Huawei announced its Mate 70 series of flagship smartphones quite recently. Following the launch, it was reported that the Kirin 9020 chip fuels the Huawei Mate 70 phones, but at the time, we did not know what manufacturing process was used to make it.
The Huawei Mate 70 chip may surprise, as it’s not what we expected
Thanks to a new report by TechInsights, we now know that SMIC used a 7nm process to make it. That is a far cry from a rumored 5nm manufacturing process, that’s for sure. It’s even a step down from a 6nm process that was mentioned quite recently.
In fact, TechInsights claims that “this chip is not a major redesign for the Kirin line”. Despite that fact, however, this processor is more powerful than the Kirin 9010 that was used in the Huawei Mate 60 Pro last year.
Huawei claims that this processor does bring a 30% performance boost over the previous model. The company also mentioned that the Kirin 9020 is a “fully home-grown chip”.
This is a 7nm chip, not a 5nm or 6nm one
The bottom line is, many consumers won’t really care that this is a 7nm processor. They do not really know the difference. As long as the chip performs as you’d expect it to, it’s all good.
The sheer fact it, however, that this chip cannot compete with the very best mobile processors out there. Qualcomm and MediaTek have considerably more powerful processors to offer these days.
Huawei used this 7nm chip because it did not really have a choice. Due to increasing US sanctions, the company was very limited in that regard, and it needed a 4G processor powerful enough to run its flagship smartphones.
Huawei and SMIC did come up with this chip, which, if the Kirin 9010 is any indicator, probably won’t disappoint. The Kirin 9010 worked really well for us in the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra, that’s for sure. Only time will tell, though.
