HiSilicon is a semiconductor company based in Shenzhen that produces a line of smartphone processors called HiSilicon Kirin exclusively for Huawei. It said to be the largest domestic designer of integrated circuits in China. HiSilicon is owned by Huawei.

In 2020, HiSilicon as well as Huawei were sanctioned by the United States government. American firms providing certain equipment to HiSilicon were now unable to do so.

Huawei’s phones also do not natively support Google apps although they can be ‘side-loaded’ onto the phone. Despite the ban however, HiSilicon Kirin SoCs are still the chipsets of choice for a lot of people.

HiSilicon Kirin
Image credits: HiSilicon

Huawei are also a strong competitor at both ends of the market. Their flagship line has the best camera around (according to DXOmark).

Read: Top 20 Smartphone cameras in the World

ENTRY LEVEL

The phones in the entry level are simply used for basic android functions. These include calls, SMS, social media and light games. Do not push them any further.

Here you’ll find Kirin 620 (Huawei P8 lite, Honor 4X, 4C, G Play mini), Kirin 650 (Huawei P9 lite and Honor 5C) and Kirin 655 (Huawei Mate 9 lite, Honor 6X, Honor 8 lite, Huawei P8 lite 2017). There’s also Kirin 658 (Huawei P10 lite) and Kirin 659 (Huawei Nova 2, 2+, 2i, 3e, Maimang 6, Honor 7x, Huawei P20 lite, Honor 9 lite, Huawei P smart, Huawei MediaPad and M5 lite).

MIDRANGE

There are a lot of good Huawei midrangers powered by HiSilicon Kirin that give very decent performance.

For the lower midrange segment, you’ll find Kirin 950 (Huawei Mate 8, Honor 8, V8, Honor Magic and MediaPad 3) and Kirin 955 (Huawei P9, P9 plus, Huawei Note 8 and Honor V8). There is Kirin 710A (Honor Play 4T), Kirin 710 (Huawei Nova 3i, Honor 10 lite, Huawei P Smart, P Smart+, Mate 20 lite, Y9 Prime, Y9, P30 lite) and Kirin 710F (Honor 9x). The chips here are on par with the Snapdragon 600 series.

Other midrangers here are the Kirin 960 (Huawei Mate 9, Mate 9 Pro, Huawei P10, P10 Plus, Honor 8 Pro, V9, 9 and Nova 2S) and Kirin 970 (Nova 3, P20, P20 Pro, Mate 10, 10 Pro, Honor 10, V 10, Note 10, View 10, Honor Play). These chips here can compete with the Snapdragon 710.

You can also find  Kirin 810 (Nova 5, Honor 9x, 9x Pro, Mate 30 lite, P40 lite, Nova 7i and Nova 6 SE) and the new Kirin 820 5G (Honor 30s).

 

Huawei P40 Pro+ (GSMARENA)

Read: Top 100 Smartphone SOCs in the World 2022

FLAGSHIPS

Kirin chips power some very mouth-watering flagships that can compete with any phone on the market. They also have the best cameras (according to DXOmark) out there as well on a smartphone. You’ll find the Kirin 980 (Mate 20, 20 Pro, 20x, Magic 2, Honor 20, 20 Pro, P30, P30 Pro, and Nova 5), Kirin 985 5G (Honor 30), Kirin 990 (Huawei Mate 30, 30 Pro, Nova 6, V30 and MatePad Pro) and Kirin 990 5G (Huawei Mate 30/30 Pro 5G, P40/P40 Pro, P40 Pro +, Honor 30/30 Pro/30 Pro +). The Kirin 990 5G however is on the same level as SD855+.

The latest Huawei Flagship SoC for 2020 is the Kirin 9000. The Kirin 9000 is built on a 5nm process and has a DynamIQ arrangement of 1+3+4. It has two groups (1+3) A77 cores clocked at 3.13GHz and 2.54GHz respectively for the heavy lifting. It also uses four A55 cores for the lighter tasks. The GPU is the all new Mali G78 MP24 and it is 5G capable with a Balong 5G modem.

It is found in the Huawei Mate 40 Pro and Mate 40 Pro plus.

This brings us to the end of HiSilicon line up, do you find any of these information helpful? Did you learn something new from this post? Talk to me in the comment section below, thank you for reading.

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