The flagship, Huawei Mate 30 Pro is yet to make an appearance in the western world. Google Play is the ultimate destination to get reliable apps but unfortunately, Huawei devices would be lacking Google Play and Google mobile services. This is due to the U.S. trade sanction. That’s why Huawei’s other flagship product Huawei Mate X is only launched in China.

Huawei users are desperately searching for ways to make use of Google services. While there are many third-party apps that allow sideloading Google Apps in Huawei devices but these apps have their own drawbacks.

Surprisingly the Huawei Honor 9X has totally different specifications in China and Europe. For the European users, it has Kirin 710F while for Chinese users it has Kirin 810. Plus, the placement of the camera and fingerprint scanner is also not the same. The reason is simple, Chinese models are without Google Mobile Services and the European variant comes with Google services.

Upon further investigation, it has been found that the European model of Honor 9X is identical to Huawei P Smart Z. This phone was launched 5 months earlier in May 2019. These two devices are quite similar to each other in terms of hardware, processor, fingerprint sensor, display, and battery in general. However, the design, Memory, and camera specifications are very different.

This is not the only time when Huawei discloses an unusual behavior where there are many variants of the same model. Honor Nova 5T is another example of this that has similar specifications with Honor 20.

So, in a nutshell, Huawei has found a way to launch GMS by using old hardware in its new devices. Well, though the solution seems not so viable, let us show you how GMS certification works and why it is important.

How To Obtain GMS Certification

For installing GMS on any Android device, the manufacturer shall obtain a GMS license and a Mobile Application Distribution Agreement (MADA). After that, all the manufacturers have to clear some compatibility tests. Compatibility test suites (CTS), Vendor test suite, OS kernel, and HAL capabilities. CTS is used for validating software and hardware components and APIs of the device.

Now the most important thing is that these compatibility tests are affected by mainly two things. One is the Android version of the device and the other is hardware it is using.

This test has to be done on the developer’s device and before the final launch of the product. In some cases, the developer has to change the Android version of the device and retest the hardware. However, for testing the compatibility, it is possible to reuse the existing hardware and by making some small changes.

In order to do this, manufacturers can’t simply ditch the Google system. Google cares that the devices are well compatible as per the requirements of GMS. in fact, many telecom and regional devices also have to pass the CTS.

In-all, GMS certification totally depends on the hardware and Android version rather than the aesthetics of a device. So, there is nothing to do with the outer design of the phone. In fact, hardware changes can also be done unless they do not interfere with CTS and VTS.

So in order to use Google Mobile Services in the new flagship devices, Huawei might make use of old internal and newer designs. Even adopting this approach, Huawei can’t make high-end consumers happy because the performance is equally important to better camera specifications.