Huawei Technologies unveiled its first laptop that runs the company’s self-developed operating system, HarmonyOS, following the expiration of its Microsoft Windows license for personal computers (PCs) in March. Stacked with artificial intelligence (AI) features, the laptop, which has not yet been named, operates HarmonyOS 5, also referred to as HarmonyOS Next, the latest iteration of the system. Most Huawei laptops in the market currently run Windows, although some models offer the option to use open-source Linux. The new laptop features Huawei’s AI assistant, Celia, that is capable of performing tasks such as creating slides, summarizing the minutes of a meeting and retrieving information from local documents, provided it has access to the necessary third-party software, according to Huawei’s President of Tablets and PCs, Zhu Dongdong.
HarmonyOS on PCs includes a wide range of software catering to both work and entertainment needs, such as WPS, China’s alternative to Microsoft Office, and Alibaba Group Holding’s enterprise collaboration platform, DingTalk, according to Chinese tech news outlet ITHome. The laptop is also compatible with a growing selection of mobile apps available on HarmonyOS smartphones, including social media platform RedNote, video-sharing site Bilibili and ByteDance’s enterprise collaboration tool Feishu. By the end of the year, the device is expected to support over 2,000 apps. The laptop’s user interface merges elements of traditional PCs and smartphones. It features a software short-cut bar at the bottom similar to the dock on Apple’s macOS, while the home screen displays software short cuts in the form of icons, cards or folders. Huawei plans to officially launch the laptop on May 19.
Zhu announced the laptop during a closed-door event in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, where the company is headquartered. Huawei had “fully entered the era of HarmonyOS” for terminal devices, he was quoted as saying. Huawei has been developing HarmonyOS since 2015. Last year, the company launched the Mate 70 series, its first smartphones to run a version of the operating system that was not compatible with Google’s Android. The second HarmonyOS handset, the foldable Pura X, was introduced in March. At least 160 older Huawei smartphones, tablets, televisions and wearables can be updated to use various versions of HarmonyOS instead of Android. HarmonyOS reached a market share of 19% in China's smartphone market in the last quarter of 2024, according to consultancy Counterpoint Research. It marked the fourth consecutive quarter in which HarmonyOS outperformed Apple’s iOS, which held a 17% market share during the period, the South China Morning Post reports.
