Huawei Base Mate 70 Model to Use Lower-End Kirin Chip

The Mate 70 series will feature a standard variant in addition to higher-end versions with the Pro, Pro+, and RS Ultimate designations. Obviously, the top-end versions are likely to come with better specs including the Kirin 9100 which is apparently Huawei‘s next-generation flagship SoC. But if new rumors are to be believed, the entry-level Mate 70 is not going to launch with the Kirin 9100. Instead, Huawei might have to make this chipset available only for its high-end variants as the production of the new silicon and other yield issues are creating problems here.

Huawei Rumored to Use Lower-End Kirin Chipset for Base Mate 70 Amid Yield Issues with Flagship SoC

Previous leaks suggested that the Kirin 9100 would be built on a 6nm node with a new core architecture. The architecture of the chip was probably developed by SMIC, which is China’s biggest foundry. Production of the Kirin 9100 appears to be limited, however, due to yield issues and costs arising from the use of older deep ultraviolet (DUV) tools. This means that Huawei may be using this chipset in only a few Mate 70 top models.

Huawei Central cites tipster Fixed Focus as claiming that the base Mate 70 will instead utilize a different Kirin model, although which specific one is unclear. Lizard silicon will probably be less performant and less power efficient than the Kirin 9100. This could be the Kirin 9010, which in fact made its official debut with the Pura 70 series before launching on the devices earlier this year.

To put it in context, the base Pura 70 will use a Kirin 9000S1, which is just a rebranded Mate 60 series Kirin 9000S from last year. Another potential scenario is the use of a binned Kirin 9100 for the Mate 70 with reduced clock speeds and fewer GPU cores. However, no official confirmation has been made, and we’ll need to wait for Huawei’s official announcement for more details.

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