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Based on internal documents from T-Mobile given to Android Police, some older devices, including the OnePlus One, Xperia Z3 series, and Nexus 9, will be unable to connect to the company's network beginning on January 29th. 19 devices, including phones, tablets, and even cameras, are named by the document. Affected customers will be notified by SMS beginning on December 28th, and will be able to upgrade to one of four phones for free.
Huawei has made some great hardware, but the software is another story. The EMUI Android skin has been consistently sluggish, confusing, and redundant. Huawei has been promising a big redesign in EMUI 5.0, and now users of the Honor 8 have a shot at trying it out. You have to apply for inclusion in the beta test, and you can do so (oddly) at XDA.
Huawei's recent fleet of devices is very interesting thanks to a high value and specs for money ratio. The one thing the company does though that we don't really like in our own niche of Android lovers is its Emotion UI and all the weird choices of design and features that it bundles in it. That can all be solved with a custom ROM and the first step to those ROMs is through installing a custom recovery such as TWRP.
I'll admit: we're kind of behind on our review of the Huawei Mate 8. Pretty much everyone's published one at this point, and so instead of trying to play catch-up and rushing, I had a different idea. Specifically, I want to know what you want to know about the Huawei Mate 8, especially if it's not something you've seen covered elsewhere. As long as it doesn't involve physically taking it apart. Or a battery life benchmark test (because I despise them).
Let me be unambiguous: the Huawei Mate 8 is a good phone. I actually like a lot about it. But when I updated to the latest beta software (and yes, that deserves highlighting, obviously) this morning, I was greeted with a rather unpleasant new prompt in the default launcher settings area. Check this out.
We've had a chance to spend some significant time with the Huawei Mate 8 in the last 24 hours, and so I felt an intial impressions post was warranted. The "space gray" (yes, really) 32GB unit I've been using is technically preproduction per Huawei's own disclaimer, though the software feels largely finished and the phone physically feels ready for sale.
You probably wouldn't guess it if you live in the United States or Europe, but Huawei is actually a pretty big brand in Asia. In China, the national manufacturer controlled 15.7 percent of the smartphone market share in Q2 2015 — more than either Apple or Samsung and just shy of Xiaomi's 15.9 percent. This alone accounts for a significant part of why it's the third largest smartphone vendor in the world, with that only set to improve as Huawei expands into more countries across Europe and the Americas.