Huawei announced the MatePad Pro 11, PixLab V1, Smart Screen S86 Pro and Watch 3 Pro new, all running HarmonyOS. In comparison, the company's new MateBook X Pro runs Windows 11, powered by Intel Alder Lake processors.

According to Huawei, it has now brought HarmonyOS to twelve device platforms, such as AR glasses, cars, printers, smartphones, smartwatches and tablets. Now in its third generation, HarmonyOS 3 is the next step in Huawei's hope of offering a holistic operating system across all your internet-connected devices. Ultimately, HarmonyOS can still run Android apps on smartphones, despite being a distinct operating system.

Unsurprisingly, Huawei claims that HarmonyOS 3 is faster and less demanding than HarmonyOS 2. Specifically, HarmonyOS 3 is billed as offering 14% improved response times compared to HarmonyOS 2, as well as 11% reduced power consumption. While Huawei has not gone into specifics, it claims that devices like the P50 Pro should provide 18% higher framerates when scrolling and 7% faster application loading times than if they had HarmonyOS 2 installed.

Separately, HarmonyOS 3 adds the option of detecting and blocking spam calls, plus virus detection. Although it remains to be seen when Huawei will release HarmonyOS 3 publicly, beta builds are available in China for the Mate 40 and P50 series, among others. The smartphones and tablets that Huawei sells outside China will still run EMUI though, at least for the time being.

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