Huawei Unveils Kirin X90 Plus and XE90 Processors for New MateBook Laptops

Huawei’s hardware roadmap received a significant update as the company detailed two fresh processors designed to power its next generation of personal computers. Revealed at a HarmonyOS computer product technical briefing, the silicon lineup targets different tiers of efficiency and performance across distinct form factors.

Kirin XE90 and Kirin X90 Plus Power New MateBook Models

The newly announced processor family splits into a high-efficiency model and a high-performance variant. The Kirin XE90 is engineered for energy-efficient computing and will make its debut inside the company’s lightest laptop build to date. According to the official announcement, the XE90 delivers a 23% boost in single-core performance, a 25% increase in energy efficiency, and a 40% jump in NPU computing power compared to the baseline Kirin X90.

To manage thermal loads in a slim chassis, the chip utilizes ceramic composite cooling packaging alongside substrate micro-hole thermal conduction technology. These engineering choices push the chip’s self-cooling capacity up by 70%, allowing the system to sustain a 20W performance release.

Another option, the Kirin X90 Plus, acts as a high-performance PC processor designed to form a complementary pair with the XE90. While specific technical specifications were not disclosed during the session, the company reported that through software-hardware-chip-cloud synergy, overall system performance can be boosted by 25%. For comparative context, the standard Kirin X90 utilizes a 4+4+2 architecture, packed with 10 cores and 20 threads, supports hyperthreading, reaches a maximum primary frequency of 4.2GHz, integrates a self-developed GPU, features a dual DaVinci architecture NPU, and delivers an AI computing power of 40TOPS; this baseline chip was previously integrated into the MateBook Pro.

MateBook Pro S Introduces Magnesium-Lithium Alloy and Wi-Fi 7+

The first laptop to feature the XE90 processor is the MateBook Pro S, which weighs just 798g and measures 11.9mm thick, establishing it as the world’s lightest 14-inch all-metal laptop. The manufacturer achieved these measurements by utilizing the Huawei Yunsun architecture to drive breakthroughs across materials, craftsmanship, and design. The material phase introduces a magnesium-lithium alloy with a density of just 1.5g/cm³, lowering weight by 25% and thickness by 17%, while an industry-first vacuum sputtering process resolves corrosion and surface treatment challenges.

Internal structural refinements also contribute to the weight reduction. The device saves 17g through a copper-steel composite vapor chamber, 6g via an ultra-thin CG cover plate, 6.2g through cooling fins, 4g from a composite material speaker, 6g via an ultra-thin high-strength aluminum keyboard, and 3g through the screen driver board. The design draws inspiration from traditional Chinese architecture by incorporating a mortise-and-tenon integrated structure that achieves a pure, screwless exterior design and increases anti-deformation strength by 500%.

Powering the device is an industry-first 10% high-silicon battery that boosts energy density by 15% while reducing weight by 10%. The power system supports over 18 hours of continuous 1080P video playback and provides left-and-right dual 66W reverse super-fast charging to supply emergency power to phones and tablets across boot, shutdown, or standby states. On the connectivity front, it stands as the world’s first thin-and-light laptop to support Wi-Fi 7+ with four antennas, enabling ultra-long-distance networking at the 1,000-meter level. Memory configurations span 16GB, 24GB, and 32GB options, with storage choices covering 512GB and 1TB.

MateBook Fold Ultimate Design Deploys Kirin X90 Plus on an 18-Inch OLED Panel

The MateBook Fold Ultimate Design will be the first device to deploy the Kirin X90 Plus, measuring as thin as 7.3mm when unfolded and weighing a mere 1.16kg. The device features an 18-inch world’s largest dual-layer OLED flexible screen with a 92% screen-to-body ratio, supporting 1600nits HDR peak brightness, 3.3K resolution, a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio, and P3 wide-color-gamut adaptive color management.

The display is protected by the industry’s first non-Newtonian fluid UTG composite structure—the world’s largest UTG non-Newtonian fluid toughened laminate—which increases impact resistance by 90% and bend deformation resistance by 10 times, earning the world’s first SGS gold-label five-star device screen drop-impact resistance certification. Interactive capabilities support dual-screen convenient note-taking alongside large-screen immersive creation form factors, while introducing initial stylus support that provides global annotations, write-at-will functionality, and Xiaoyi circle selection, coordinated with the borderless notes function in the Huawei Notes app and the 18-inch ultra-large canvas inside the GoPaint app.

HarmonyOS Computer Ecosystem Growth and Launch Schedule

Both machines are scheduled for an official release on August 5, at which point additional details will be revealed. Ahead of the launch, the hardware ecosystem supporting the platform has expanded significantly.

HarmonyOS computer applications have surpassed 19,000 titles spanning core scenarios like office, entertainment, creation, and gaming. Peripheral support includes more than 1,700 generic input devices like keyboards and mice, alongside over 1,600 professional devices such as printers and scanners.

Huawei Terminal BG Tablet and PC Product Line President Zhu Dongdong noted that the unified foundation of the HarmonyOS architecture will be utilized to cover all user scenarios across products including HarmonyOS tablets, HarmonyOS commercial tablets, HarmonyOS computers, and HarmonyOS commercial computers.