Folks at XDA-Developers have done some digging into the kernel source code of the Kirin 980, and they’ve found that the source code mentions the Kirin 985 in it — this could be the next flagship chipset from Huawei. Apart from the report from XDA-Developers, China Times has also revealed some information regarding the SoC. According to them, the Kirin 985 will be built on TSMC’s 7+nm manufacturing process with EUV lithography. The EUV lithography is said to increase the transistor density by up to 20%, which in return, can offer higher clock speeds, and power-efficiency improvements.
Huawei Mate 30 Could Be The First Smartphone To Feature Kirin 985
Usually, all the new flagship chipsets from Huawei make their debut in the Mate series smartphones from the brand. Therefore, it is very likely that the Kirin 985 will make its debut with the Huawei Mate 30, that is expected to launch by the end of this year.
Kirin 985 Could Feature 5G Modem and 4K 60FPS Video Recording
In my opinion, Huawei could equip the Kirin 985 with an inbuilt 5G modem to keep the chipset on par with the upcoming Snapdragon 865, which is also expected to feature an inbuilt 5G modem. Huawei’s current flagship chipset, the Kirin 980, lacks behind other flagship chipsets in only one aspect, and that’s the video recording. While all other flagship chipsets support 4K video recording at 60 frames per second, the Kirin 980 maxes out at 4K 30 frames per second. This is another thing that the Huawei might improve with the Kirin 985 – the chipset could feature support for 4K video recording at 60 frames per second.
Kirin 985 Could Give Tough Competition to Exynos and Snapdragon Flagship SoCs
The Kirin 970 was the first processor from Huawei that had the grunts to compete with the flagship SoCs from brands like Qualcomm and Samsung. And now we have the Kirin 980, which has surpassed the flagship chipsets this year including the Exynos 9820 and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855. Huawei is improving its flagship chipsets at a great pace. Looking at the track record, it is highly possible that the upcoming Kirin 985 could be the most feature-packed and more powerful chipset among its competitors.
