What’s inside Huawei’s new Pura 70 smartphones

Huawei’s new high-end Pura 70 smartphone series sold out quickly after it was launched last month. Analysts see it as another Apple iPhone challenger and it adds to signs of how the Chinese company is pushing back against US restrictions.

The Pura series, developed by the Shenzhen company, has advanced cameras and is known for its slim design. In comparison, the Mate 60 series, which marked Huawei’s re-entry into the high-end smartphone market last year, emphasizes performance and business features.

The American iFixit and TechSearch International, which provide product teardown reports, examined the inside of Huawei Technologies’ Pura 70 Pro for Reuters. These are the findings:

CHIP PROCESSOR

The Pura 70 phones use an advanced system-on-chip that carries external markings similar to the older Kirin 9000s, the chip used by Huawei’s Mate 60 series produced by Chinese chip foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp’s (SMIC). 7 nanometer (nm) N+2 production process.

IFixit, TechSearch and other teardown companies call this chip the Kirin 9010.

MEMORY CHIPS

Just like the Mate 60, the Pura 70 uses a DRAM chip from South Korea’s SK Hynix.

However, the Pura 70’s NAND flash memory chip has markings that indicate it was likely made by Huawei’s own chip unit, HiSilicon, according to iFixit and TechSearch. For comparison, the Mate 60 used NAND chips from SK Hynix.

The Pura 70’s NAND chip has a storage capacity of 1 terabyte (TB) – equivalent to the storage in many high-end laptops – but consists of only 8 NAND chips, meaning each chip has a capacity of 1 terabit (Tbit). ). This is comparable to products from major foreign flash memory manufacturers such as SK Hynix, Kioxia and Micron.

iFixit added that they believe HiSilicon may have also produced the NAND chip’s memory controller.

The density achieved depends on the wafers used in the chip. However, the firms could not definitively identify the manufacturer of the wafer because the markings on the NAND die were unknown, although they believe it is a domestic producer, they added.

OTHER CHINA MADE COMPONENTS

The Pura 70 Pro phone includes a range of other crucial components designed by HiSilicon, such as the WiFi and Bluetooth modules and power management chips.

Components such as audio amplifiers and LED flash drivers come from other domestic suppliers such as Goodix and Awinic.

FOREIGN MADE PARTS

However, the phone still contains some components from foreign suppliers. The battery charger comes from Richtek from Taiwan, and especially the motion and rotation sensor comes from the German company Bosch.

IFixit noted that it was strange that Chinese manufacturers likely had the ability to produce these sensors domestically, which raised the question of why it was necessary to use a foreign-made one. (Reporting by Brenda Goh and David Kirton; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)