HarmonyOS was initially pitched as a wholly distinct OS from Android and iOS, something that would be just as at home on smart home appliances (like the company’s Honor Vision TV) as it would on smartphones. The announcement was a hopeful promise that losing access to US businesses wouldn’t stop Huawei from innovating, but Amadeo’s experience with the beta highlights some disappointing discoveries:

HarmonyOS was likely always going to be most popular in China, but the fact that the new OS appears to be a continuation of Huawei’s EMUI skin with potentially slower access to Android updates through the Open Source Android Project is a major strike against it being used anywhere else. It might be good enough to not offend the US government and satisfy Chinese authorities, but quick text edits and an invasive application process do not an appetizing operating system make.

Read Amadeo’s whole deep dive of detective work dissecting the beta, along with some jabs at Huawei’s fluff-filled developer documentation for a hypothetical “super virtual device,” over at Ars Technica.

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