Kirin 9020 vs Apple A18
We compared the 8-core HiSilicon Kirin 9020 (Maleoon 920) with the older 6-core Apple A18 (Apple A18 GPU) SoC. Here you will find the pros and cons of each chip, technical specs, and comprehensive tests in benchmarks, like AnTuTu and Geekbench.
Review
CPU Performance
Single and multi-core processor tests
Gaming Performance
GPU performance in games and OpenCL/Vulkan
Battery life
Efficiency of battery consumption
NanoReview Score
Overall chip score
Key Differences
Pros of HiSilicon Kirin 9020
- Has 2 more cores
- Supports 14% higher memory bandwidth (68.2 against 60 GB/s)
Pros of Apple A18
- Has a smaller size transistor (3 versus 7 nm)
- Higher GPU frequency (~77%)
- 62% higher CPU clock speed (4050 vs 2500 MHz)
- Shows significantly better (up to 43%) AnTuTu 11 score β 1972K vs 1383K
- Better instruction set architecture
Benchmarks
Performance tests in popular benchmarksAnTuTu 11
| CPU | 484142 | 611649 |
| GPU | 269177 | 589953 |
| Memory | 340806 | 181123 |
| UX | 289668 | 589751 |
| Total score | 1383793 | 1972476 |
| Samples | [10 tests] | [29 tests] |
AnTuTu results from iOS and Android are not directly comparable! They won't affect NanoReview scores.
GeekBench 6
Single-Core Score
Multi-Core Score
| Asset compression | 169.6 MB/sec | 286.8 MB/sec |
| HTML 5 Browser | 129.9 pages/sec | 184.2 pages/sec |
| PDF Renderer | 126.6 Mpixels/sec | 201.2 Mpixels/sec |
| Image detection | 85.1 images/sec | 297.2 images/sec |
| HDR | 118.5 Mpixels/sec | 279.1 Mpixels/sec |
| Background blur | 14.7 images/sec | 36.2 images/sec |
| Photo processing | 43.4 images/sec | 90 images/sec |
| Ray tracing | 5.21 Mpixels/sec | 8.68 Mpixels/sec |
| Samples | 7 tests | 6 tests |
Compute Score (GPU)
| Background blur | 6.04 images/sec | 49.2 images/sec |
| Face detection | 3.28 images/sec | 71.8 images/sec |
| Horizon detection | 0.24 Gpixels/sec | 0.86 Gpixels/sec |
| Edge detection | 0.32 Gpixels/sec | 1.14 Gpixels/sec |
| Gaussian blur | 0.26 Gpixels/sec | 1.44 Gpixels/sec |
| Feature matching | 0.03 Gpixels/sec | 0.39 Gpixels/sec |
| Stereo matching | 20.6 Gpixels/sec | 77.7 Gpixels/sec |
| Particle physics | 568.2 FPS | 2811.1 FPS |
| API | Vulkan | Metal |
| Samples | 6 tests | 4 tests |
Compute results use different APIs (Metal vs Vulkan/OpenCL) and are not directly comparable!
3DMark
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
| Score | 454 | 1579 |
| Stability | - | 75% |
| Graphics test | 3 FPS | 12 FPS |
3DMark Solar Bay
| Score | - | 6750 |
| Graphics test | - | 26 FPS |
| Section 1 | - | 31 FPS |
| Section 2 | - | 26 FPS |
| Section 3 | - | 20 FPS |
Recent User Tests
HiSilicon Kirin 9020
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| π 2026-09-13 (AndreyK) | AnTuTu 11 | 1372431 |
| π 2026-09-09 -> LeofMate | AnTuTu 11 | 1291607 |
| π 2026-08-22 (A_s_t_r_a) | AnTuTu 11 | 1328024 |
| π 2026-04-18 (Antonio) | AnTuTu 11 | 1395526 |
| π 2026-02-25 (BlizardRx) | AnTuTu 11 | 1337422 |
Apple A18
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| π 2026-07-30 (Dddd) | AnTuTu 11 | 1905485 |
| π 2026-07-18 (Aj) | AnTuTu 11 | 1949745 |
| π 2026-07-15 (vovachips) | AnTuTu 11 | 1842572 |
| π 2026-07-03 (iTzRageeh) | Geekbench 6 CPU | 3531 / 9122 |
| π 2026-07-03 (iTzRageeh) | AnTuTu 11 | 2045650 |
Specifications
Full list of technical specifications of Kirin 9020 and Apple A18CPU
| Architecture | 1x 2.5 GHz β TaiShan V121 3x 2.15 GHz β TaiShan V120 4x 1.6 GHz β Taishan-Little |
2x 4.05 GHz β Everest 4x 2.42 GHz β Sawtooth |
| Cores | 8 | 6 |
| Frequency | 2500 MHz | 4050 MHz |
| Instruction set | ARMv8-A | ARMv9.2-A |
| L2 cache | 1 MB | 8 MB |
| L3 cache | 10 MB | - |
| Process | 7 nanometers | 3 nanometers |
| TDP (Sustained Power Limit) | - | 9 W |
| Manufacturing | SMIC | TSMC |
Graphics
| GPU name | Maleoon 920 | Apple A18 GPU |
| Architecture | Maleoon | Apple Bionic GPU |
| GPU frequency | 840 MHz | 1490 MHz |
| Pipelines | 4 | 5 |
| Shading units | 256 | 128 |
| Total shaders | 1024 | 640 |
| FLOPS | 1720.3 Gigaflops | 1907 Gigaflops |
| Vulkan version | 1.3 | - |
| OpenCL version | 3.0 | - |
| DirectX version | 12 | - |
AI Accelerator
| Neural processor (NPU) | Da Vinci | Neural Engine |
| NPU theoretical performance | - | 35 TOPS |
Memory
| Memory type | LPDDR5X | LPDDR5X |
| Memory frequency | 4266 MHz | 3750 MHz |
| Bus | 4x 16 Bit | 4x 16 Bit |
| Max bandwidth | 68.2 Gb/s | 60 Gb/s |
| Max size | 16 GB | 8 GB |
Multimedia (ISP)
| Storage type | UFS 4.0 | NVMe |
| Max display resolution | 3840 x 2160 | - |
| Max camera resolution | - | 1x 48MP |
| Video capture | 4K at 60FPS | 4K at 120FPS |
| Video playback | 4K at 60FPS | 4K at 120FPS |
| Video codecs | - H.264 - H.265 - VP9 |
- H.264 - H.265 - AV1 - VP8 - VP9 - Motion JPEG |
| Audio codecs | - AAC - AIFF - CAF - MP3 - MP4 - WAV |
- AAC - AAX - AAX+ - AC-3 - AIFF - CAF - E-AC-3 - MP3 - MP4 - WAV |
Connectivity
| Modem | Balong 6000 | Snapdragon X71 5G |
| 4G support | LTE Cat. 24 | LTE Cat. 24 |
| 5G support | Yes | Yes |
| Download speed | Up to 7500 Mbps | Up to 10000 Mbps |
| Upload speed | Up to 3500 Mbps | Up to 3500 Mbps |
| Wi-Fi | 7 | 7 |
| Bluetooth | 5.4 | 5.3 |
| Navigation | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC |
Info
| Announced | November 2024 | September 2024 |
| Class | Flagship | Flagship |
| Model number | Hi36C0V110 | APL1V08 |
| Successor | - | - Apple A19 |
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Total votes: 41
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