Huawei stunned the tech world back in August when it announced the Mate 60 series. The line was Huawei’s first phones in three years to be powered by a 5G Kirin chipset designed by Huawei. The chip was built by China’s largest foundry, SMIC, and was manufactured on the latter’s 7nm process node. It was a shocking announcement considering that U.S. sanctions seemed to prevent Huawei from producing or obtaining application processors (AP) that support 5G.
The U.S. had given Huawei permission to power its previous flagships, like the P50 series (2022), Mate 50 line (2022), and the P60 line (2023), with Snapdragon chipsets that were modified not to support 5G signals. So when the Mate 60 series was unveiled with the 7nm Kirin 9000s 5G chipset, U.S. lawmakers and officials went berserk, and Chinese consumers were overcome with waves of nationalistic pride.
The next flagship series due from Huawei is the P70 line. The “P”-series is known for its focus on photography (pun NOT intended). According to Weibo leaker Smart Pikachu (via HuaweiCentral), the series will be powered by a new chip called the Kirin 9010 designed by Huawei’s HiSilicon semiconductor unit. The chip has not been officially announced and those with long memories might recall that three years ago, Twitter tipster @RODENT950 said that despite the U.S. export ban preventing Huawei from receiving cutting-edge chips, the company was going to obtain 3nm Kirin 9010 SoCs designed by Huawei’s HiSilicon unit.
Huawei’s P60 Pro, released in 2023, is powered by a Snapdragon chipset that does not support 5G
We know that this rumored 3nm chip was never built; the first 3nm chip for smartphones was the A17 Pro AP made by TSMC that runs the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Since Huawei cannot deal with any foundry able to ship 3nm chipsets, it is unlikely that if the Kirin 9010 SoC powers the P70 line, it will be made using the 3nm node. China’s SMIC foundry cannot produce chips with a node under 7nm at this stage.
The Kirin 9010 name received a trademark in 2021 and it is possible that Huawei is simply just now able to use the name for new 7nm chips made by SMIC. China’s top foundry will surely work on ways to build 3nm chips, but until it can come up with a way to get around the ban on shipping extreme ultraviolet lithography machines to China, we won’t see Huawei get its hands on 5nm or 3nm silicon unless its from an old stockpile from before the U.S. sanctions were announced.
For example, there are reports that Huawei’s new laptop is equipped with the 5nm Kirin 9006C chips. But these were made by TSMC prior to the announcement of the U.S. chip sanctions against Huawei and were found in the manufacturer’s stockpile of unused chipsets.
As for Huawei’s upcoming flagship series, the P70 ART is rumored to sport an ultra-wide camera backed by a one-inch type sensor and carry a lens made up of one glass element and six plastic. The company is also rumored to debut its own image sensors with the P70 series which is expected to be unveiled in March.
