Huawei's latest handset uses improved China-made chip, report shows

Huawei’s Mate 80 uses Kirin 9030 chip by SMIC at 7nm, still behind TSMC and Samsung, says TechInsights.

The Kirin 9030, the chip that powers Huawei Technologies' latest flagship Mate 80 series handset, has been manufactured by China's top foundry SMIC with an improved version of 7 nanometres, which is still behind TSMC and Samsung, Canadian research firm TechInsights said.

The Kirin 9030 is manufactured using SMIC's N+3 process, a "scaled extension" of its previous 7 nanometer (N+2) node, TechInsights said in a report published on December 8.

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"However, in absolute terms, N+3 remains substantially less scaled than industry 5 (nanometer) processes from TSMC and Samsung," it said.

Huawei and SMIC did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.

In October, China added TechInsights, which has been publishing regularly reports on Huawei and SMIC’s chip progress, to its unreliable entity list.