New Delhi: Huawei has just provided further information regarding the Kirin chip it plans to use in its next flagship smartphone, and the figures are impressive. Its new processor, called “LogicFolding,” is expected to consume significantly less power while performing at a much quicker pace than the previous incarnation, the company says.
Unlike most processors which are laid flat, LogicFolding uses two silicon wafers, stacked one on top of the other, face to face. This allows for much shorter traveling distances within the chip. Less energy lost on shorter paths means that the battery life and temperature control will see enormous improvement, Huawei predicts.
The increases will be on the increase each year, according to Huawei’s own calculations. The chip will have 15% more single-core power and 24% more multi-core power by 2026, with 38% more graphics power. The AI processor, called the NPU, is expected to jump by a huge 140%.
These figures increase further to 2027. Huawei claims single-core performance on its 2026 chips will be 44% better than that of 2025 chips, while multi-core performance will be 56% better, graphics 87% faster, and AI more than 200% superior.
Power savings are similar: The company claims it will have 34% more power efficiency than the 12% of 2026. The efficiency of the graphics chip will improve from 40% to 78% while the AI chip will increase its efficiency from 81% to 118% during the same period. The chip should work harder with less drain, in a nutshell.
Huawei also announced that the new chip design is much more compact, and has a much higher transistor density. It has a density of 238 million transistors on a square mm, representing an increase of over 50% over previous designs.
The first prototype of this chip is likely to arrive in phones in the last days of 2026, possibly in Huawei’s next flagship device, the Mate 90 series. The U.S. won’t let Huawei make use of the latest factory processes such as TSMC’s, so the company still has to use the Chinese fabless chipmaker, SMIC, to make the processors.
This could be a significant boost for Huawei’s chip technology and if it’s true considering the constraints it has under international sanctions.
