Kirin 990 chipset announced at IFA 2019, and it'll probably power the Huawei Mate 30

(Image credit: Future)

Huawei has just announced its next flagship chipset, called the Kirin 990, which is expected to be powering upcoming phones from the company including the Huawei Mate 30 Pro and Huawei P40.

It features improved performance over the last-gen chipset that featured in devices like the P30 Pro and Mate 20, as well as improved efficiency that should improve battery life when undertaking intensive tasks.

Huawei claims that single-core performance on this chip is 10% higher than the Kirin 980, while the multi-core performance is 9% higher than the last-gen chipset.

It features a 16-core Mali G76 GPU that Huawei claims performs better than its main competitors.

The big upgrade here is that Huawei will be including 5G within the chipset itself, which is something competitors haven't been able to do yet. That allows Huawei to make a smaller chipset that takes up less space in a device.

Like the Kirin 980, this is also a 7nm chip, which means it's one of the smallest chipsets around, allowing for more space inside your device for battery and other features.

5G and more

There's also a 4G variant of the chipset, so not all future Huawei devices will be 5G compatible, but we'd expect the 5G version in many upcoming flagship devices.

Huawei has yet to confirm what devices the Kirin 990 will be included in, but we expect to hear more on that in the coming months.

One thing Huawei has confirmed is that it's announcing a new handset on September 18, and it's very likely to be the Huawei Mate 30 Pro. TechRadar will be at the launch to give you the details as soon as we learn them.

James Peckham

James is Managing Editor for Android Police. Previously, he was Senior Phones Editor for TechRadar, and he has covered smartphones and the mobile space for the best part of a decade bringing you news on all the big announcements from top manufacturers making mobile phones and other portable gadgets. James is often testing out and reviewing the latest and greatest mobile phones, smartwatches, tablets, virtual reality headsets, fitness trackers and more. He once fell over.