September 23rd, 2019 at 6:35 PM

The Mate 30 Pro is one of the best Android phones of the year… at least on paper. The problem is that
Huawei’s phone can’t run any of the Google apps you expect to find on Android devices: Google Play,
Gmail, Search, Maps, and YouTube. The US ban forced Huawei to think outside the box and install a
different version of Android that runs the company’s own apps, which is a nightmare for anyone using
Android phones in Western markets.

From the moment Huawei unveiled the phone last week, hardcore Android users may have assumed it
would be easy to port all of Google’s apps over and turn the Mate 30 Pro into a standard Android phone.
It turns out that that is indeed the case, in spite of Huawei’s expected flip-flop on the bootloader status.

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“We limited [bootloader unlocking] because we wanted to guarantee more security for consumers,”
Huawei’s Richard Yu said in a statement (via 9to5Google). “But this time we will leave more freedom for
the consumers so they can do more customization by themselves. So we are planning to let consumers
do that.”

The top Huawei exec may have spoken too soon, as Huawei reached out over the weekend to the blog to
inform them that Huawei has “no current plans” to allow bootloader unlocking on the Mate 30 series.
That means Android power users lost an easy way to install Google’s Android on the handset.

Then again, what else could Huawei do? Providing an easy way for buyers to bypass the restrictions and
install Google’s own version of Android might not be perceived all that well by authorities.

However, as 9to5Google explains, it only takes 10 minutes to install a full suite of Google apps on your
phone, starting with the Google Play store. That also means you can bring all the apps you’ve
downloaded or purchased from Google’s app store to the Mate 30 Pro and forget all about Huawei’s
alternatives.
While the process seems simple, involving the installation of the Google Service Framework installer
from a web browser, remember that you’re still installing unauthorized software on a new device. If
things don’t work out, it’s on you. Plus, you have to trust what appears to be a site made by a Chinese
developer to download Google Play on a device made in China by a company that US intelligence officials
fear might be spying on you with the help of its Android phones that already run Google’s Android. If you
own the Mate 30 Pro, it also means you have to trust an operating system which isn’t protected by
Google Play’s built-in security, at least until you install Google’s apps. Then again, it’s your money and
your choice.

On the other hand, the last thing Huawei would want is for anyone to prove that its OS isn’t secure,
especially given all that talk on stage about user security and privacy. The company may be ready to pour
billions in HMS and HarmonyOS, but it wants the ban to be reversed as soon