Huawei unveils Mate 90 phones, leans on homegrown chip design to offset US curbs
AI generated
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Huawei → unveil → curbs
Huawei Technologies unveiled its Mate 90 smartphone series on Oct 1, 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.
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Technologies → unveil → semiconductors
Speaking to reporters on Sept 29 ahead of the launch, Huawei consumer business chief Richard Yu said the company still faces constraints in the supply of advanced chips.
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company → speak → chips
“Advanced semiconductor capacity remains very limited in China, and Huawei’s Ascend AI chips also draw on that same capacity,” Yu said.
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Yu → remain → capacity
“The capacity for smartphone chips remains tight, even though rising smartphone prices have curbed shipment volumes (for handsets).
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prices → remain → handsets
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The launch will test whether Huawei can keep advancing its smartphone line-up despite US restrictions that have limited its access to cutting-edge chipmaking tools, forcing the company to develop alternative ways to boost processor performance.
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that → test → performance
The Mate 90 series succeeds the Mate 80 line launched in November 2025.
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series → succeed → November
Premium models, including the Mate 90 Pro Max, are powered by Huawei’s Kirin 9050 Pro, a system-on-chip built with a technique Huawei calls “LogicFolding”.
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Huawei → include → technique
The method restructures a chip’s internal wiring in three dimensions rather than the conventional flat, two-dimensional layout, allowing for denser, faster processing – though it requires more wafers to produce.
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it → restructure → wafers
Eric Xu, Huawei’s rotating chairman, said at a media event in Shanghai in September that supply of the company’s Ascend 950 AI chips could not meet domestic demand due to capacity constraints.
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supply → rotate → constraints
Yu said China’s advanced chipmaking still relies on deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines, and that while extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology is “valuable”, Chinese manufacturers are still working towards it.
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manufacturers → say → it
Huawei would use more chips built with the LogicFolding technique in future smartphones, Yu said.
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Yu → use → smartphones
Huawei did not disclose who manufactures the Kirin 9050 Pro.
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who → disclose → Pro
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), China’s top logic foundry, is widely believed to produce the Kirin chips used in Huawei’s Mate series as well as its Ascend AI processors.
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Corp → believe → series
SMIC did not respond to a request for comment.
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SMIC → respond → comment
Huawei’s latest phones run on its homegrown, Android-free HarmonyOS 7 operating system, which Huawei says supports more than 450,000 apps and services.
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Huawei → run → apps
The Mate 90 Pro Max with 16 GB of memory and 512 GB of storage will be priced at 9,999 yuan (S$1,900), 2,000 yuan more than the same version of its predecessor at launch.
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Max → price → launch
The standard and Pro models start at 5,999 yuan and 6,999 yuan, respectively.
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models → start → yuan
Huawei said the top-end Mate 90 models deliver a 31% increase in overall performance over the previous flagship generation.
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models → say → generation
Higher prices for handsets
Chinese smartphone makers are grappling with rising memory and component costs, leading them to raise prices and shift more shipments toward premium models.
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makers → grapple → models
Yu said rising memory prices had added an average of US$200 (S$255) to the cost of each handset, weighing on Huawei’s profit margins.
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prices → say → margins
“We have to increase prices as well, yet at a slower pace,” Yu said.
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Yu → have → pace
China’s domestic smartphone shipments fell 7% year-on-year between January and August, even as Huawei’s shipments in the country rose 13%, according to research firm International Data Corporation (IDC).
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shipments → fall → Corporation
The average selling price of smartphones in China climbed 11.3% year-on-year in the second quarter to $543, while the average price of Huawei smartphones declined 14.7% to US$628, IDC data showed.
Apple vs Huawei foldable
Apple announced its first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, in September, entering a category long dominated by Samsung Electronics and Chinese rivals such as Huawei.
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Apple → climb → Huawei
Yu said he welcomed Apple’s entry to the market.
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he → say → market
“I am very pleased to see the launch of a similar product by our peers,” Yu said.
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Yu → see → peers
Huawei currently holds about a 75% share in China’s foldable phone market, he said.
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he → hold → market
“Between Sept 10 and 13, our Pura X Max foldable phone sales shot up 76% week-on-week right after Apple Duo’s launch,” Yu said, adding that shipments of the Pura X Max, which is similar in size to the iPhone Duo, had topped 1.2 million units in China since its April release.
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which → shoot → release
Apple is expected to ship 6 million iPhone Duo units in 2026, with China – the world’s largest market for foldable phones – accounting for nearly a quarter of that total, according to data from Counterpoint Research.
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China → expect → Research
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