Huawei’s in-house Kirin phone chips aren’t coming back anytime soon
Huawei has long been using its in-house chips for its entire lineup of phones. While these Kirin processors stood neck and neck withsome of the top-selling Android flagshipsback in the day, the US clampdown on Huawei has left Kirin processors in limbo. Now, it looks like Huawei won’t be bringing back its Kirin phone processors, at least in the near future.
Some reports in the last few weeks have suggested that Kirin-branded processors could make a comeback in 2023 as they’re in the final production stages.In a statementto a Chinese media outlet (viaGSM Arena), Huawei has confirmed that the reports are incorrect, and it has no plans to release a new mobile processor next year.
Thelong-drawn saga of the US sanctions on Huaweiwasn’t limited to the company’s access to Google’s Android and the Play Store — which could easily be solved with a custom version, at least for its home market. What hurt Huawei’s smartphone future wasthe severed ties with Armand losing access to its microprocessor architecture, which are a crucial part of mobile processors (and now even laptops). Without these fundamental technologies required for chip fabrication, Huawei is left with very limited options.
The Chinese smartphone maker will have to repurpose some of its older Kirin SoCs that it still has licenses for. Its other feasible option is to stick with Qualcomm’s 4G-only processors. Huawei resorted to the second workaround with itsrecently launched Mate 50 seriesphones after Qualcommsecured the US government’s permissionto let it sell its flagship processors to Huawei — but without 5G radios.
Neither of these solutions is ideal. In either case, Huawei smartphones will be trailing the competition, especially without 5G capabilities. But for now, it seems like the best option Huawei is left with until it figures out a way to fix its chip manufacturing situation.
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