TECH NEWS – The Chinese tech giant’s upcoming Mate 80 smartphones are rumored to deliver a major performance boost, but the technological gap remains unchanged.

The Mate 80 lineup is expected in Q4 2025, and Huawei seems set to stick to its traditional strategy of launching a new chipset alongside its flagship phones. The company is likely to unveil the Kirin 9030, and for those expecting only a modest refresh over the Kirin 9020, there’s a more optimistic rumor: the new SoC (system on a chip) could deliver a 20% performance improvement.

It’s no secret that Huawei and its local foundry partner SMIC are still struggling to reach 5nm manufacturing— even the latest Kirin X90 found in new notebooks is based on the older 7nm process. These persistent hurdles mean Huawei can’t quite keep up with global competitors, but the Kirin 9030 could at least help close the gap, according to a rumor shared by Weibo user Guo Jing and reported by Huawei Central.

The leak doesn’t specify which previous generation the 20% jump is measured against (Kirin 9020 or 9010), nor is it clear which manufacturing process Huawei will use for its next flagship chip. Conflicting reports have surfaced, suggesting that Huawei and SMIC have managed to develop a 5nm node without advanced EUV tools, but haven’t been able to mass-produce chipsets using the technology and catch up to leading global players.

With poor manufacturing yields, mass production of the Kirin 9030 remains commercially and financially unrealistic, so the chip is expected to stay on 7nm—unless a miracle happens in the coming months. Still, achieving a 20% performance gain on the same lithography is a solid step forward. Even if the chipset can’t match rivals for speed, the Mate 80 series is still expected to sell in massive numbers.

Source: WCCFTech, Huawei Central