Huawei Gains Share on Enjoy 90 Series Momentum and Supply Chain Resilience
- Memory prices continue to rise, prompting smartphone OEMs to pass rising costs on to consumers through price hikes across both new and legacy models.
- In contrast, Huawei has maintained pricing stability and further expanding into the mid-to-low-end segment.
- The entry-level Enjoy 90 series delivered strong sales performance, supporting market share gains, driven by its large battery capacity and smooth system experience.
- Huawei’s outperformance in the memory crisis reflects structural strengths, including a localized supply chain that mitigates cost volatility and greater pricing flexibility to absorb short-term margin pressure.
Amid sharply rising memory prices, many smartphone OEMs have reduced SKUs and raised prices on selected legacy models to offset mounting cost pressure. In contrast, Huawei has taken a counter-cyclical approach by maintaining stable pricing while introducing the entry-level Enjoy 90 series. Notably, this marks Huawei’s first move to extend its 5G-enabled Kirin chipsets into entry-level models, signaling a further down-tiering of its in-house silicon and reinforcing its push into the mid-to-low-end segment. According to Counterpoint Research’s China weekly tracker, Huawei Enjoy 90 Pro Max delivered significantly stronger sales performance, helping the brand further expand its domestic market share.
China Smartphone Market Share by OEMs

Notes: OPPO includes OnePlus and realme, vivo includes iQOO; Week 12: 20260316-20260322; OVH means OPPO, vivo and HONOR; Huawei Enjoy 90 Pro Max/Plus went on sale on April 2.
The Enjoy 90 series is clearly positioned to target practical, entry-level users, where reliability and usability outweigh peak specifications. Rather than competing on flagship-grade performance or advanced imaging, it focuses on the core experience pillars that matter most in this segment—long battery life, consistent system performance, and visual comfort. These features directly address the needs of value-driven users, whose usage scenarios require durable, stable devices that can perform reliably over long periods without frequent charging or performance degradation.
- All-day Battery Life: The Enjoy 90 series establishes a strong competitive advantage in its price segment through large-capacity batteries. The Pro Max, in particular, features Huawei’s largest-ever 8,500mAh battery, enabling up to two days of typical use on a single charge. Battery life is especially critical in the entry and mid-range segments, where use cases such as navigation, delivery, and outdoor work require sustained, uninterrupted operation.
- Smooth System Performance: Powered by Huawei’s self-developed Kirin 8000 chipset and HarmonyOS 6, the Enjoy 90 Pro Max benefits from deep hardware–software integration. This results in improved system smoothness (up ~64%) and overall performance (up ~38%). System-level resource scheduling enables consistent performance across multitasking and prolonged usage, reducing lag and minimizing performance variability compared to devices that rely primarily on hardware upgrades.
- Enhanced Visual Experience: The Enjoy 90 Pro Max features a 6.84-inch 1.5K OLED flat display with a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. Eye comfort is a key highlight, supported by up to 3840Hz high-frequency PWM dimming at lower brightness levels, which helps reduce perceived flicker and delivers a more comfortable viewing experience.
Huawei’s first deployment of its self-developed 5G Kirin chipset in the entry-level product line marks a key milestone. It is also the first time since the 2020 sanctions that Huawei has achieved full price-tier coverage and independent supply with its in-house silicon. This indicates that the company has moved beyond the supply recovery phase into a stage of strategic normalization and scale expansion, with tighter hardware–software integration enhancing overall product competitiveness.
Against the backdrop of rising memory prices and industry-wide cost pressure, Huawei’s relative outperformance in the current memory cycle is not accidental, but structurally driven by its localized supply chain, stronger cost absorption capability, and balanced product portfolio.
- Supply chain resilience: Huawei’s deeper integration with domestic suppliers helps it better mitigate DRAM and NAND price volatility, reducing exposure to global memory supply shocks and enhancing overall cost stability across product cycles.
- Pricing stability: Compared with peers that are forced to pass on cost increases to end users, Huawei has built up memory inventory in advance and retains greater flexibility to absorb short-term margin pressure, enabling it to maintain relatively stable pricing during the downturn phase.
- Brand and channel strength: Huawei benefits from a strong premium brand perception in China and a highly efficient offline network. This allows it to maintain solid demand resilience in the high-end segment while effectively amplifying reach in mass-market channels, translating structural advantages into sustained shipment performance even under cost pressure.
However, this pricing stance is unlikely to be sustained over the long term. While Huawei can currently absorb higher costs to support market share, price increases in the second half of the year become more probable if memory prices continue to climb.
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Author
Shiwen Ma
Shiwen is a research analyst specializing in the smartphone market, based in Shenzhen, China. Prior to joining Counterpoint Research, Shiwen served SDIC securities as a TMT euqity analyst.