SHENZHEN, China, January 24, 2026, 20:14 (CST)
Huawei may try to lift the performance of its next Pura 90 flagship lineup by adding more RAM — the phone’s short-term memory used by apps — rather than leaning on a new processor, Huawei Central reported on Saturday, citing leaks. The site said the bigger 20GB option could show up on an “Ultra” model and pointed to a possible second-quarter 2026 debut, while cautioning the details were unconfirmed. (Huawei Central)
The rumour matters because Huawei’s flagship launches are treated as a live test of how far it can push premium phones at home after years of U.S. restrictions. When it launched the Pura 80 series last June, Huawei talked up camera and AI features but stayed silent on the chips powering the devices, and the company’s resurgence has tightened the competitive screws on Apple in China. (Reuters)
A memory-heavy phone also comes at an awkward time for the supply chain: memory chip prices have been rising as AI data-centre buildouts soak up capacity, forcing device makers to choose between absorbing costs or lifting prices. “Manufacturers might absorb some costs but given the scale of the shortage, it is certainly going to show up as higher prices for consumers,” Emarketer analyst Jacob Bourne said in a Reuters report this week. (Reuters)
Huawei has already tried the high-RAM play on at least one device. The company’s Chinese consumer website lists 20 GB of RAM for the Mate 80 RS Ultimate Design. (HUAWEI)
RAM is the working space that helps a handset keep apps and data close at hand. More of it can make multitasking feel quicker, but it does not erase limits set by the processor, graphics and modem — the parts that do the heavy lifting.
Washington began restricting Huawei’s access to U.S. technology in 2019, pushing the company to build more of its own chips and operating systems. “We kept on doing the hard things but the right things,” Yu Chengdong, head of Huawei’s consumer business group, said at a 2025 event when Huawei rolled out its first laptops using HarmonyOS. (Reuters)
The Pura line targets the premium tier where Apple and Samsung set the pace, while Chinese rivals such as Xiaomi fight for share with fast hardware refreshes. Memory has become part of the spec contest, especially as phone makers try to run more AI features on the device instead of sending everything to the cloud.
But the Pura 90 details remain a leak, and Huawei could still change its bill of materials before mass production. A jump to 20GB would add cost and power draw, and any real-world gain depends on the rest of the design — from cooling to software tuning — at a time when memory supply is tight.
For Huawei, extra memory would be one of the simpler levers to pull as it chases smoother performance while navigating chip constraints. Buyers will look for an official launch date and pricing, and for signs that Huawei can keep upgrading without pushing flagship phones further out of reach.
