Honor 9 Lite and Huawei P Smart Kernel Sources have been released

We may earn a commission for purchases made using our links.

When it comes to releasing device kernel sources in a timely manner, Huawei hasn’t always had a great track record. It didn’t make the Huawei Mate 9’s code available until six months after the phone’s release, and the company took three months to release kernel sources for the P10 and the P10 Plus. The good news, though, is that Huawei is making a turnaround. The company released kernel sources for the Mate 10 and Honor 7X in December, and recently released the Android Oreo-based kernel source code for the Huawei P10 and P10 Plus.

Now, Huawei has published the kernel sources for the Honor 9 Lite and the Huawei P Smart.

Honor, a subsidiary of Huawei, released the Honor 9 Lite in China in December, and it brought the phone to India this month. It’s the first affordable device from the company with Project Treble support, and it ships with EMUI 8 on top of Android 8.0 Oreo.

The Huawei P Smart is the global version of the Huawei Enjoy 7S. Compared to the Honor 9 Lite, the Huawei P Smart has the same internal specifications, including a HiSilicon Kirin 659 system-on-chip, 3GB/4GB of RAM, and 32GB/64GB of storage. But it has a single 8MP front camera compared to the Honor 9 Lite’s dual 13MP + 2MP front cameras, and the design is different: The Honor 9 Lite has a glass back, while the Huawei P Smart has an all-aluminum body.

The Huawei P Smart ships with Android 8.0 Oreo and has Project Treble support, just like the Honor 9 Lite. The release of the kernel source code for both devices should make it easier for the development community to create custom ROMs without needing to rely on workarounds. It’s great to see Huawei releasing kernel sources in a timely manner, and we hope the company keeps up the good work.

Download kernel sources for the Honor 9 LiteDownload kernel sources for the Huawei P Smart