No Android 10 and EMUI 10 update for your P30 Pro? You're not alone

Huawei started rolling out EMUI 10, its Android 10-based custom OS, in October. There seems to have been some confusion about the OS upgrade, though. Huawei has since confirmed that the 10.0.0.166 update which reached some Chinese handsets was an "unstable test version". Hence, while we reported in mid-November that devices like European variants of the P30 Pro should start receiving EMUI 10 "over the next few weeks", that did not prove the case.

EMUI 10 has now, as we reported earlier this month, started reaching devices like the P30 Pro, though. Huawei has officially confirmed this, too. However, the rollout is not that straight forward. Usually, OEMs roll out OS upgrades en-masse by device and by region, but not so with the P30 Pro. In fact, the upgrade process is proving bordering on the farcical, in our opinion.

Using the UK as an example, carrier-unlocked handsets should have started receiving EMUI 10 this month. However, it seems that Huawei is rolling out the update in batches that it is restricting by serial number. While not unusual in itself, most UK carrier-locked devices have now started receiving EMUI 10. Carrier-locked handsets rarely receive OS upgrades before unlocked ones do

Worse still, some P30 Pro handsets are currently languishing on four-month-old Android security patches. We would expect this lack of software support on an entry-level smartphone, not Huawei's latest Google-certified flagship.

In short, the upgrade process is so convoluted that there is mass-thread on XDA Developers for manually upgrading the P30 Pro to EMUI 10. We would not recommend doing so unless you know exactly what you are doing though, as you cannot just download it and flash it through Recovery as you can with many Android smartphones.

The confusion around the rollout of EMUI 10 for the P30 Pro extends beyond the UK, too. Ultimately, it is unclear whether individual P30 Pro handsets are eligible EMUI 10. Huawei has offered no guidance on the matter. Some devices have received EMUI 10 while others remain on EMUI 9.1 even if they are in the same region.