Three Major Technologies of HUAWEI EMUI 5.1

As smartphones are increasingly popular in people’s daily lives, smooth experience has become an important criterion for consumers to judge phones. Android has along been criticized for stutter after used for a while. To tackle the problem, HUAWEI has set up a team of 3,000 engineers who have comprehensively optimized Android 7.0 with Google and developed EMUI 5.1, introduced machine learning and upgraded Kirin 960 to fully tap the potential of software and hardware. As a result, smooth experience can be guaranteed even after a long time. So how does HUAWEI EMUI 5.1 make it happen? Here’s the catch.

Generally, the reason why phones lag as time goes by is that the memory is gradually occupied by more and more invalid fragments over time(see Fig.1.1). HUAWEI EMUI 5.1 seeks to solve the problem for users with its unique technologies.

Fig.1.1 Compilation of various system fragments

Technology 1: Artificial Intelligence

Intelligent perception, prediction and resource allocation of resources for smooth experience

HUAWEI EMUI introduced AI in order to achieve intelligent perception through machine learning. By studying users behavior, Mate 9 will have a better understanding of users habit over time and then be able to accurately predict users behavior and allocate resources to avoid cold boot. In fact, Mate 9 can predict 85% of users behavior and speed up boot time by 20%.

By perceiving demands of apps for resources, EMUI combined with Kirin chipsets can allocate CPU, GPU, memory and other resources accordingly instead of fair competition between apps so that hardware resources are truly allocated based on priorities and experience demand. As a result, phones will not lag over time.

Fig. 1.2 Intelligent allocation of resources

Technology 2: “HUAWEI Ultra Memory”

Making full use of RAM for faster experience

EMUI5.1 has self-learning capabilities based on AI,meticulously allocates resources due to integration of hardware and software and comprehensively optimizes Android components, solving the stutter glitch of Android phones. Moreover, by taking advantage of its technology in managing memory such as more efficient and stable memory recovery, memory compression at higher ratio and smarter memory defragmentation, EMUI delivers more smooth user experience with the same RAM.

EMUI5.1 defragments actively instead of passively, enhancing memory allocation efficiency by 30%. The difference is prominent when multiple tasks are processed simultaneously.

Fig.1.3 HUAWEI Ultra Memory

1) Active memory defragmentation: the system is able to perceive apps’ demand for memory in a real-time sense and then uses HUAWEI’s proprietary memory fragmentation computation model to perceive fragments in memory and defragments actively. In this way, it ensures that continuous memory space is available when needed and improves memory allocation efficiency.

Fig.1.4 EMUI5.1 defragmentation in a timely manner

2) Memory compression at a ratio>50%: EMUI5.1 uses a high-compression-ratio algorithm by increasing the ratio to at least 50%. Based on AI and machine learning technologies, a smart prioritization algorithm in accordance with users’ behavior is obtained to compress apps and files that are not commonly used, thus leading to a high compression ratio. See the following photos.

Fig.1.5 Before compression

Fig.1.6 After compression

3) Speedy memory recovery with higher efficiency of up to 20%: EMUI5.1 adopts HUAWEI’s proprietary speedy memory release technology to recover memory rapidly, effectively and stably, taking less than 1 second in contrast to 12 seconds in the past.

Fig.1.7 Before recovery

Fig.1.8 After recovery

Technology 3 “Huawei Ultra Response”

Making screen fly with your fingers

Photo shooting, sharing and gaming has become a routine in many people’s daily lives. It involves processing photos including image scaling and loading, bitmap decoding and graphics rendering. HUAEWI Kirin 960 has integrated Vulkan graphics engine technology and taken the lead in supporting new generation Vulkan standard graphics interfaces based on Android 7.0 so as to remove the limit of CPU on GPU and enhance GPU’s performance by 180% and power efficiency by 40%.it also has realized multi-threaded rendering acceleration and can load, decrypt and draw graphics through multiple threads, enhancing image processing speed by 400%. Meanwhile, it successfully avoids stutter even if graphics rendering takes a long time. Besides, single frame drawing performance is elevated by 35% to 70%, frame drop reduces by 90%, smoothness increases by 30% and hardware resource usage when rendering falls by 50%. As shown below, rendering speed in the left image is clearly faster than that on the right, delivering more smooth experience for users.

Fig.1.8 Smooth game images

In addition, HUAWEI EMUI5.1 adopts Huawei Ultra Response solutions and optimizes the touch screen driver from the kernel. It also predicts users’ touch based on their habit and does image rendering simultaneously based on Kirin 960, resulting in a response time as fast as iOS.

EMUI5.1 is able to predict the trajectory of users’ touch, accelerating response time by 10%. In other words, it leverages intelligent touch position prediction algorithm to predict users’ touch and refreshes interfaces in advance, accelerating response time to touch by 10%. Whether dragging icons across the desktop, browsing directory and messages or playing games (ThunderRaid), the screen moves perfectly with your fingers. Intelligent prediction makes your phone as smooth as a new one.

HUAWEI EMUI5.1 smart system, by leveraging various technologies, defragments and recovers memory space and optimizes intelligent prediction, image engine and touch screen to speed up response of your phone and deliver smooth experience.