Huawei Technologies unveiled its Mate 90 smartphone series in Beijing on October 1, betting on its in-house operating system and a redesigned chip architecture to keep its flagship line advancing despite US curbs on advanced semiconductors.
The premium models, including the Mate 90 Pro Max, run on Huawei's Kirin 9050 Pro system-on-chip, built with a technique the company calls LogicFolding. The method restructures a chip's internal wiring in three dimensions rather than the conventional flat layout, allowing denser and faster processing — though it requires more wafers to produce. The series succeeds the Mate 80 line launched in November 2025, and Huawei claims the top-end models deliver a 31 per cent increase in overall performance over the previous generation.
LogicFolding: denser chips without EUV
Speaking to reporters on September 29 ahead of the launch, consumer business chief Richard Yu said the company still faces tight supply of advanced chips. "Advanced semiconductor capacity remains very limited in China, and Huawei's Ascend AI chips also draw on that same capacity," Yu said. Rotating chairman Eric Xu added at a Shanghai media event in September that supply of the Ascend 950 AI chips could not meet domestic demand.
Yu said China's advanced chipmaking still relies on deep ultraviolet lithography, while extreme ultraviolet technology — though "valuable" — remains a work in progress for Chinese manufacturers. Huawei did not disclose who manufactures the Kirin 9050 Pro; SMIC, China's top logic foundry, is widely believed to produce Huawei's Kirin chips, and it did not respond to a request for comment.
Higher prices in a shrinking market
The new phones run on HarmonyOS 7, Huawei's Android-free operating system, which the company says supports more than 450,000 apps and services. The Mate 90 Pro Max with 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage is priced at 9,999 yuan, 2,000 yuan more than the equivalent predecessor at launch; the standard and Pro models start at 5,999 yuan and 6,999 yuan respectively.
Chinese phone makers are grappling with rising memory and component costs. Yu said memory price rises had added an average of US$200 to the cost of each handset. "We have to increase prices as well, yet at a slower pace," he said. China's domestic smartphone shipments fell 7 per cent year on year between January and August, even as Huawei's shipments rose 13 per cent, according to IDC.
Yu also welcomed Apple's September launch of its first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, noting Huawei holds about 75 per cent of China's foldable market. Sales of Huawei's Pura X Max foldable jumped 76 per cent week on week between September 10 and 13, right after Apple's announcement, and have topped 1.2 million units in China since April.
Sources: The Straits Times | Mathrubhumi
The premium models, including the Mate 90 Pro Max, run on Huawei's Kirin 9050 Pro system-on-chip, built with a technique the company calls LogicFolding. The method restructures a chip's internal wiring in three dimensions rather than the conventional flat layout, allowing denser and faster processing — though it requires more wafers to produce. The series succeeds the Mate 80 line launched in November 2025, and Huawei claims the top-end models deliver a 31 per cent increase in overall performance over the previous generation.
LogicFolding: denser chips without EUV
Speaking to reporters on September 29 ahead of the launch, consumer business chief Richard Yu said the company still faces tight supply of advanced chips. "Advanced semiconductor capacity remains very limited in China, and Huawei's Ascend AI chips also draw on that same capacity," Yu said. Rotating chairman Eric Xu added at a Shanghai media event in September that supply of the Ascend 950 AI chips could not meet domestic demand.
Yu said China's advanced chipmaking still relies on deep ultraviolet lithography, while extreme ultraviolet technology — though "valuable" — remains a work in progress for Chinese manufacturers. Huawei did not disclose who manufactures the Kirin 9050 Pro; SMIC, China's top logic foundry, is widely believed to produce Huawei's Kirin chips, and it did not respond to a request for comment.
Higher prices in a shrinking market
The new phones run on HarmonyOS 7, Huawei's Android-free operating system, which the company says supports more than 450,000 apps and services. The Mate 90 Pro Max with 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage is priced at 9,999 yuan, 2,000 yuan more than the equivalent predecessor at launch; the standard and Pro models start at 5,999 yuan and 6,999 yuan respectively.
Chinese phone makers are grappling with rising memory and component costs. Yu said memory price rises had added an average of US$200 to the cost of each handset. "We have to increase prices as well, yet at a slower pace," he said. China's domestic smartphone shipments fell 7 per cent year on year between January and August, even as Huawei's shipments rose 13 per cent, according to IDC.
Yu also welcomed Apple's September launch of its first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, noting Huawei holds about 75 per cent of China's foldable market. Sales of Huawei's Pura X Max foldable jumped 76 per cent week on week between September 10 and 13, right after Apple's announcement, and have topped 1.2 million units in China since April.
Sources: The Straits Times | Mathrubhumi
