Over the last few years Chinese electronics company has been reducing its reliance on tech from other countries in response to trade restrictions imposed by the US. That’s meant developing a home-grown Android alternative for smartphones (albeit one that’s largely based on Android so far).

Now Huawei has launched its first laptop that doesn’t feature an Intel or AMD chip. The Huawei Qingyun L410 is powered by Huwaei’s own Kirin 990 processor, an ARM-based chip that was initially developed for smartphones and tablets.

Qingyun L410 (via ITHome)

Laptops with ARM-based processors have become more common in recent years, now that Chrome OS, Windows, and macOS all support the architecture. But like I said, Huawei is trying to move away from using technologies from companies like Microsoft and Google, so the Qingyun L410 ships with a Linux-based operating system called Unity OS, or UOS.

The operating system, which is developed by UnionTech, was created in 2019 as part of the Chinese government’s push to move away from reliance on Windows for computers used in the domestic market.

As for the laptop, ITHome notes that aside from the processor and operating system, it looks a lot like the Huawei MateBook 14. Features include a 14 inch display with a 3:2 aspect ratio, a hidden camera that pops up at the push of a button, a fingerprint sensor, and a security chip.

The notebook has 8GB of RAM, up to 512GB of storage, and it measures about 0.6 inches thick and weighs about 3.3 pounds.

While the  Qingyun L410 is unlikely to be sold outside of China anytime soon, it’s the latest example that it’s getting easier for laptop makers to skip the Wintel duopoly that has dominated the PC space for decades.

via GizmoChina

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,547 other subscribers

13 replies on “Huawei launches a Linux laptop with an ARM-based Kirin 990 processor”

  1. Far as I’m concerned, if you can’t install whatever OS you want on it (that’s what you usually get with ARM devices), then it’s not a Linux laptop. It’s only a Unity OS laptop.

  2. Brad did you see that Samsung announced it’s working towards
    laptop with ARM SoC with AMD GPU IP ?

  3. That is so good. I like it.
    I think they can sell everywhere except USA ?
    USA hurt itself, yes it crippled Huawei, but speed up rest of China autonomy from US tech.
    Just imagine Chuwi/Teclast/Jumper ARM laptops with Ubuntu for Christmas. That’s a reason to be a good kid…

  4. This is the result of US trade restrictions? A Linux laptop with NO WinTel Inside? Microsoft and Intel will lose out on market share of almost 1 billion users in China. The Android version on this laptop probably doesn’t include the Google Play Store either, which will hurt Google’s market share as well.

  5. I believe Kirin 990 was stockpiled before Huawei was banned from TSMC. As they are in limited supply, I would think that the majority of them would be used as developer units. It will be expensive for Huawei to pay software/hardware developers when it can’t sell these products.

    1. Who needs oversea customers when pinky will buy whatever e-wastes Huawei put out?

  6. Anyone wanna take bets on how many hardware and software components of this device have CCP-funded spyware and backdoors?

    It’s obvious that China is not only trying to be more self-reliant on hardware and software designs, but I’d venture a guess that since the government is incentivizing these developments domestically, they’re almost certainly including surveillance features.

    1. Please, please, please explain me why Chinese “spyware and backdoors” boders you, but not the USA Three Letter Agencies “spyware and backdoors (in the device you typed your comment from) ?

      By the way, your cell phone every ping to a cell tower, metadata for every call, and every SMS is forever recorded and stored by law. How I know? I can see it myself in my carrier website after simple registration.

      1. So you will get arrested and prisoned for criticizing U.S. mobile carrier? That’s Huawei did to its former employees and critics.

      2. Chinese spyware and backdoors don’t bother me, they bother the people of China. My comment was empathetic towards to the Chinese people who are clearly being forced deeper into a technologically controlled regime.

        The CCP is obviously trying to get the Chinese people to use products that they have more control over, and ability to spy on dissidents.

        I think in the next few months and years we’ll see more products appearing in China that are designed using 100% domestically engineered components, and operating systems that aren’t linked to organizations outside of China.

        Similar practices in the US also don’t bother me, because I don’t live there.

        1. You probably should be concerned anyway if you live in a country that has “intelligence sharing” agreements with the US or China though the governments probably don’t care that much about whatever it is you do.
          Corporations, on the other hand, care a lot more about what is you’re up to and have a bit more freedom to yank the rug out from under you, and have generally managed to convince people on the rug that those not on the rug are not worth interacting with. That Chinese data companies don’t really want your business right now is the difference.
          Besides, I doubt wherever it is you live isn’t implementing or pushing for a “vaccine passport”. That sure seems like “being forced deeper into a technologically controlled regime” to me.

  7. I would love to read some benchmarks vs x86 and other ARM as Apple M2

Comments are closed.