The Strongest Mid-Range SoC? In-Depth Look at Kirin 810 Mobile Platform

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In the past, mid-range Huawei/Honor phones competed with the Kirin 710 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 series. However, when Qualcomm launched the Snapdragon 7 series mobile platform, the performance of the Kirin 710 became somewhat inadequate, after all, its performance is only on par with the Snapdragon 660. To cope with the challenges from the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 and MediaTek Helio G90, the Kirin 810 was born, bringing us great surprises.

Interpreting the Specifications of Kirin 810

The emergence of Kirin 810 fills the performance gap between the Kirin 980 and Kirin 710 in Huawei/Honor series phones. Compared to its predecessor (Kirin 710), the Kirin 810 has made significant advancements in process technology, CPU architecture, GPU specifications, networking, image processing, and AI, further enhancing the performance and competitiveness of mid-range products.

The Fourth 7nm Chip

We all know that the manufacturing process largely determines the competitive foundation of mobile SoCs; the more advanced the process, the more perfect the performance and power consumption. The Kirin 810’s greatest asset is its identity as the world’s fourth mobile SoC chip built on a 7nm process, which translates to better battery life during standby and lower heat generation during gaming (under full load).

Kirin 810 vs. Kirin 710 Process Comparison

CPU/GPU Dual Upgrade

CFan previously introduced the characteristics of ARM’s latest released Cortex-A77 CPU and Mali-G77 GPU in the article titled “The Biggest Regret of Kirin 990! What’s So Good About ARM Cortex-A77 Architecture?” Since the Kirin 810 was initiated early, its CPU architecture still belongs to ARM’s 2018 flagship Cortex-A76.

Specifically, the Kirin 810 uses a combination of ARM native Cortex-A76 (2 big cores) and Cortex-A55 (6 small cores), with the big cores having a maximum frequency of 2.27GHz. The CPU architecture of the Helio G90 series is also composed of Cortex-A76 + A55.

In comparison, Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 730 uses Kryo 470, which is a modified version of Cortex A76/A55, theoretically giving it an advantage. Unfortunately, the Snapdragon 730 has a slightly lower frequency and does not control heat as well as the more advanced Kirin 810 (7nm vs. 8nm), so it is reasonable for the Kirin 810 to have better CPU performance.

2+6 Core Scheduling and Efficiency Are More Flexible Than Traditional 4+4 Core

We all know that in 2018, along with the Cortex-A76 CPU, the Mali-G76 was also released. The Kirin 980 and Samsung Exynos 9820 were armed with Mali-G76MP10 and Mali-G76MP12 GPUs, both of which had 3D performance second only to Qualcomm Snapdragon 855.

Although the Kirin 810 uses an advanced CPU architecture, its GPU is a model called “Mali-G52”. Seeing this GPU, many friends may feel “disappointed”; why not equip the Kirin 810 with a Mali-G7 series GPU?

In fact, although the Mali-G52 GPU looks very similar to the Mali-G51 integrated into the Kirin 710, it has undergone a comprehensive upgrade in its underlying architecture, supporting OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0, and Vulkan graphics APIs, with the execution engine’s bandwidth increased from 4 threads of Mali-G51 to 8 threads.

Does it look familiar? No, Mali-G52 is actually sourced from Mali-G76 (same architecture), and is even more advanced than Mali-G71. Moreover, the ARM public version of Mali-G52 could originally only be equipped with a maximum of 4 compute units (Mali-G52MP4), but the Kirin 810’s Mali-G52 integrates 6 compute units, namely Mali-G52MP6, which we can understand as ARM giving Huawei a “special treatment”.

At the same time, the Kirin 810 also introduces the Kirin Gaming+ optimization technology and GPU Turbo 3.0 technology. The former allows more games to achieve 60FPS high frame rates and HD high quality, utilizing AI for intelligent scheduling to predict the load of each frame, accelerating in high-load situations to ensure performance, and quickly decelerating in low-load situations to save power. GPU Turbo 3.0 currently supports graphic acceleration for over 70 mainstream games, maintaining full or nearly full frames while also reducing power consumption and achieving millisecond-level touch response for a better feel.

Evolution Driven by AI

Integrating a dedicated NPU has become a symbol of flagship SoCs. This time, the Kirin 810 not only integrates an NPU but does not use the Cambricon NPU directly as in Kirin 970/Kirin 980. In simple terms, the Kirin 810 integrates a self-developed NPU based on the Da Vinci architecture, which incorporates tensor computing units, forming an innovative architectural design.

