If Huawei has proven themselves in one area, it's in providing Android 9 Pie updates for many of their devices. Huawei's heavily customized EMUI 9 may not be your jam, but you have to admit the company has done a great job at bringing it to their current and even last generation of devices. Speaking of older devices getting updates, the Huawei Mate 9 is scheduled to receive an official Android Pie update and we've spotted it rolling out in China.
Although the Huawei Mate 9 has been succeeded by its successors, the Huawei Mate 10 and Huawei Mate 20, the late 2016 flagship smartphone still has more than enough power for most people. Its HiSilicon Kirin 960 system-on-chip, 4GB of RAM, 64GB internal storage, large 4,000 mAh battery, and 5.9" 1920x1080 display are more than enough to handle the next version of Android. The only downside is its mediocre camera, which Huawei has rectified with their latest P20 and Mate 20 series. The Mate 9 was initially launched with Android 7.0 Nougat in late 2016 and received the Android Oreo update a year later, so Android Pie will be its second and likely last major update since its release. You can see what's new in EMUI 9 in our article from last year.
The update is rolling out as build number 9.0.1.150 for the Chinese version of the Huawei Mate 9. There are two Chinese model numbers in total, MHA-AL00 and MHA-TL00. The full build numbers of the update are MHA-AL00C00E62R1P12B150 and MHA-TL00C01E62R1P12B150 respectively. We don't know when the update will be available for the global MHA-L09 or MHA-L29 release, but we'll keep you updated when it rolls out.
Note: Huawei has stopped providing official bootloader unlock codes for its devices. Therefore, the bootloaders of their devices cannot be unlocked, which means that users cannot root or install custom ROMs.