Huawei did not reveal much about the Kirin 9010, but the company could do little when it comes to controlling information after it officially announced the Pura 70 series. Compared to the Kirin 9000S that debuted in the Mate 60 family last year, the Kirin 9010 is a noteworthy upgrade, offering a 12-core configuration, along with other changes, as you will soon find out.
Kirin 9010 is not found in all Pura 70 flagships but does gain LPDDR5X RAM support and more
The 12-core cluster of the Kirin 9010 is in the ‘2 + 6 + 4’ configuration, making it a significant upgrade over the 8-core Kirin 9000S. In short, we should witness a boost in multi-core performance, though we should dial down the hype when talking about GPU performance. We say this because, like the Kirin 9000S, the Kirin 9010 is equipped with a Maleoon 910 GPU. However, there is a possibility that we are incorrect in our statement because Huawei may have increased the number of GPU cores on the Kirin 9010 compared to the one on the Kirin 9000S.
You can see in the image below provided by @faridofanani96 that the performance cores are limited to 2.30GHz, whereas the Kirin 9000S’ performance cores could reach 2.62GHz. Huawei likely downgraded this specification of the Kirin 9010 to reduce power consumption but compensated this move with a 12-core configuration, making it a notable upgrade over its predecessor. We have also learned that the new SoC supports the current-generation LPDDR5X standard. However, we cannot find information related to SoC’s lithography, so our immediate guess is that Huawei is stuck with SMIC’s 7nm process to mass produce the latest silicon.
You should also know that the Kirin 9010 does not power the entire Pura 70 series, with only the more expensive Pura 70+ and Pura 70 Ultra being treated to Huawei’s latest and greatest silicon. We will compare the new SoC with the Kirin 9000S while discussing the performance differences between the two. Since sanctions have bombarded Huawei, making the company technologically limited, it will be unsurprising to learn that the Kirin 9010 is several generations behind the competition.
However, an upgrade is still an upgrade, and we will provide a host of comparisons and performance charts shortly, so stay tuned. As for a meaningful chipset release from Huawei, we recommend waiting until later in the year, when the company unveils the Mate 70 family, as it will likely be fueled by the Chinese firm’s first 5nm SoC.
