The first Huawei device to run Harmony Os is a TV

Luca Fontana

12.8.2019

Translation: machine translated

Huawei has unveiled the first device to be equipped with its own operating system, Harmony OS: a TV. Let's take a look at the software and hardware.

In the midst of a trade war with the US for some time now, Huawei has just unveiled its first device running its own OS. Contrary to popular belief, it's not a smartphone, but a TV.

The TV is manufactured by Huawei subsidiary Honor. To begin with, the TV will be available in two versions, "Honor Vision" and "Honor Vision Pro" and, according to XDA Developers, it will only be marketed in China Probably due to the lack of connection between the OS and the main streaming providers in Europe and the US, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

Harmony OS, or magazine OS

Although it's unlikely that TV will ever be available in the West, it's worth a look. After all, the operating system will one day also find its way onto smartphones from Huawei and Honor. Which are sold in our country. The Honor Vision TV is our crystal ball of sorts.

The Harmony OS user interface is supposed to be designed specifically for large screens. Honor describes it as a kind of "magazine" with interactive functions: almost a hub for Huawei's home automation system. A system that will allow us, for example, to start a washing machine via the TV, or peek into the fridge connected via a network camera to see if there are enough beers left for the next FC Winterthur match. In other words, never.

Of course, all this means that more and more Harmony OS-powered electronics and home appliances will be coming to market. It's only a matter of time. Harmony OS features Honor Magic Link technology, which lets you use your Huawei or Honor smartphone as a remote control. You can even mount your phone on the TV. With Huawei Share, it should be possible to transfer multimedia content directly from a mobile phone at a speed of around 600MB in 20 seconds.

Another interesting feature: the Honor Vision TV uses facial recognition. This allows parents, for example, to set the TV to automatically switch to redshift mode when children are watching TV. It also features a family scoreboard function and doorbell integration pauses films or series when someone rings the doorbell.

Even more interesting: a streaming assistant should help me find the right streaming service if, for example, I want to watch a certain sporting event or TV series, but don't know which provider to find it with.

Honor Vision: a mid-range TV

Both versions of the TV will measure 55 inches. Resolution is 3840 x 2160 pixels with a screen-to-body ratio is 94%. At their thinnest, both Honor View TVs are 6.9mm thick. Both TVs have a maximum brightness of 400 Nits and a viewing angle of 178 degrees. That's not much; so the standard and pro versions will cost around $500 and $600 respectively, and will be available in mid-August 2019.

Finally, the final specs: both TVs will be equipped with a system of six microphones to analyse vovals commands via the YoYo assistant. In addition, there are four 10-watt speakers in the standard version and six in the pro version. The pro model also has a retractable 1080p camera for video telephony. The camera is said to be active only when deployed.

Version 1.0 of Harmony OS is expected to run on the HONGHU 818 SoS with quad core CPU and GPU.

Luca Fontana

Senior Editor

Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.ch

I'm an outdoorsy guy and enjoy sports that push me to the limit – now that’s what I call comfort zone! But I'm also about curling up in an armchair with books about ugly intrigue and sinister kingkillers. Being an avid cinema-goer, I’ve been known to rave about film scores for hours on end. I’ve always wanted to say: «I am Groot.» more