Huawei P40 Pro: Android phone without Google? No problem!

 For those of you wish myself who managed to flee more important distractions last week, you would possibly have noticed that Chinese consumer electronics giant Huawei released its P40 Pro flagship smartphone.


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Of course, you will not see this device released within the US. American companies are mostly unable to try to to any business with Huawei in any substantial way, which incorporates the sale and exportation of components and software since it had been added to the US Commerce Department's entity list, and therefore the Trump administration has campaigned to show Huawei and other companies that have relationships with the Chinese government into pariahs.


These US restrictions haven't stopped Huawei from releasing its products in other regions -- like Europe, the center East, Africa, and Latin America -- under the Huawei and Honor brands. I even have been lucky enough to possess had access to the united kingdom and EMEA version of the P40 Pro for a few week, and i have been using it heavily as my primary Android device.


I am not getting to get into the minutiae of the hardware and its overall performance. Many other publications and far more detail-oriented mobile technology writers have already done a radical job of watching this product from a nuts-and-bolts standpoint. But my overall opinion of the device is it's nothing in need of a technological marvel and a powerful showcase of the company's ability to supply industry-leading, value-added mobile hardware.


The reaction to the device among the technology press has been just about universal. In essence, everyone agrees the hardware is astounding , and it's easily on par with what Samsung recently released with the S20 series in terms of raw technical achievement and therefore the component bill of materials on the device. It just has one serious flaw: it's no Google Mobile Services or the Google Play Store thereon .


I've spoken to a couple of other writers who are on the review chain for this product. All have said that not having access to the Play Store and therefore the Google apps (such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Youtube, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Voice, Google Hangouts, Android Auto) may be a deal-breaker.


Several, including myself, have even tried various unofficial workarounds to bypass the restriction and install the Google Mobile Services via sideloading -- because they can't break this habit. Unfortunately, the safety block against doing this on the Huawei P40 series is total; it fails to enable the services, because it is an uncertified and unlicensed device. It's certainly possible some enterprising developers might find a replacement workaround, but thus far , it doesn't appear to be something which will be easily overcome thanks to Google's security.



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There is always hope that, within the spirit of international cooperation, particularly during these extremely challenging and unprecedented times, the present presidential administration may reverse course on this issue, and conceivably, Google may again be allowed to license its software to Huawei. But, realistically, it probably won't happen until there is a new administration no matter the (unlikely) possibility of this example improving soon, Huawei has repeatedly announced its commitment to developing its own mobile services stack, and its own app store, which is included on the P40 and therefore the Mate 30 and lower-cost-but-still-excellent Honor phones. 


Rather than throw my hands up within the air and declare the device a deal-breaker, i made a decision to use the merchandise as-is, and to ascertain if it had been that much of an inconvenience to not have Google software thereon in the least . Initially, it had been a touch frustrating, but after a couple of days of use, I didn't miss Google or its apps.

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