[Update: More Evidence] EMUI 8.0 is Likely Huawei’s Next Version of EMUI Rather than EMUI 6.0

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Update: the latest firmware release, the official beta build of Android 8.0 Oreo for the Huawei Mate 9, shows that EMUI 8.0 is indeed the next version rather than EMUI 6.0.

Last week, we published an exclusive first look at Huawei’s Android Oreo update for the Huawei Mate 9. While we stand by the majority of our findings in that piece (we did, after all, obtain access to pre-release firmware builds for the device), there is one small piece of information that we now believe is incorrect. We logically assumed that the next version of Huawei’s EMUI software would be EMUI 6.0. This makes sense as given that the most recent public version of EMUI is version 5.1 based on Android 7.0 Nougat, as found on the Huawei P10 and more recently the Honor 7X. Upon further inspection of the firmware files we have obtained, however, we now think that EMUI will skip EMUI 6.0 and jump straight to EMUI 8.0.

Within the firmware of the Huawei Mate 10, Huawei Mate 10 Pro, and Huawei Mate 9—all running Android 8.0 Oreo—we found the following line in the system property file:

ro.build.version.emui=EmotionUI_8.0.0

In the brand new Honor 7X, this same value reads:

ro.build.version.emui=EmotionUI_5.1

So there you have it, apparently, Huawei decided to go straight from EMUI 5.1 to EMUI 8.0. Practically, this doesn’t really change anything for the user.

Huawei is likely trying to synchronize their software branding to match Android’s version numbers. Skipping over EMUI 6.0 and EMUI 7.0 seems odd, but the company may have done some internal studies on their software branding to decide that this change is worth pursuing. This might make things less confusing to users, though there’s really no other reason why they would make this move. Perhaps they’re trying to follow in Samsung’s footsteps when they famously skipped the Samsung Galaxy Note 6 and Samsung Galaxy Note 7 (though the latter was unintentional on Samsung’s part).

There are a few notable changes we found within the Huawei Mate 10 Pro’s firmware that have yet to be mentioned anywhere else, so stay tuned to the XDA Portal for more information on Huawei’s upcoming flagship smartphone and its accompanying software set to be unveiled in Berlin on October 16th.

Update: More Evidence

The screenshot above was shared with us by FunkyHuawei (credited in more detail below). This screenshot is taken from the “About Phone” page in the Settings app. The build this screenshot was taken on is the official Huawei Mate 9 beta for Android 8.0 Oreo.

The firmware I used to obtain this information was provided for me by FunkyHuawei, a service which lets you install pre-release Huawei firmwares, recover bricked devices, and rebrand/convert China region phones to international variants. The service will support the Mate 10 upon release.