Huawei Mate 10 users are already eying the new update to Android 9 Pie and in fact, you can already join the beta program, but the company still has something in store from the other year.

The Chinese company started testing EMUI 8.1 based on Android 8.1 Oreo on the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro back in June 2018 and it appears the process has been a success. Users of the Mate 10 and Pate 10 Pro in China have started receiving an update that installs EMUI 8.1 OS and with it comes this month’s Android security patch (September) as well as the mention Master AI, but whatever that does is still unclear.

The full software version of the update for the Mate 10 is ALP-AL00C00B336 (8.1.0.336) while that for the Mate 10 Pro is BLA-TL00C01B336 (8.1.0.336). The B336 update is rolling out to model ALP-AL00 (custom variant C00) of the Mate 10, and for the model BLA-TL00 (custom variant C01) of the Mate 10 Pro. We are sure the global variant is expected to join in sooner than later, although we don’t have an exact release date. We also expect the same update to show up for users Porsche Design variants, too.

Compared to Oreo 8.0, though, there isn’t anything major the update to Oreo 8.1 brings to the Huawei Mate 10, but it only adds uncertainties as to how soon it plans to release Pie. I mean, why release Oreo 8.1 at a time when everyone is eying an update to Pie?

Related: Huawei Android 9 Pie update news

Still, considering that the Mate 9 got Oreo before the end of 2017, we are hopeful that the Mate 10’s Pie update will arrive even earlier, especially now that Google’s Project Treble is already supported on the device.

Update (18 Sep): Full changelog of the update is now available. Other than the EMUI 8.1 upgrade itself, the B336 update also brings a lot of improvements and bug fixes, mentioned below:

  • Improves the photos taken in the Master AI mode
  • Delay in WeChat messages fixed
  • Solves the Wi-Fi scanning prompt issue
  • Enables online number identification by default now
  • Fixes issue with the quick calling
  • Fixes the issue where photos in the ‘Recently deleted’ section were not displayed correctly
  • September 2018 security patch