The Huawei Mate 90 series was unveiled on Thursday. The text on the phones is very simple: If you don't have the best tools, you rethink the chip.
Huawei Mate 90 and the Kirin 9050 Pro Chip
The premium variants, such as the Mate 9050 Pro Max, are powered by Kirin 9050 Pro. It's a system-on-chip designed using a process that Huawei is calling LogicFolding.
Here is the idea. The typical design of most chips is a two-dimensional flat wire design. LogicFolding reworks the internal wiring in three dimensions. This means that the result is denser and faster processing. The compromise is it requires more wafers to manufacture.
According to Huawei, the flagship's flagship Mate 90s offer a 31 percent boost in performance when compared to the previous generation. The Mate 90 is the successor to the Mate 80 series, which was introduced in November 2025.
How US Chip Curbs Shape Huawei's Strategy
Huawei is restricted by U.S. restrictions from obtaining the latest in chipmaking equipment. So the company is going for performance by design, not by production.
Richard Yu, Huawei's consumer business chief, admitted limitations. The capacity for advanced semiconductors remains very limited there, he said, and Huawei's Ascend AI chips are based on the same capacity. Supply to smartphones remains tight.
Yu also said the advanced chip-making process is still using deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography in China. Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) is useful but manufacturers in China are still having to develop it, he said. Huawei plans to use more LogicFolding chips in future phones.
Huawei didn't reveal the manufacturer of the Kirin 9050 Pro. It is believed that SMIC manufactures Kirin chips and it did not respond to a comment request.
Mate 90 Price: What Buyers Will Pay
The Mate 90 Pro Max with 16 GB of memory and 512 GB of storage costs 9,999 yuan (about $1,491). That is 2,000 yuan worth more than its predecessor in the same version when it was launched. The standard and Pro models start at 5,999 yuan and 6,999 yuan.
The reason is cost. The higher cost of memory chips, which on average cost $200 per handset, has cut into profits, Yu said. Huawei is increasing costs, he said, but not as much as it can.
HarmonyOS 7: A Phone Without Android
The new phones are the first to run HarmonyOS 7, the home-developed operating system that is designed to be Android free. Huawei claims it has already supported over 450,000 apps and services.
Smartphone Market Data in China
Number indicates a market under pressure. IDC's data shows that year-over-year smartphone shipments in China declined 7% between January and August. Huawei's shipment volume increased by 13% in the country.
The story with prices is similar. The average selling price of smartphones in China climbed 11.3% year-on-year in the second quarter, to $543. Huawei's average price fell 14.7%, to $628.
Huawei vs Apple: The Foldable Phone Race
Last month Apple revealed its first foldable device, iPhone Duo. It falls under a league already dominated by Samsung and its Chinese competitors like Huawei.
The competition was well received by Yu. Huawei accounts for approximately 75% of the Chinese foldable phone market, he said. After the launch of the iPhone Duo, the sales of the Pura X Max foldable jumped 76% week-on-week between September 10-13. Since April, it has sold over 1.2 million copies in China.
Apple is estimated to have shipped nearly 6 million iPhone Duo units this year, according to Counterpoint Research, with China representing almost a quarter of that market.
What the Mate 90 Launch Means
The Mate 90 is a genuine litmus test of the ability of design to compensate for limited production.
The truth is, it's too soon to tell. Supply is still small, prices are still on the rise and the cost of supplies is also on the rise. However, Huawei's local sales are increasing, and its operating system and chip design have been its own.
That will be up to the buyer to determine.
