Huawei's New Phone Utilises More China-Made Parts and Memory Chip

Huawei's latest high-end phone, the Pura 70 Pro, features more Chinese suppliers and showcases China's progress towards technology self-sufficiency. The phone includes a new flash memory storage chip likely packaged by Huawei's in-house chip unit, HiSilicon. The Pura 70 Pro is powered by Huawei's Kirin 9010 chipset, indicating a focus on self-sufficiency and domestic component usage.

A teardown analysis conducted by online tech repair company iFixit and consultancy TechSearch International revealed that the phone features a new flash memory storage chip and an improved chip processor, both of which are made in China. These findings highlight China's progress towards achieving technology self-sufficiency.

The examination of the Pura 70 Pro's internals unveiled a NAND memory chip that is likely packaged by Huawei's in-house chip unit, HiSilicon. Additionally, several other components were found to be made by Chinese suppliers. This information has not been previously reported, making it a significant discovery.

Huawei's resurgence in the high-end smartphone market, following four years of U.S. sanctions, has attracted attention from competitors and U.S. politicians alike. The company has become a symbol of the escalating trade tensions between the United States and China, as well as China's determination to achieve technological independence.

The analysis also revealed that the Pura 70 Pro is powered by Huawei's Kirin 9010 chipset, an advanced processing unit that is likely an improved version of the Chinese-made chip used in Huawei's Mate 60 series. Shahram Mokhtari, iFixit's lead teardown technician, stated that the domestic component usage in the Pura 70 Pro is higher than in the Mate 60, emphasising the phone's focus on self-sufficiency.

Huawei has declined to comment on these findings, leaving industry experts to speculate on the implications. The Pura 70 series, launched in late April, quickly sold out, indicating its potential to gain market share from competitors like Apple. Meanwhile, policymakers in Washington are questioning the effectiveness of U.S. restrictions on Huawei, considering the company's continued innovation and reliance on Chinese suppliers.

Previous teardown analyses of Huawei's Mate 60 series revealed the use of DRAM and NAND memory chips from South Korea's SK Hynix. However, the Pura 70 Pro still contains a DRAM chip from SK Hynix, while the NAND flash memory chip is likely packaged by Huawei's HiSilicon unit. The capacity of each NAND die is 1 terabit, comparable to products from major flash memory producers such as SK Hynix, Kioxia, and Micron. The manufacturer of the wafer could not be definitively identified due to unfamiliar markings, but it is believed that HiSilicon may have produced the memory controller as well.

The analysis of the Pura 70 Pro's processor suggests that Huawei has made incremental improvements in its ability to produce advanced chips with Chinese partners since the launch of the Mate 60 series. The processor is similar to the one used in the Mate 60 series, which was produced by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) using the Chinese chip foundry's 7 nanometer (nm) N+2 manufacturing process. This finding indicates that Chinese chip manufacturing may have been slowed down, despite concerns raised by U.S. lawmakers last year.

However, experts caution against underestimating Huawei, as SMIC is expected to make a leap to a 5nm manufacturing node by the end of the year. This suggests that Huawei's technological progress may continue to evolve rapidly.

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• Huawei's latest high-end phone, the Pura 70 Pro, features more Chinese suppliers and showcases China's progress towards technology self-sufficiency.

• The phone includes a new flash memory storage chip likely packaged by Huawei's in-house chip unit, HiSilicon.

• The Pura 70 Pro is powered by Huawei's Kirin 9010 chipset, indicating a focus on self-sufficiency and domestic component usage.

Source: REUTERS