Huawei provides free gaming update that enhances your phone

Huawei has clearly been observing the performance of gaming-centric phones from the likes of Razer, Asus, and Red Magic. That’s judging by its efforts to come up with ideas to capture its share of the market.

In a unique change from its competitors, users won’t be expected to buy a new handset. Games instead get their juice from their smartphone’s graphics processing unit (GPU). A software update is being pushed by Huawei that will give the GPU a 60% boost in efficiency while reducing battery consumption by 30%. All this will be provided at no cost.

The key to it all

The secret ingredient is GPU Turbo, and the extra GPU ability will mean that even the company’s mid-range phones can run such games as PUBG at higher frame rates. Huawei is confident that even some of its Honor phones with basic GPUs will outperform phones with better hardware. GPU Turbo will even provide virtual and augmented reality support in the future.

Predictably, the company is saying very little thus far regarding the details of its trade secrets. We do know, however, that the GPU uses hardware-software acceleration. Huawei is understandably proud of how much it’s invested in research and development, with GPU Turbo being just one part of its current innovation efforts.

Keeping up with games tech

Gaming phones are a growing trend with increasingly enhanced capabilities. Smartphone technology is having to keep pace with the technology driving the games themselves. At one time, gaming wars were played mainly between Mario v Sonic. Today, it’s Sony PlayStation VR v Xbox One X. Mobile gaming, however, is making quite the case for itself. It seems that new technology is being delivered to mobile gaming all the time. Games were the most popular app type in 2017 for both Android and iOS, and the popular AR reality game Pokemon Go has 65 million months users. iGaming company Mr Green collaborated with developers NetEnt on delivering a more real-world style technology. The Mr Green android app launched its 3D virtual live casino feature in February, using blue screen technology.

The company also modified its EMUI user interface to ensure that Android continues to run faster while maintaining more battery life.

No downside

A free update that adds more power to your phone while helping it to be more economical at the same time is almost unheard of. There doesn’t seem to be any negatives to it, either, as Huawei is clearly committed to providing the software to a wide range of its current smartphones. Huawei will be first updating the Mate RS, Mate 10, Mate 10 Pro, P20 Pro, and Huawei P20. In September, it will deliver the update to the P10, the P10 Plus, Mate 9, Mate 9 Pro, and the P20 Lite. From the Honor sub-brand, the Honor 10 is expected to be the first phone to receive the update in August. The Honor View 10, Honor 7X, and Honor 9 should be updated in September. The Mate 10 Lite, Huawei P Smart, Huawei Y9, Honor 9 Lite, and the Honor 8 Pro will also be given the update treatment at some point.

These schedules are preliminary, but then software updates are well known for undergoing last-minute changes, so we’ll wait and see.