The Honor Play will not receive Android 10, and that's unfair

A few weeks ago, we reported on Huawei's official Android 10 update roadmap. On that list, the Honor Play was surprisingly missing, and we expected the company to add it to the list as was implied. Unfortunately, that will not be the case, as Huawei has now confirmed that the Honor Play will not receive the Android 10 update at all.

The company was quizzed on the matter a few days ago and had this to say:

"Thank you for reaching out to us. We regret to inform you that EMUI 10.0 / Android Q will not be available for your device due to hardware limitations as it requires higher hardware specifications for optimal performance. We appreciate your understanding and patience."

This would be an acceptable reason except for how blatantly untrue it is. The Honor Play was released in July 2018 and is powered by a Kirin 970. You know, the exact same SoC on the Huawei Mate 10 and P20 phones, all of which will be getting Android 10. It's almost insulting that Honor thought this excuse would fly.

The Honor Play launched on Android Oreo and has received just one major update, to Android Pie. We don't count the EMUI 9.1 update as an OS update for obvious reasons. The device was offered as a competitor to the Pocophone F1. The F1 will be getting Android 10, but the Honor Play will not. 

The Honor 8X was released a few months after the Honor Play and featured the much less powerful Kirin 710 and it will be getting Android 10, its second major OS update. 

This will not be the first time Huawei has attempted to pull off such a stunt; the Honor 8 was faced with similar travails with the Oreo update. Recent performances may have led us to believe Huawei had gotten better with updates but it would seem that a leopard never changes its spots after all.

Honor Play on sale now at Amazon