Just a few days ago we told you that the excitement level over Huawei’s new Mate 70 flagship phone was lower compared to its predecessor. How could it not when you think about it. The unveiling of the Mate 60 series set off waves of nationalism in China since the phone was powered by the first new Huawei-designed application processor with 5G support since the Mate 40 line was released in 2020.The Kirin 9000s AP was built by China’s largest foundry, SMIC, which is now the third largest in the world after TSMC and Samsung Foundry. Manufactured on SMIC’s 7nm node, the chipset was a couple of generations behind Apple’s 3nm A17 Pro which was found in last year’s iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. However, since Huawei and SMIC were able to bypass U.S. restrictions that had prevented Huawei from using 5G chips for its phones, Chinese consumers were ecstatic.
But new reports from Beijing say that Huawei’s supply chain is working overtime to meet heavy demand for the new Mate 70 series. The state-owned Securities Times newspaper reported on Thursday that supplies initially manufactured for the Mate 70 series were insufficient. According to Huawei’s consumer business group CEO He Gang, consumers in China have reserved more than 6.7 million units of the line which consists of the Mate 70, Mate 70 Pro, Mate 70 Pro+, and the Mate 70 RS Ultimate Design.
The top-of-the-line Huawei Mare 70 RS Ultimate Design. | Image credit-Huawei
The over 6.7 million units of the Mate 70 reserved by Chinese consumers are not pre-orders since no money is paid to Huawei to reserve a phone. The reservations number is simply a tool used by Huawei to determine how hot demand is for the device. While Huawei’s He Gang says that demand for the Mate 70 flagship line has been “excessive,” some analysts are saying that consumer excitement for the Mate 70 is actually down compared to last year’s Mate 60 line.
The analysts believe that the Mate 70 series might face supply bottlenecks due to issues with chip production. Speaking of the chip, the latest rumor has the premium models like the Mate 70 Pro, Mate 70 Pro+, and the Mate RS Ultimate Designed powered by a new Kirin 9100 AP. This chipset is reportedly made by SMIC using a 6nm node. Without EUV lithography, SMIC had to use multiple exposures (ME) using Deep Ultraviolet Lithography. ME could reduce yields, cause misaligned circuitry patterns to appear on silicon wafers, and raise the price of the SoCs.
While the Kirin 9100 AP is still several generations behind the second-gen 3nm node used to make the A18 Pro found inside the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, being able to produce a 6nm chip with DUV could be considered an outstanding achievement for SMIC and Huawei even though consumers in China haven’t picked up on this like they did with last year’s Kirin 9000s.
Satellite paging system is a new feature for the Mate 70 series which includes this Mate 70 RS Ultimate Design. | Image credit-Huawei
The new flagship series debuts Huawei’s Android-free HarmonyOS NEXT. By removing all aspects of Android from the operating system, the company continues to seek independence from the U.S. Huawei was forced to create its own operating system in 2019 when Huawei was added to the U.S. entity list for security reasons. This prevented Huawei from working with its U.S. supply chain including Google.
Huawei’s He told the media in China that it would take another two to three months to perfect the user experience of HarmonyOS NEXT. Nonetheless, HarmonyOS NEXT will be pre-installed on all new Huawei phones next year.
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