Huawei launches first laptops using home-grown Harmony operating system

Huawei launched two new laptop models on Monday, the first sold with its own Harmony operating system.

Huawei launched two new laptop models on Monday, the first sold with its own Harmony operating system, in a bid to take on well-established Western Big Tech rivals even as the United States seeks to limit its access to crucial chips.

Despite its emergence as the world's leading producer of tech hardware, China's development of computer operating systems has lagged behind Microsoft and Apple, whose Windows and macOS have cornered the global market for decades.

The new MateBook Fold and MateBook Pro both run on HarmonyOS 5, the latest version of an operating system Huawei Technologies began developing in 2015 and introduced five years later on its Mate series smartphones.

It began developing the laptop prototypes in 2021.

"The Harmony laptop gives the world a new choice," Yu Chengdong, head of Huawei's consumer business group, said during a livestreamed launch event. "We kept on doing the hard things but the right things."

The base model of the MateBook Fold, which does not have a physical keyboard and offers an 18-inch OLED double screen when fully extended, will sell for 23,999 yuan ($3,328).

The MateBook Pro model, which uses a conventional laptop keyboard, is priced from 7,999 yuan.