We’re in Berlin, Germany, today for a little get-together with Huawei’s Honor contingent, and marketing exec Xi Zhao just let it be known that we should expect to see a beta test for Android 6.0 Marshmallow on the Honor 7 in a matter of weeks. Four weeks (plus or minus, we suppose), in fact.
What’s the Honor 7, you ask? Here’s how we summed up the phone a couple months ago:
It’s basically a cross between the Mate 7 — last year’s Huawei “phablet” device — and the company’s current high-end offering, the P8. Although Honor is its own distinct brand in the UK, the Huawei design traits are clear to see. There’s a largely untouched front face, save for the usual earpiece, camera and sensors, while the back panel serves as a reminder of Huawei’s high-end phones, with a curved aluminum surface and eye-catching chamfers.
More: Read our complete Honor 7 review
Honor branded phones also use Huawei’s own, EMUI take on Android, and we’ve made no secret of its shortcomings over the past couple of years. Getting the ball rolling with a new version of Android this quickly is pretty much unheard of before now from Huawei — thanks, Nexus program, perhaps — but speed is only half the battle. The real news will be what happens to Marshmallow when Huawei has finished adding its own touches.
So we’ve got that to look forward to. Stay tuned, folks.