You’d buy a Huawei phone again if Google support returned

Huawei has been through a ton of challenges since it faced US sanctions in May 2019 as software, component shipments, and even its internal chip functions were affected by the move to the US.

The biggest impact from a consumer perspective is likely the lack of Google support as the US trade ban means new Huawei devices cannot run Google Mobile Services.

Almost two years have passed since the trade ban, but that asked us if Android Authority Readers would buy a Huawei phone again if Google support returned to the company’s devices. Or do enthusiasts have concerns? That’s how you voted.

Would you buy a Huawei phone again if GMS returned?

Results

We released the poll on January 27, 2021, and at the time of writing it had a total of 11,195 votes. The results clearly show that the vast majority of respondents (86.9%) will be willing to buy a Huawei phone again when the company regains Google support.

It’s easy to see why voters would buy a Huawei device again if things changed, as the company’s latest Google-free flagship phones have generally delivered fantastic hardware. Our own Ryan-Thomas Shaw called the Mate 40 Pro a contender for best all-round smartphone of 2020 when it came to hardware, but lamented the lack of Google support.

Additionally, reviewer Oliver Cragg said the P40 Pro Plus was a “brilliant piece of tech” while he didn’t recommend the device due to the lack of Google support (you guessed it). And the device beat Samsung by first offering a 3x and 10x camera combination.

A total of 13.1% of respondents said that they would not buy a Huawei cell phone even if Google came back to the table. Voters cited everything from Huawei’s approach to developers to the upcoming launch of HarmonyOS to the company’s Chinese insignia as reasons to avoid the brand.

Remarks

• PhoenixWitti: I’ve been saying since the sanctions began against them that I can only buy a Huawei phone if they permanently give up Google support.
• Kevin Hoang: I’d rather wait for them to release their official operating system on the upcoming p50.
• Faisal Shahzad: I will still buy Huawei phones if it doesn’t support Google Play services
• SanBlarnoi: As long as I can’t put a custom ROM on the device when I want to (e.g. no more updates from huawei), it’s on my ignore list.
• DigitalBenny: I have a Mate 20 Pro (last Mate with GMS) that is still going strong, but if a new Mate with GMS were released I would buy it right away.
• Santoren: No, because Huawei is a seedy company with too many links to the CCP.
• Joel: Yeah, definitely … but it would have to be a phone that is 7 ″ + … big … oh, and no waterfall anything. Flat like a pancake baby!
• Wongwatt: I would buy a P40 Pro Plus tomorrow if it had official Google support.
• veesonic: We never had a Huawei flagship here in America, but if we did I would be willing to try.

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Thank you for voting in our poll and for leaving comments. We really appreciate it. What do you think of the topic and the results? Leave a comment below!