Huawei has started accepting sign-ups to beta test EMUI 9.1 for a number of devices, including the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. The recently launched Huawei P30 Pro and P30 are already running on EMUI 9.1 and it seems the company has begun work on bringing the same OS to the Mate 20 series.
Huawei announced the call for beta testers on its forums, however, there are a number of conditions. For starters, EMUI 9.1 beta is currently only being tested for the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, Mate 20 and the Mate 20 X. Secondly, in order to get the beta OTA, you will need to be on EMUI 9.0.1.109 and make sure that your devices are not rooted. Lastly, the beta program is currently only open in China.
EMUI 9.1 is expected to bring a few new features to the handsets in question. In EMUI 9.1, you will be able to bring up the voice assistant by just long-pressing the home button. With EMUI 9.1, you will also get the newest implementation of GPU Turbo, a feature that caused some controversy when it launched earlier last year. Lastly, EMUI 9.1 beta will also update the security patches on the phone to the latest version, which is April 2019.
As is the case with any beta software, users will be expected to provide feedback on the beta. It is unlikely that once the new beta update is installed, you will be able to roll-back to the older version of EMUI. Flashing ROMs is also not possible any more due to the fact that Huawei no longer offers Bootloader unlocks.
As of now, the beta program is only available in China. There is no word on whether the program will be expanded to other countries, or when Huawei actually plans on releasing EMUI 9.1 update to the Mate 20 series smartphones in regions other than China.
Related Read: Huawei Mate 20 Pro Review