Huawei Mate 40: Kirin 1020 to be almost 50% faster than its predecessor and manufactured on a 5 nm node?

While Huawei continues to labour over the release of the Mate 30 series, the company can work with the likes of ARM and Microsoft again for the development of their future devices. The company has already taken advantage of the latter by pre-installing Windows 10 on its new MateBook D series, which it announced late last month. Now, it seems to be still using ARM processors for its upcoming SoCs too.

The latter assertion comes from @RODENT950, a Finnish leaker who has proven themselves a reliable source of information about upcoming Huawei hardware. The leaker claims that the Chinese company's next flagship SoC will be called the Kirin 1020, which will succeed the Kirin 990. According to @RODENT950, Huawei will switch to a 5 nm node for the Kirin 1020, having used 7 nm for the Kirin 990. The former will also integrate ARM Cortex-A77 cores, while the leaker also claims that it will offer "nearly 50%" better performance than the Kirin 990.

We have no way yet of verifying these claims, but there may be truth in some of them. ARM has already announced that Cortex-A77 cores can be designed for 5 nm nodes, along with up to 35% performance improvements in some areas. We are yet to put the Kirin 990 through all our usual tests either, so we cannot suggest what a 50% more powerful chip would offer. Early indications are that the Kirin 990 can at least match the fastest Snapdragon 855 Plus powered handsets, though.

@RODENT950 states that the Kirin 1020 will only have a 5G modem too. Moreover, we are apparently likely to see the P40 series running existing chips like the Kirin 990 and Kirin 810, rather than the Kirin 1020. Meanwhile, the Kirin will debut on the nova 7 or 10x. @RODENT950 offered no specifications on the Kirin 820, though.