What life without Android will look like

Mobile operators and Google alike are assuring people that Huawei phone and tablet owners won't lose access to Google Play and Google apps. But there's a catch — updates. After a while everyone gets cut off from updates.

My experience with a Huawei tablet is that system updates are available for roughly about a year (and those are just as important as app updates). App updates themselves are available without issues since the Android version is relatively recent (N, April 2017). App updates will continue as long as Google Play allows it — hard to estimate exactly, but I'd guess at least 3 years.

Then comes the question of whether you'd get rid of the phone before that point anyway, due to slowness, design, or whatever else. And then? Then you won't have Android anymore if you want a Huawei.

I give Huawei phones with Android one year, two at most. Because without Android you won't be able to install Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, and other commonly used apps (you'll be missing Google Play). Technically you can work around it, but that means bypassing several security mechanisms that are there for good reason.