Details on Huawei Kirin 9000SL of Nova 12 Ultra suggest it’s a downgraded 9000S

Huawei has confirmed that the Nova 12 series will make its debut on December 26, which is today. Hours before the official unveiling, details on the SoCs inside the new smartphones have emerged. According to live pictures of the Nova 12 Ultra shared by WHYLAB on Weibo, the device packs the Huawei Kirin 9000SL chipset.

At first glance at the specs, it may seem like a brand-new chipset. But, as pointed out by Mochamad Farido Fanani, the Kirin 9000SL is a downgraded Kirin 9000S. WHYLAB has also shared the core configuration of the chipset. According to the specification pictures shared, the SoC has:

• 2 × 2.35 GHz TaiShan core
• 3 × 2.15 GHz TaiShan core
• 4 × 1.53 GHz Cortex-A510

That means the Huawei Kirin 9000SL adopts a ‘2 + 3 + 4’ cluster. On the other hand, the Kirin 9000S packs a ‘1 + 3 + 4’ cluster, which are clocked as follows:

• 1 × 2.62GHz TaiShan core
• 3 × 2.15GHz TaiShan core
• 4 × 1.53GHz Cortex-A510

So, while the Kirin 9000SL comes with one extra core, the clock speed of the TaiShan V120 cores on the chipset is slower. This basically hints that it’s a downgraded Kirin 9000S. But with a higher core count, the new chipset may have a slight advantage on multi-core performance. Besides, the specification pictures of the phone have confirmed that the SoC has the same Maleoon 910 GPU as the 9000S.

In other news of the new Huawei smartphone lineup, the Nova 12 Youth edition will debut with Snapdragon 778G, while the Nova 12 Pro will feature a seemingly new Kirin 8000 SoC. More details will be confirmed soon as Huawei fully unveils the smartphones later today.

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