Huawei Confirms Kirin 980 Announcement At IFA 2018, Mate 20 Launch Window

Chinese phone maker Huawei has confirmed that its next-generation flagship processor, the Kirin 980, will be officially announced during IFA 2018 in Berlin. The company also provided information on when consumers can expect the Huawei Mate 20 to be announced.

Huawei confirmed the Kirin 980’s unveiling in a press release sent to South African media, according to Gearburn. The statement also confirmed that the upcoming processor will be built on the 7nm process. Last year’s Kirin 970 was built on the 10nm process, the same architecture of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 and Apple’s A11 Bionic chip. A smaller manufacturing process typically means that it’s more powerful and efficient. IFA 2018 will take place in Berlin, Germany from Aug. 31 until Sept. 5.

Huawei’s press release also mentioned rumors surrounding the Kirin 980’s specs. It mentioned that the chip might feature an octa-core CPU comprising four Cortex-A76 cores and four Cortex-A55 cores. The A76 is also mentioned as possibly delivering clock speeds of up to 2.8GHz, according to Phone Arena. It’s also being rumored that the Kirin 980 may be accompanied by a GPU that’s designed and developed by Huawei.

Should these rumors be taken seriously because Huawei mentioned them in its own press release? Android Authority pointed out that the company did the same thing last year with the Mate 10. Huawei mentioned that the dual cameras on the back of the Mate 10 featured dual 20-megapixel sensors with dual f/1.7 lens. However, when the Mate 10 was announced, it arrived with dual 20MP+12MP cameras with f/1.6 lenses. It’s likely that Huawei is using the rumors to generate hype for the Mate 20.

Speaking of the Mate 20, Huawei also confirmed that the Kirin 980 will be powering the upcoming flagship Android smartphone. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to many since this has been rumored for some time. The company also said that the Huawei Mate 20 will be officially announced during the month of October.

There are already tons of leaks and rumors surrounding the Huawei Mate 20. The phone is expected to arrive in three variants: the regular Mate 20, Mate 20 Lite and Mate 20 Pro. The Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro are expected to arrive with triple rear cameras, while the Lite model will only have dual cameras.

Leaks also suggest that the regular model and the Pro models might feature 3D facial recognition and in-display fingerprint scanners. Leaker Steve Hemmerstoffer (@OnLeaks) also said that the Pro model will have a 6.25-inch display, a 6.8mm notch and a 3.8mm bottom bezel.