Honor Magic UI 3.0 will bring Android 10 to flagship phones next week

The whole drama surrounding Huawei and the US government has left many wondering about the company's ability to continue its mobile business. This uncertainty naturally extends to Honor who shares the same fate as its parent company. To prove that not only is it "business as usual" but that it also has the capacity to support the smartphones it just launched, Honor is announcing the upcoming rollout of its shiny new Magic UI 3.0 which, in turn, pulls in Android 10 for five supported devices.

If you haven't been following Honor's meteoric rise in the smartphone market, at least until the US government put obstacles in front of it, you might have missed what this Magic UI thing is all about. First appearing on the Honor Magic 2, the Magic UI is, simply put, Honor's branding of Huawei's EMUI Android skin. Although the two share some roots, Honor's Magic UI also breaks away a bit in more than just branding.

For example, Magic UI 3.0 brings a "Seamless Smart Office" feature which allows supported phones to share files wirelessly with compatible laptops. It also creates a new Trusted Execution Environment for secure payments and authentication. On the more fun side, the update also brings a new camera app that lets users preview filters in the viewfinder even before they take a shot.

Honor is unsurprisingly silent about any mention of Android but, being based on Huawei's EMUI 10, Android 10 is pretty much a given. That means dark mode support and visual feedback enhancements. Unfortunately, it doesn't necessarily mean suddenly getting access to Google Play Store if the phone diidn't previously.

The Magic UI 3.0 update will start rolling out on March 15 for the Honor 20, Honor 20 Pro, Honor View 20, and the Honor 9X Pro. Amusingly, the company also notes that the Honor 9X will be receiving notifications for an update to EMUI 10.0, not the Magic UI version.