Huawei taking small steps to improve Kirin chip power for smartphones

Amid the US sanction chaos, Huawei is pouring efforts to improve its Kirin chip power for smartphones. The company is taking small steps that don’t reveal any major upgrades but some significant changes in its self-made phone SoCs.

Huawei amazed everyone by launching a 5G Kirin-powered device in 2023: Mate 60 Pro. This one move made US authorities even more cautious toward the company.

US further tightened the export controls, targeting Huawei’s growth in the chipset field. As a result, the company can’t access any advanced chip tools from foreign companies like ASML, Qualcomm, TSMC, Intel, and more.

However, the newly launched Pura X foldable suggested that Huawei is taking small steps to improve the Kirin chip power for its smartphones and devices.

A Pura X folding phone user reportedly revealed that the company has optimized the Kirin 9020 chipset’s power efficiency over the Mate 70 Pro’s processor.

Details further reveal that Huawei has improved the power efficiency of the new Kirin 9020 chip version (equipped in Pura X) by 5% over the Mate 70 Pro’s Kirin 9020. Pura X users will eventually experience more efficient performance and a significant reduction in energy drainage over flagship Mate 70 Pro.

Huawei taking small steps to improve Kirin chip power for smartphones (Image Credits: Huawei)

One of the major reasons behind this improvement is a new heat dissipation pad between the chipset and DRAM memory. It achieves better thermal conduction and cooling than the previous-generation Kirin 9020 5G chip.

Moreover, this time, the company has made certain changes in the chipset packaging. A teardown revealed that Huawei has used an Apple-like chip design.

After the iPhone maker, Huawei is the only company to use such a design for chips. It boost the transmission efficiency between the chip and the integrated memory. It also enhances heat dissipation and offers improved performance.

These changes hint that Huawei is working on chip improvements. As of now, the company is preparing the Pura 80 series. It would be worth seeing if the new flagship lineup brings a new chip or will use an optimized Kirin chip version.