Each phone looked amazing, ran great, and cost a reasonable price as well. It seemed like the perfect package, genuinely giving Samsung and Apple a run for their money. True, it never managed to become as widely adopted as those two in the U.S., but it sure seemed like it was getting there.
I also have a bit of a personal bias in its favor when it comes to Huawei, because my first ever smartphone was from the company. It was a brilliant feeling, as a teen, to have a proper phone, and you never really forget your first.
And…well, then it all fell apart.
A gut punch to Huawei’s growth
We don’t get to use Huawei’s modern phones. | Image credit — Huawei
Most of you reading this probably remember when the U.S. banned Huawei from conducting business with American companies. This was, to me, an even bigger problem for Huawei than stopping the imports of its devices Stateside, because this meant that the company’s phones could no longer use Google’s services.
It pretty much seemed like a death sentence for one of the greatest phone manufacturers I had ever had the pleasure of knowing. Without Android or the Google Play Store, what would be the point of getting a Huawei phone?
Like a phoenix from the ashes
HarmonyOS, made by Huawei, for Huawei. | Image credit — Mrwhosetheboss
Huawei, in my mind, made some of the best smartphones in the world. The ban, meanwhile, meant that these excellent phones would no longer be worth getting for most people, and that is basically what happened.
Once a major threat to Samsung and Apple, Huawei’s influence rapidly fell. Even in emerging markets, where people used to prefer Huawei for its cost, the company began retreating away. Nobody wanted a phone where they couldn’t use some of the most essential services in the world.
But, Huawei never gave up. It disappeared for a while, and today its influence in China is staggering. It is, unfortunately, not as popular around the globe as it once was, but it is still very much a major phone manufacturer back home.
The company’s in-house HarmonyOS — which runs on all of its devices, and not just smartphones — is simply brilliant. It is extremely intuitive, and almost seems like magic when you use it on one Huawei device to interface with another. Huawei looked at Apple’s ecosystem and decided to improve upon it in every way.
But, Huawei will never be what it once was, despite just how insanely innovative it has become.
Man… I miss Huawei
The Huawei Mate XT tri-foldable is a truly magnificent phone. | Image credit — PhoneArena
Huawei didn’t just make excellent smartphones before the ban, it still does. And they’re now even better because of the aforementioned HarmonyOS. The company was the first to release a tri-foldable smartphone, and now a successor — the Huawei Mate XTs — is coming out next month.
It just makes me think, you know? What if we could still have Huawei everywhere, dominating the entire smartphone industry? People are fawning over the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, and rightfully so, but imagine if Huawei’s tri-fold was available in the U.S. as well.
In emerging markets, Xiaomi filled the space left behind by Huawei. Other manufacturers, like Vivo and Oppo, also compete heavily with Xiaomi’s phones. Smaller manufacturers like Infinix, Tecno, Honor, and Realme are fighting for people’s interest with budget offerings as well.
But Huawei, unfortunately, is mostly just a thing in China now. It continues to make superb phones with unbelievable hardware, and all we can do is watch from the sidelines. I mean, we could import Huawei phones, but I don’t think anyone outside of China is ready to move to HarmonyOS and leave iOS or Android behind.
Man… I miss Huawei so much.
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