So, I'm sat here thinking of which to go for Mate 10 or 10 Pro, factoring every detail from reason why I would prefer each to the other to my financials.

I'm still in a loop cos I prefer the fingerprint scanner at the back (10 Pro), but would also love the earphone jack (10), waterproof and oled (10 Pro), but higher ppi (10), slimmer screen (10 Pro) or brighter screen (10). The RAM, 4GB (10) or 6GB (10 Pro) isn't a problem cos the Chinese version 10 will come in 4/6 GB ram as did the Mate 9 - which I unfortunately found out less than two weeks after buying the Mate 9.

While I was at it, I subconsciously asked myself why people change phones so quickly (mine - Mocha brown of course!, is almost a year old - still in full warranty and not even a scratch - Ringke transparent case with the first Tempered Glass Screen Protector still on it also with little evidence of use).

These phones are made of premium quality to last but every year, a successor comes out and we rush off to ditch our current devices.

My Mate 9 is almost a year old with over 250 third-party applications installed (I'm crazy right?), over 75% of my 64GB used up and about 50% of my 128GB SD card used but it is still as fast as the first day I bought it and I don't even want to talk about the battery, but I'll still hint; my Xiaomi Amazfit Pace smartwatch is connected via Bluetooth 24hrs, my mobile data is constantly on, so is the GPS, screen on auto and I'm mostly in bright places, Wi-Fi is constantly on coupled with intelligent scanning for Wi-Fi and automatic switching between Wi-Fi and data, then Music! At least 18hrs of beautiful music through Sennheiser HD202 studio headset - say no to removal of headphone jacks, and I do take a lot of pictures (now you understand why I've used over 70GB of storage cos I have no movies on the phone, just pictures and recoded videos) yet I always get between 6.5 to 8.5 Screen On Time and always over a day's usage comfortably.

Back to the story.....

So I told myself like I did when buying the Mate 9 to upgrade from my LG V10 this will be the last time, once I buy the Mate 10 (or Pro) I'll spend at least three years before buying another phone.

I hate these sharks and their ubiquity, always coming up with ideas and improvements that make us want to upgrade an already beautiful and efficient piece of engineering beauty.

Then, I recalled that about two weeks ago, I downloaded a Beta test app from Huawei to apply for Oreo Beta (it has actually been in the works for over 6 months) which is very stable from reputable sources I can trust with my digital life - LOL.

I decided to uninstall it since the test (when I tried two weeks ago) was only for C432 (Europe) but mistakenly tapped instead of long-press. Going through and boom! There it was staring at me, the invite for Asia, Pacific and New Zealand (C636). Well, I instantly applied - obviously and I'm number 257/500.

So, every region will have only 500 testers and release will be today 20th - from whispers around.

So all Mate 9 users are advised (by me obviously) to download the app and try it before the invites are filled. I can assure you that it is quite stable and has better software for camera (including the portrait mode) plus Google's new power management with improvements from Huawei have pre-beta testers claiming much better power conservation than current Mate 9 stuff.
After signing up, you wait for approval and once Oreo is deployed, you'll get notified and all you need is to upgrade.

Yeah, Huawei named the new EMUI 8 (instead of 6), the current version is 5 (or 5.1 for newer devices). It seems Huawei wants to go in sync with Google Android version.

All in all, it shows Huawei's promise to software development and also, gives you the props of being among the first to use Android 8.0 aka Oreo.

Link for Huawei beta app: http://consumer.huawei.com/en/support/fut/