INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
We&ve known this day would come for a long time now
Over the past several months, however, it feels like it has arrived in slow motion
Seemingly legitimate concerns over security and sanction violations have been muddled by chest-puffing and braggadocio and large-headed
leaders promising to do deals
Executives were arrested in Canada and the company was added to a trade blacklist, only to be given a temporary reprieve
This morning, in spite of it all, Huawei unveiled its latest flagship
The Mate 30 Pro is a beast of a smartphone, as we&ve come to expect from the Chinese electronics powerhouse
It has a quartet of cameras aligned in a ring up top
On the flip side, a 6.53-inch flexible OLED hugs the corners of the handset, boasting an always-on functionality — the long-awaited new
feature that served as the central selling point for Apple latest wearable
From a 100-foot view, however, it seems inevitable that no one will remember the handset for its screen or cameras or beefy 4,500mAh
It what missing that the most notable
The Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro don''t use full Android, but rather an open-source version of the operating system based on it
More importantly, they are missing Google fundamental apps like Gmail, Maps and Chrome, a central part of the Android experience
Worse yet, there no Google Play Store to download them
The solutions for now are mostly stop-gap
There a Huawei-branded browser that lets you download apps through a Huawei-branded channel
Not bad, but nowhere near the 2.7 million you&ll find via Google Play
There will be better solutions to these, but they take a lot of time and money
Huawei got plenty of the latter, though the former has been the cause for some debate amongst those following the company.
