In a speech titled “Rethink Evolution”, at IFA, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group unveiled the company’s latest flagship Kirin 990 series: Kirin 990 and its 5G version.

“Kirin 990 (5G) is the world’s first 5G SoC, and it will enable end users to access superb 5G connectivity experience one step ahead in the first year of 5G commercialization.” said Richard.

“To meet users’ requirements for enhanced 5G experiences in the 5G era, Kirin 990 (5G) has been fully upgraded in terms of performance and power efficiency, AI computing, and ISP, extending mobile phone experiences to a new level.”

Kirin 990, which was unveiled with Kirin 990 (5G), is also designed to bring impressively elevated performance, energy efficiency, AI capabilities, and photography, offering better experiences to a more extensive group of 4G smartphone users.

World’s First Flagship 5G SoC

Huawei’s Kirin 990 (5G) is the first 5G SoC in the world and supports the industry’s most compact 5G smartphone solution. With the cutting-edge 7nm+ EUV manufacturing process, Kirin 990 (5G) is integrated with a 5G modem, achieving a smaller area and lower power consumption.

Moreover, Kirin 990 (5G) is the first full-frequency 5G SoC to support both non-standalone (NSA) and standalone (SA) architectures as well as TDD/FDD full frequency bands, enabling it to accommodate hardware requirements under diverse networks and networking modes. Based on Balong 5000’s excellent 5G connectivity capability, Kirin 990 (5G) provides a leading peak downlink rate of 2.3 Gbit/s and an uplink peak rate of 1.25 Gbit/s, delivering unmatched 5G experiences in the industry.

Innovative NPU Architecture for Robust AI Computing Power in the 5G Era

Kirin 990 (5G) is the first flagship SoC that packs a dual-core NPU built on the Da Vinci architecture, which comprise large NPU cores and tiny NPU cores. The large cores achieve high performance and power efficiency in heavy computing scenarios, while the tiny core structure, first in the industry, empowers ultra-low power consumption applications, fully tapping into the intelligent computing power brought by the innovative NPU architecture.

Premium Performance and Energy Efficiency Sets an Industry Benchmark for Faster 5G Experience

In terms of CPU, Kirin 990 features a three-level power efficiency structure, comprising of two ultra-large cores, two large cores, and four small cores, with a dominant frequency up to 2.86 GHz. In addition, Kirin 990 uses a 16-core Mali-G76 GPU and the new system-level Smart Cache for intelligent flow distribution, which can effectively save bandwidth and lower power consumption. For gaming experiences, Kirin 990 (5G) supports an upgraded Kirin Gaming+ 2.0 that enables efficient collaboration between hardware infrastructure and solutions, offering industry-leading smooth and fast gaming experience.

Newly Upgraded ISP 5.0 for Wonderful Photography Experience

As for photography, Kirin 990 (5G) provides a brand-new ISP 5.0 that pioneers block-matching and 3D filtering (BM3D) professional-level hardware noise reduction (NR) for capturing brighter and sharper images in low light environments. It is also the first to use dual-domain video NR for more accurate noise processing for videos. In addition, the real-time video post-processing and rendering based on AI segmentation can adjust the image color frame by frame to bring cinematic quality.

The CEO also showcased the FreeBuds 3, their new flagship wireless earphones. It uses a delicate earphone design and comes with a unique, round case. The FreeBuds 3 provides users with more comfortable wearing experience and a nice grip. There’s two color options: black and white. As the first wireless earphones running on Huawei’s self-developed and powerful Kirin A1 chip, the FreeBuds 3 provides stable and fast connectivity, impressive sound quality and smart noise canceling experience. Huawei says these are the world’s first open wireless earphone that provide real active noise canceling.

Huawei announced that the new Mate 30 Series coming soon in September will be powered by the new Kirin 990 Series.