Huawei had introduced the Kirin 980 SoC as the world’s 7nm SoC at the IFA 2018 tech trade show in August 2018. The SoC was first seen under the hood of Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro flagship smartphones. Since then, it has been used by the company to power other flagship phone such as Honor Magic 2, Honor V20, Huawei P30 and P30 Pro. The Chinese manufacturer is now reportedly working on an improved version of Kirin 980 SoC. A Weibo user has claimed that the company will be debuting 7nm Kirin 985 later this year and it will be powering the upcoming Mate 30 series of flagship phones.
Previous reports have reveled that the Kirin 985 chipset will be manufactured through Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUV) technology. It is expected to deliver 10 to 20 percent better performance than the Kirin 980 SoC. TSMC is expected to produce the Kirin 985 through its N7 process. Apple A13 chip that will be powering the upcoming iPhones will be built by TSMC’s more advanced N7 Pro process.
The mass production of the Kirin 985 is now rumored to begin in the third quarter of the year, and it has now reportedly entered the designing stage. There is no confirmation on whether it will be a 5G-ready SoC. Probably, the Chinese firm will debut the Kirin 985 in August this year.
As far as Mate 30 series is concerned, there is no information available on the specs of the Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro smartphones. A report from the previous month had revealed that the company has already started testing the Mate 30 handset. After Huawei Mate 20 X smartphone and Mate X foldable phone, the P30 Pro is rumored to be the next 5G-ready phone from the company. The Chinese manufacturer is also expected to announce a successor for the Kirin 710 SoC that has powered many of Huawei and Honor branded mid-range phones that have launched recently.
