Honor Holly2 Plus Marshmallow update to release in February end

Huawei has long maintained that it plans to release the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update for its devices in February. While the company has maintained silence over Honor Holly2 Plus Marshmallow update, we think the device would receive it around the same time as other devices destined to receive the 6.0 update in Feb end.

That’s because the basic software remains the same for all Huawei devices, and once it’s ready for popular and mainstream devices like Honor 4X, Honor 6 Plus, Honor 7 and such, it will be rolled out gradually to other devices too for whom an update is pending huge time.

Some of the popular devices of Huawei like Honor 7, Honor 6, Honor 4X, etc. have already received the Marshmallow update in beta form in one region or another (mostly in UK). But even though there is not a Marshmallow beta available Holly2 Plus, we think Huawei will have it easy meeting the Feb end deadline for Android 6.0 update.

The company has been touting the Feb release for months now, almost since the Marshmallow was released on Nexus devices by Google in October first week.

Though, when the Feb ’16 started, Huawei made it clear that it plans to release the update by the month’s end — which is not far, it’s 20th of the month already — and it still maintains that release date deadline.

As the Marshmallow update was released by Google in October first week, it will around 5 months when Huawei updates it most talked about devices like Honor 4X, Honor 5X, Honor 7, etc. to Marshmallow update. 5 months isn’t quick, not by any chance especially when you take into account how quick Motorola has been with rolling out 6.0 update, but when you know that Samsung is yet to fully roll out the Marshmallow update for its Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, Note 5, etc. — same is the case with LG, Sony, HTC, etc. — you can understand that most OEMs take good deal of time to roll out major Android updates, and Huawei atlease isn’t doing that bad.

Holly2 Plus Marshmallow update: Expected release date

As we said in the beginning of this article, the February 2016 end looks like the time when Holly2 Plus users should start seeing a Marshmallow OTA notification hit their devices.

But if that doesn’t happens, mid-March is our best guess when Honor Holly2 Plus gets Android 6.0 Marshmallow update from Huawei.

Holly2 Plus Marshmallow update: Why the delay

The delay is all due to extra customization Huawei has to do.

It’s not mandatory at all, but Huawei, like other companies (HTC, Samsung, LG, etc.) customizes its devices a lot, adding in extra features, new UI called EMUI of its own over Android’s own Google-designed stock UI, and then some other tweaks and changes.

This is done mainly to make sure that the company’s devices stand out from the large crowd of Android OEMs and their devices. But while its advantages may not be very fully understandable (because they aren’t, really), or appealing, but its big disadvantage is that company has to customize whole lot of new update in tuning with every respect of its own UI and tweaks already applied on earlier OS version, which causes big delay in update’s release, something which is happening with Marshmallow release right now, and happened with Lollipop update earlier.

Holly2 Plus Marshmallow update: Why it didn’t come pre-installed

So, if you want to one reason why Holly2 Plus Marshmallow update is delayed, or why it didn’t come with Android 6.0 Marshmallow update pre-installed, when look no further than EMUI — company’s own UI, that packs in good deal of features, but requires the new update to be fine tuned to it, and thus the delay.

Don’t blame Huawei too much though, as nearly every company does this. Your Samsung, HTC, LG, Sony, etc. all are yet to fully update their Marshmallow deserving devices to Marshmallow till date. The only exception is Motorola, which insists with stock UI, and thus no customization, and faster updates — most of the Motorola device are seeing the day in Marshmallow right now, whether released in 2015 or 2014, except for some carrier-oriented devices, which is understandable, as they are not unlocked ones.

Holly2 Plus Marshmallow update: What it will be?

Well, it will be Android 6.0 first of all, labeled as Marshmallow by Google. With 6.0, the update will feature as-you-guessed EMUI, v4.0 of it, the new one.

The combo of EMUI4.0 and Android 6.0 should be game-changing experience for users. Expect some big changes to UI, and lots of cool new features and above all, significantly better battery life on Android 6.0. That is, if Huawei is able to fine tune the 6.0 code properly, and that’s not easy to achieve.

Marshmallow gets you some really cool features like Doze mode, that puts device to sleep during night such that system blocks access to internet for all apps, allowing only must-work apps to keep working, and also those apps specifically allowed by you to be kept awake during doze mode.

On 6.0, you gain the ability to treat the micro SD card as internal storage, and thus can expand internal storage to your liking. This is a great feature, really. You have far more control over apps than ever before on Marshmallow, as you can check out how battery is consumed by which apps, and same for memory usage. This allows you to quickly find out nonsense app that eat a lot of battery and/or RAM, so that you can uninstall them right away.

App links are handled better on Marshmallow, while there is also a new Google settings app on board. Google Now comes with Now on Tap feature on Marshmallow, which gets you suggestions based on content available on your current scree, using the Google Now powers.

All in all, Marshmallow update is a must-have, and less the delay, more the fun!

Holly2 Plus Marshmallow update: Wrap-up

Well, it should be Feb end when Huawei could launch the Marshmallow update for Honor Holly2 Plus users in UK, India and world over, butif not, then have your hopes tied to mid-March release.

Blame the EMUI and other features and customization Huawei has to do over stock Marshmallow code from Google for this, but know that Huawei is not alone in this, nearly all OEMs have to do that, and that’s one reason why Marshmallow couldn’t be seen on most of the most popular devices yet.

Posted by
Kapil Malani

A die-hard Liverpool FC fan, Kapil is a big fan of Batman, Android and street Cricket. In that order, probably. Email: [email protected]