Huawei continues to advance on the path to self-sufficiency with its smartphone Huawei Pura 70. A device which, inside, embeds more and more Chinese technology.
When, in 2019, Washington decided to cut off Huawei’s access, it seemed almost certain that the Chinese phone manufacturer would decline, given its very strong dependence on components produced abroad, and in particular in the United States. . But in a few years, the Shenzhen giant has managed to get back on its feet, to gradually produce quality devices on its own, and even release a 5G smartphone. A feat, which required the autonomous production of a very advanced 7 nanometer chip, and which has worried the United States. And yet it seems only a step on the manufacturer’s path to autonomy.
A NAND flash memory chip made in Huawei
The Huawei Mate 60 Pro had already been a flash in the sky for the United States, with the integration under the hood of a Kirin 9000s chip, engraved with a precision of 7 nanometers. A success which, if it was still far from what is best in the field (the A17 Pro chip of the iPhone 15 Pro is thus engraved in 3 nanometers), still showed that the sanctions were only relatively slow down Chinese development.
This is proven by the findings of the online repair specialist iFixit and the consulting company TechSearch International, which opened the hood of the latest Pura 70. A smartphone that is even more “self-sufficient” than the Mate 60 Pro. Indeed, the device benefits on the one hand from an advanced chip based on the Kirin 9000s, produced by the local founder Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), which they have named Kirin 9010.
On the other hand, perhaps more importantly, the Pura 70 has a NAND flash memory chip, which, according to the two specialists, several elements indicate would have been manufactured by Huawei’s subsidiary, HiSilicon. For comparison, the same component of the Huawei Mate 60 Pro was supplied by the South Korean company SK Hynix.
A more Chinese phone than the Huawei Mate 60 Pro
The investigations of two companies, including Reuters echoes, were also able to observe that other components of this smartphone had been built by Chinese suppliers, showing that Huawei is at the heart of a local ecosystem which would allow it to get by.
“ Although we cannot provide an exact percentage, we would say that the use of domestic components is high, and certainly higher than in the Mate 60 » explains the technician at iFixit, Shahram Mokhtari.
According to iFixit, the next step in this development could be the development by SMIC of chips engraved at 5 nanometers. A leap forward which would be expected by the end of the year by specialists. Enough to worry the United States a little more, and make them want to launch new waves of sanctions?
Source : Reuters
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