Not too long ago the Huawei Mate 9 was announced with Android 7.0 Nougat as the main operating system of choice. With that being the truth, it should not come a surprise to find out that the Huawei Mate 8 is about the get an update that brings the same Android operating system to the table.
The update is available right now via Huawei servers; however, it has not been officially released. That means the update won't make it over the air, probably not until the Huawei Mate 9 has been released to retailers in the United States and other parts of the world.
It makes perfect sense for the Huawei to wait until after the Mate 9 because that way, it's easier to get folks to upgrade. With that being said, Mate 8 users on the XDA Developer Forum have downloaded and installed the update, and they have also shared how it is done.
From what we have seen of the images, everything the folks at XDA Developers talked about is the real deal. It's indeed Android 7.0 Nougat running on the Huawei Mate 8, and it looks wonderful no doubt.
How To Install Android Nougat 7
You'll need to download the update.zip and update_data_full_all_cn.zip files. The step is to copy these files to an external storage device. Next, download the stock firmware and use update.app to extract it. Moving along, it's now time to download SRKToolHuawei-Lod-Chong-V2.0-20161002.zip, and then unlock bootloader/TWRP/ROOT.
If you're not sure how, checkout the simple guide on how to unlock the bootloader, courtesty of XDA Developer Forums. You'll then need to register the Huawei ID then generate a bootloader code.
The Following Are The Final Steps
- Change build.prop parameter ro.build.display.id
- Set it to ro.build.display.id=NextL00B037 (SRKTOOL Huawei)
- Change oeminfo to AL10 (SRKTOOL Huawei)
- Download AL10C00B386
- Unlock bootloader/TWRP again (SRKTOOL Huawei)
- After installing TWRP successfully, choose menu from TWRP, Wipe > format > type Yes
- After formatting, Don't' Reboot the System, choose Home then Install .zip files
- update.zip (Don't Reboot the System, choose Home then Install)
- update_data_full_all_cn.zip - After installing update_data_full_all_cn.zip, you can reboot Reboot System
Don't worry if you get a message that says "No OS installed" - Boot into the system and check the build number, it should show AL10C00B523.
- Now, the phone is unable to detect a sim card, hence fastboot depends on the variant by SRKTOOL (support C636,C432,C185)
- After Reboot, the phone should be able to detect the simcard (SRKTOOL Huawei).
The forum also talks about how to return to stock firmware, which is mainly for the folks who might come across issues with the update. So far, no one is complaining, and we expect things to continue smoothly.
Anyone who wants to have a look at what the operating system looks like on the Huawei Mate 8, the video below should explain things.
