This year Huawei is back with a bang after successfully re-offering devices with 5G network support through the use of its own Kirin 9000s chip. Kirin 9000s which are produced using 7nm technology are produced through collaboration with SMIC. It shocked the world because China believed it was not capable of producing 7nm technology chips on its own.
After the launch of the Kirin 9000s, there were questions about the performance of this chip. According to the analysis of Nanoreview.net, the performance of the Kirin 9000s is not comparable compared to the Kirin 9000 chip launched in 2020. This is actually not surprising because the Kirin 9000 is produced through TSMC's 5nm technology. Among the devices that use the Kirin 9000 is the Huawei Mate 40.
The advantage can only be seen in CPU performance but is not very significant. From the point of view of GPU performance for gaming and battery consumption Kirin 9000s is left behind. For example in the Antutu 3D test, the Kirin 9000s GPU performance is up to 57% behind the Kirin 9000.
Huawei and SMIC have already used the 5nm Kirin 9006C chip but only on the Huawei Qingyun L540 laptop. The performance of this chip is still a mystery but it is definitely better because of the 5nm technology. In just a few months, the Kirin chip managed to change from 7nm to 5nm technology, which is now only two generations behind 3nm technology.
The barrier of using western technology to access ASML's EUV machine is not an obstacle for Huawei. The question is when and not if Huawei will offer their 3nm chips.