Huawei Rumored To Use An Inferior Kirin Chipset For The Base Mate 70 As Company Struggles To Improve Yields Of Its Upcoming Flagship SoC

Omar Sohail

The Mate 70 lineup will comprise of a standard model, followed by the more premium versions sporting the Pro, Pro+, and RS Ultimate monikers. Undoubtedly, the more expensive variants will be equipped with better hardware, such as the Kirin 9100, which is said to be the former Chinese giant’s next flagship SoC. Unfortunately, a new rumor claims that the same silicon will not debut in the base model, highlighting that Huawei wants to conserve its new SoC for the pricier models due to ongoing yield issues.

The Kirin 9010 might be used in the standard Mate 70, but a new rumor has yet to confirm Huawei’s plans

The previously leaked specifications of the Kirin 9100 stated that the latter would be mass produced on the 6nm process and would sport a new CPU cluster. It is likely that the improved architecture has been developed by China’s largest foundry, SMIC, but with the use of older DUV equipment, it will run into expensive production and yield problems. These issues may have found their way in the path of Kirin 9100, and with Huawei failing to produce a substantial number of these chipsets, the company can only use them in a limited number of models.

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As reported by Huawei Central, tipster Fixed Focus believes that the base Mate 70 would ship with a different Kirin chipset but fails to mention the exact model name. Given that this unnamed silicon will power a less premium handset, its performance and efficiency metrics should be less impressive than the Kirin 9100. If we had to guess, Huawei would just re-use the Kirin 9010 announced earlier this year alongside the Pura 70 family.

Bear in mind that the base Pura 70 features a Kirin 9000S1, which is just a rebrand of the Kirin 9000S that debuted in last year’s Mate 60 series. Another possibility is that Huawei can use a binned Kirin 9100 for the standard Mate 70 with a lower clock speed and fewer GPU cores. Unfortunately, nothing of the sort is mentioned in the latest rumor, so we have to wait for the company’s official announcement to learn more details.

Omar Sohail Photo

About the author: Omar Sohail is a reporter and analyst for Wccftech's mobile section, specializing in the technology and business of the mobile industry. His expertise lies in the intricate hardware supply chain, covering developments in semiconductor manufacturing, chip lithography, and camera sensor technology.

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