Huawei unveils Mate 90 phones, leans on homegrown chip design to offset US curbs
BEIJING: Huawei Technologies unveiled its Mate 90 smartphone series on Thursday, betting on its in-house operating system and redesigned chip architecture to boost its performance in the face of US curbs on shipments of advanced semiconductors. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday ahead of the launch, Huawei consumer business chief Richard Yu said the company still faces constraints in the supply of…
On Thursday, Huawei Technologies introduced its Mate 90 smartphone series, relying on its homegrown operating system and redesigned chip architecture to combat US restrictions on advanced semiconductors. Richard Yu, Huawei's consumer business chief, acknowledged that China still faces limited advanced chip capacity, including for Huawei's own Ascend AI chips.
The launch aims to determine if Huawei can continue advancing its smartphone lineup despite these restrictions. The Mate 90 series, succeeding the Mate 80 line from November 2025, features the Kirin 9050 Pro SoC, a LogicFolding-powered system-on-chip that uses three-dimensional internal wiring for denser, faster processing. Eric Xu, Huawei's rotating chairman, previously mentioned supply constraints for Ascend 950 AI chips.
Huawei is increasingly using LogicFolding chips in future smartphones. The company's new phones run on its homegrown HarmonyOS 7, supporting over 450,000 apps and services. Huawei has not disclosed the producer of the Kirin 9050 Pro, believed to be SMIC, China's leading logic foundry. Despite rising memory and component costs, Huawei plans to increase prices, though at a slower pace.
China's domestic smartphone shipments fell 7% year-on-year between January and August, while Huawei's shipments increased 13%. Huawei currently holds about a 75% share in China's foldable phone market, with the Pura X Max foldable phone sales surging 76% week-on-week following Apple Duo's launch. Apple is expected to sell 6 million iPhone Duo units in 2026, with China accounting for nearly a quarter of that total.
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