Huawei P Smart 2020 Will Launch With Google Apps Thanks To This Trick

Thanks to being on the US' entity list, US companies have been barred from doing business with Huawei. The exception that the government has continually made at least allows those companies to support products that were already out in the market before the ban fell. Unsurprisingly, Huawei has found a small loophole that lets it launch a new product that is still actually old, allowing it to make an upcoming P Smart 2020 Edition that, unlike its more expensive contemporaries, will be able to launch with Google Play Store and apps inside.

Google is allowed to do business with Huawei as long as it is about supporting its existing phones before the ban took effect in 2019. It can't, however, certify new Huawei phones, which is why its flagships after the P30 last year no longer have Google Play services pre-installed. Huawei's solution is apparently to relaunch some old products with a new coat of paint.

That was what it did last year when it launched new color options for the Huawei P30 Pro but calling them "The New Huawei P30 Pro". This time, however, it's getting a bit bolder in launching a new Huawei P Smart 2020. Not only does it look different from the 2019 model, it also changes some tiny but important specs inside.

The camera bump has been changed slightly but still houses the exact same three cameras. Everything else is also the same down to the Kirin 710F processor and the hefty 3,400 mAh battery. Huawei, however, did bump up the memory to 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage and swapped out the micro USB port for a more modern USB-C.

Those changes seem minor enough that it doesn't require new certification from Google. That does mean the Huawei P Smart 2020 will get Google apps pre-installed but at the expense of being stuck with an older Android 9.0 Pie. The P Smart 2019 was reportedly successful in Europe, which is why Huawei seemed willing to tempt fate with a 2020 remake. Whether lightning will strike twice, however, isn't guaranteed.