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Even though MWC is cancelled, we will be treated to multiple phone launches next week. One notable launch is from Honor, and possible Huawei. Honor is expected to announce the Honor 9X Pro which will be the first time we have had a phone with the Kirin 810 in the UK.

With the ongoing issues Huawei has faced with the US they have been rehashing existing hardware and released several devices with the older Kirin 710f. The standard Honor 9X was a good example of this, with the UK model having the Kirin 710f but the Chinese model with the Kirin 810.

The HiSilicon Kirin 810 was launched all the way back in June 2019. Since then we have seen the launch of numerous mid-range chipsets including the MediaTek Helio G90 which I have covered extensively in the past, and more recently the new 5G mid-range chipsets from Qualcomm and Samsung.

So, can a chipset launched nearly 9 months ago compete with the latest launches from Qualcomm and Samsung and how much better is it than the Kirin 710f it replaces?

Specification Comparison

Kirin 810Kirin 710Snapdragon 765GExynoss 980
Fabrication7nm12nm7nm8nm LPP
CPU2x Cortex-A76 @2.27 GHz
6x Cortex-A55 @1.88 GHz
4x Cortex-A73 @2.2 GHz
4x Cortex-A53 @1.7 GHz
1x Cortex-A76 (Kryo 475) @2.4GHz
1x Cortex-A76 (Kryo 475) @2.2GHz
6x Cortex-A55 (Kryo 475) @1.8GHz
2x Cortex-A77 @ 2.2GHz
6x Cortex-A55 @ 1.8GHz
GPUMali-G52 MP6 @850 MHz,Mali-G51 MP4Adreno 620Mali G76MP5
MemoryLPDDR4 1866 MHzLPDDR4 1866 MHzLPDDR4X 2133MHzLPDDR4X
StorageeMMC 5.1, UFS 2.1eMMC 5.1, UFS 2.1eMMC 5.1, UFS 3.0
CameraSingle 48MP
Dual 40 MP+ 24 MP
Single 32MP
Dual 40 MP+ 24 MP
Dual 22MP + 22MP
Single 36MP, MFNR, ZSL or 192MP
Main: 108MP
Dual: 20MP+20MP
AIDa Vinci dedicated NPUYesHexagon 696 DSP
Qualcomm Sensing Hub
Hexagon Tensor Accelerator
Hexagon Vector eXtensions (HVX)
Yes/Integrated
ConnectivityIntegrated 4G LTE
D/L Speed: 1.4 Mbps
U/L Speed: 200 Mbps
Integrated 4G modem
D/L Cat-12, 600 Mbps
U/L Cat-13, 150 Mbps
Snapdragon X52 Integrated 5G Modem
D/L Speed: 3.7Gbps (5G), 1.2Gbps (LTE)
U/L Speed: 1.6Gbps (5G), 210Mbps (LTE)
Shannon Integrated 5G (5G NR Sub-6)
DL = 2550 Mbps
UL = 1280 Mbps
Bluetooth54.255
WifiUp to Wi-Fi 5Up to Wi-Fi 5Up to Wi-Fi 6Integrated 802.11ax (WiFi 6)
Antutu Scores235-240K135-140k300k+325k+
Geekbench ScoresSingle Core: 2746
Multi-Core: 7700
Single-core: 1601
Multi-core: 5457
Single-core: 3072
Multi-core: 7661
Single-core: 3078
Multi-core: 7346

Kirin 810 vs 710 Antutu and Geekbench Comparison

Kirin 810

As you can see from the above table, the Kirin 810 is a massive upgrade from the Kirin 710 upgrading both the performance cores and the efficiency cores on the CPU allowing it to score 12% higher for the single cores on GeekBench and 41% higher for multi-core

AnTuTu benchmarks have seen a massive boost of 71%

Kirin 810 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 765 vs Samsung Exynos 980 Antutu and Geekbench Comparison

Things look less favourable when we compare to the new chipsets from Qualcomm and Samsung.

The Samsung 980 bumps up the CPU to the latest Coretex A77 cores so even though they are clocked lower than Qualcomm and HiSilicon it achieves higher GeekBench scores than them. Similarly, thanks to the Mali G76MP5 it comfortably scores the highest Antutu scores.

Both the Qualcomm and Samsung have 5G modems, however, how useful that will be to you this year depends on where you live and if your provider supports 5G.

Overall

Pricing is going to be important here, the Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 810 may not be as good as other mid-range chipsets but if it is cheaper then it is still an excellent option.

While several phones have been announced with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G and Samsung Exynos 980 none are currently available through official channels in the UK, so it is hard to judge the exact price. The Xiaomi Redmi K30 5G is available on grey import sites for around £350, so I would expect official UK stock to be more expensive.

We also don’t know how much Kirin 810 based phones will be, but this should be revealed when the Honor 9X Pro gets announced next week. The existing Honor 9X currently sells for £215. If Honor can keep the price of the Honor 9X Pro under £350 it could well be an excellent affordable mid-range option undercutting the 5G equipped models from competing brands.

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