What you need to know
- The HiSilicon Kirin 810 CPU is based on a 7nm design.
- Huawei's Nova 5 is the first phone powered by the Kirin 810.
- Also announced was the MediaPad M6 — available in 8.4-inch and 10.8-inch sizes.
On June 21, Huawei made a slew of announcements. It unveiled a trio of new phones, two new tablets entering the market, and a really impressive midrange chipset.
Want a quick breakdown of everything that was revealed? Keep on reading!
Kirin 810
Huawei's latest chipset, the HiSilicon Kirin 810, is based on the same 7nm design as the Kirin 980. The difference with the 810, however, is that it's meant for midrange hardware.
The Kirin 810 has an octa-core processing setup, featuring two ARM Cortex-A76 chips that are both clocked at an impressive 2.27GHz. Those two chips will take the bulk of the heavy lifting, but they'll also be accompanied by six Cortex-A55 chips that are all clocked at 1.88GHz. Compared to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 710, the Kirin 810's main competitor, Huawei says its new chip is 11% faster in single-core performance and 13% faster on the multi-core side of things.
On the graphics side of things, the Kirin 810 uses the Mali-G52 MP6 GPU. According to Huawei, this enables the Kirin 810 to have a graphics performance boost of 162% compared to the Kirin 710.
To give the Kirin 810 an edge over some of its flagship competitors, Huawei's using something called the DaVinci NPU. It's based on the Rubik's Cube Quantitative Stereo Arithmetic Unit, but all you need to know is that this allows it to perform AI tasks faster than chips like the Snapdragon 855 and MediaTek Helio P90.
The Kirin 810 will be available for midrange Huawei and Honor smartphones, the first of which is the Nova 5.
Nova 5 series
Following up on last year's Nova 4 handsets, 2019 is seeing the release of the Nova 5, Nova 5 Pro, and Nova 5i.
Starting first with the best of the bunch, the Nova 5 Pro, we're looking at a phone with a 6.39-inch OLED display and a resolution of Full HD+. There's a small waterdrop notch at the top with an impressive 32MP selfie camera, and below that, you'll find an in-display fingerprint sensor.
The rear camera package is also worth keeping an eye on, as Huawei's packing a total of four sensors. There's a 48MP primary camera, 16MP wide-angle one, 2MP depth sensor, and an unusual 2MP macro camera.
Internally, the Nova 5 Pro is using the flagship Kirin 980 processor. It also boasts 8GB of RAM, your choice of 128 or 256GB of RAM, and a 4,000 mAh battery that's juiced up with Huawei's 40W SuperCharge system.
Switching over to the regular Nova 5, it's mostly the same compared to the Nova 5 Pro. The only real difference is that it's using the new Kirin 810 chipset instead of the Kirin 980.
As for the Nova 5i, it's decidedly less powerful and interesting. It ditches the in-screen fingerprint sensor in favor of a traditional rear-mounted one and is using the older Kirin 710 CPU. There are still four cameras on the back, but it's a different combination of sensors. On the Nova 5i, you're met with a 24MP main camera, 8MP wide-angle camera, 2MP depth sensor, and 2MP macro camera.
You have a choice between 6 or 8GB of RAM, but there's just one internal storage option of 128GB. It also uses a 4,000 mAh battery, but you're limited to a slower 18W charging speed.
The Nova 5 Pro is available for pre-order now at Vmall.com with shipments expected to go out on June 28. Pricing starts at CNY 2,999 (around $435 USD). The Nova 5 doesn't actually go on sale until mid-July, and when it does, it'll set you back the same CNY 2,999 price. Lastly, the Nova 5i starts at a more affordable CNY 1,999 ($290).
MediaPad M6
Rounding out the heap of announcements, we have the MediaPad M6. Huawei's launching two models, including one with a 10.8-inch screen and a smaller 8.4-inch model. Both feature LCD panels with a resolution of 2560 x 1600, the only other difference other than screen size being battery capacity. The 10.8-inch M6 has a 7,500 mAh battery whereas the 8.4-inch one takes things down to a 6,100 mAh unit.
Huawei's Kirin 980 processor powers both tablets. There's 4GB of RAM, 64 or 128GB of storage, a 13MP rear camera, and 8MP front camera.
In an effort to make this an iPad Pro competitor of sorts, the MediaPad M6 has a pogo pin connection system that allows it to be used with a first-party keyboard case.
The 10.8-inch M6 is available for pre-order now with prices starting at CNY 2,299 (about $335). The 8.4-inch model will open for pre-order on July 7 and have a starting price of 1,999 CNY.
