Huawei Kirin 9000s: Everything we know right now

Huawei is making a grand comeback with its latest creation, the Huawei Kirin 9000s system-on-chip (SoC). This remarkable chip is set to power the upcoming Huawei Mate 60 Pro, and it’s causing quite a stir in the tech world. Here’s why it’s such a big deal:

Two years back, Huawei faced a significant setback when the US government imposed sanctions on the company. These sanctions were related to concerns about potential backdoors in Huawei’s technology. The consequence was a severe restriction on Huawei’s access to crucial US technology. They were unable to utilize Qualcomm’s 5G modems and couldn’t benefit from TSMC’s advanced fabrication processes. Without these vital components, Huawei struggled to compete with tech giants like Samsung and Apple.

Adding to their woes, Huawei lost access to Google’s Mobile Services (GMS), which includes essential apps and services like the Play Store. This was a major drawback for many smartphone users. To address this, Huawei turned to Harmony OS, an Android-based alternative. However, its adoption hasn’t been widespread, and Huawei faced an uphill battle.

Read: Huawei HiSilicon Kirin

But now, out of the blue, there’s exciting news about Huawei’s new flagship SoC, the Kirin 9000s. This unexpected development has piqued my interest, and I began my investigation into this intriguing chip. However, it’s important to note that there are conflicting reports about its specifications and capabilities.

Huawei Kirin key specs

As it stands, there are two main very conflicting reports on the Huawei Kirin 9000s. One of them is from Antutu and the other one is from Geekbench.

AnTuTu

Our friends over at AnTuTu tested the Huawei Mate 60 Pro and came up with the following specs:

• CPU cores:
• 6x ARM Cortex A78AE (2.62GHz)
• 4x ARM Cortex A510 (2.15GHz)
• 2x ARM Cortex A34 (1.53GHz)
• GPU: Maleoon 910 GPU
• Fab: 7nm SMIC
• RAM: LPDDR4x/LPDDR5
• Storage: UFS 3.1

and the following test scores

• CPU: 279,677
• GPU: —-
• Memory: 225,491
• UX: 194,615
• Total: 699,773

As you can see in the information above, AnTuTu, a benchmarking tool, believes that the Kirin 9000s is quite an extraordinary chip. According to their assessment, it’s a 12-core system-on-chip (SoC). Now, what makes this chip special is its unique setup:

1. Performance Cores: There are six (6) high-performance cores known as Cortex A78AE CPU cores.
2. Battery Efficiency Cores: Four (4) Cortex A510 cores and two (2) Cortex A34 cores are responsible for conserving battery life.

This combination is pretty innovative and quite different from what we usually see in smartphone chips.

Now, let’s talk about the GPU, which is called the Maleoon 910 GPU. Huawei created this GPU in-house, and it’s so unique that even AnTuTu, the benchmarking tool, couldn’t run its usual tests on it. However, experts estimate that this GPU could score around 200,000 on the benchmark. When combined with the CPU score, the Kirin 9000s should reach a total score of around 900,000. That’s a performance level similar to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888+.

What’s interesting is that Huawei itself has claimed that the Kirin 9000s is comparable to the Snapdragon 888+. So, there’s some credibility to these claims.

Geekbench

On the other hand, GeekBench presents us with an entirely different report. Take a look at the following:

• CPU Cores:
• 1x Custom prime core (2.62GHz)
• 3x Custom big core (2.15GHz)
• 4x Cortex A510 (1.53GHz)
• GPU: Maleoon 910 GPU
• Fab: 7nm SMIC
• RAM: LPDDR4x/LPDDR5
• Storage: UFS 3.1

And the following scores:

• Single core: 1323
• Multi-core: 3630

These scores are about the same as those of the Snapdragon 888+, just like Huawei claims.

Now, let’s talk about what GeekBench found. According to them, it’s more likely that the Kirin 9000s has this setup:

1. There’s one powerful Custom prime CPU core. It handles the tough tasks.
2. Then, there are 3 more Custom big CPU cores to assist the main one with heavy jobs.
3. For saving battery, 4 Cortex A510 CPU cores come into play. They help make your device last longer.

This report from GeekBench seems more reasonable when compared to what we saw earlier on AnTuTu. Many big tech websites like GSMArena and Kimovil are going with this setup too. I also find this one more believable.

Huawei’s silence

Huawei is keeping this SoC’s specifications a secret for now. That’s fair because they haven’t officially announced it yet. These reports are from other companies, not Huawei themselves. But don’t worry, when Huawei spills the beans, I’ll be here to explain it all to you.

Thank you for reading to the end. As always, ensure to check out our links for more information and…

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