Without going into the underlying principles, just know that the Kirin 810, thanks to the Da Vinci architecture NPU, topped the authoritative AI-Benchmark rankings (now surpassed by its elder brother, the Kirin 990 series), stepping over the Snapdragon 855 and its own “elder brother” Kirin 980.

Stronger AI computing performance is not just a cold hard number; currently, in the Android system, whether it is the background app cleaning mechanism, predicting phone task loads, analyzing frame rates, smoothness, and touch input changes in games, or optimizing imaging algorithms during photography and real-time video cutout, all rely on AI technology’s support behind the scenes.

In other words, under the condition that other hardware (such as battery capacity, flash memory specifications, camera sensors) are the same, SoC chips with stronger AI performance often provide more energy-efficient daily operations and smoother gaming frame rates. Additionally, the Kirin 810 integrates a dedicated DSP digital signal processor and IVP+ISP image signal processor similar to the Kirin 980, combined with more powerful on-device AI computing performance, which can bring faster scene recognition and optimization, making handheld night scene photography capabilities even closer to perfection.

How Powerful is the Kirin 810?

The main competitors of the Kirin 810 are Qualcomm’s recently released Snapdragon 730G (an overclocked version of the Snapdragon 730 GPU) and MediaTek Helio G90G (the gaming-optimized version of Helio G90T). To more intuitively reflect the performance of this SoC chip, I have also organized a comparison of the theoretical performance of these three SoCs.

From the test results, the performance of the Kirin 810 meets expectations; except for the 3DMark SlingShot test scores being on par with the Snapdragon 730, all other test items are above the Snapdragon 730. Moreover, the GPU performance of the Kirin 810 also significantly outperforms the Helio G90T, which integrates the Mali-G76MP4 GPU, indicating that the Mali-G52MP6 after being “privileged” by ARM is indeed unbeatable in the mid-range SoC field.

Is Kirin 810 Worth Choosing?

As a newly launched mid-range mobile SoC chip, the Kirin 810 performs excellently in all aspects, making it a perfect successor to the Kirin 710. Although it does not use the most suitable Mali-G76 series GPU for the Cortex-A76 architecture and does not directly integrate a 5G modem chip, its performance exceeds that of the main competitors Snapdragon 730G and Helio G90T in all aspects, which is sufficient.

The biggest threat facing the Kirin 810 now comes from the continuously decreasing prices of flagship phones and the differentiated competitive strategies of its rivals. For example, the first phone equipped with the Kirin 810, the Huawei nova 5, was priced at 2799 yuan, but at that time, one could buy the nova 5 Pro armed with the Kirin 980 for just an additional 200 yuan.

iQOO Neo

At the same time, the Snapdragon 855 phones represented by the Redmi K20 Pro have already dropped to just over 2000 yuan, and the iQOO Neo, using a strategy of differential competition, has even “cheapened” the previous flagship Snapdragon 845 to a minimum of 1799 yuan. Faced with these new and old flagship SoCs, the Kirin 810 can only maintain a humble attitude, apart from having stronger AI performance and being more power-efficient.

As a previous flagship from Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 845 is actually far more competitive than the Kirin 810 and Snapdragon 730, but the procurement cost of the chip is relatively high, making it difficult to popularize.

Fortunately, with the launch of the Honor 9X, the Kirin 810 is entering a rapid path to popularity, with the low-spec version priced at only 1399 yuan (4GB+64GB), comparable to many competing products equipped with the Snapdragon 710.

However, as the configuration of the Honor 9X increases, its competitiveness will be diluted; for example, the top configuration of the Honor 9X is priced over 2000 yuan, and the Honor 9X Pro can go as high as 2199 yuan, both facing the impact of their predecessor Honor V20 and the high cost-performance Snapdragon 855/Snapdragon 845 competitors.

In summary, the advantageous price range for the Kirin 810 is in the mainstream price market of 1000 to 2000 yuan. Using the Kirin 810 below 1000 yuan seems somewhat wasteful (as consumers, we naturally hope for this), while above 2000 yuan, the Kirin 810 will face a “dimensionality reduction attack” from the Kirin 980 and Snapdragon 855.

As consumers, when selecting a phone, we first need to recognize what we truly need. If it is top performance and gaming experience, the Kirin 810 may not hold up well even against its predecessors, the Kirin 970 and Snapdragon 845. But if it is about energy efficiency (strong enough performance, low heat and power consumption) and AI-based experiential upgrades, the Kirin 810 is better in some aspects than even the Kirin 980, with clear advantages over the same-level Snapdragon 730G and MediaTek Helio G90T.

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