Huawei Consumer Business Group, India, earlier this week, announced that it would soon launch its new wearables lineup in India powered by a newly developed chipset — the Kirin A1. Huawei has said that the Kirin A1 is the first (and as of now, the only chipset) designed specifically keeping wearables in mind. The company held a series of press briefings across India to showcase the features of the Kirin A1. With the wearable segment in India set to show explosive growth in the future, Huawei believes that the Kirin A1 will play a key role in establishing Huawei as a leading player in this segment. The first of Huawei’s wearables that use the Kirin A1 chip is expected to launch in December 2019, barely a month from now. Reports indicate that the new products based on the Kirin A1 would be the Huawei FreeBuds 3, and the Watch GT2. It remains to be seen which of these products would make it to India next month.
Kirin A1 Chip: Key features
The Kirin A1, at the time of its announcement back in September, was the first chipset to feature support for Bluetooth 5.1 and Bluetooth Low Energy 5.1. The A1 claims to lower the latency issue that plagues most wearables of today (primarily wireless headphones/earbuds) thanks to a feature called Isochronous Dual Channel Bluetooth data transmission technology. The Kirin A1 also ensures a stable connection and is designed to perform well in areas with high interference. The chip claims a Bluetooth transmission speed of up to 6.5Mbps and also supports Bluetooth Ultra High-Definition Audio (BT-UHD). As of now, Huawei has two products that use the Kirin A1 chip in the form of the Huawei Watch GT2 and the Huawei Freebuds 3. The A1, however, is expected to appear on other Huawei products that include wireless headbands, Neckbands, Smart Speakers, and Smart Eyewear.
Kirin A1: What’s inside?
The Kirin A1 is based on ARM’s Cortex-M7 architecture and claims a maximum energy consumption rate of 10uA/MHz. This is far below the current industry standard of 30uA/MHZ. The Kirin A1 also packs in a plethora of sensors ranging from a capacitive sensor and an optical heart rate sensor to an accelerometer sensor and a six-axis sensor. The Kirin A1 also houses a 200MHz processor, which enables it to calculate ad accurately track your heart rate during an intense workout.
