The next flagship smartphone from Huawei is coming and if the rumors have any truth to them, it's going to be a very capable device. Leaks on Weibo seem to be indicating that the Huawei Mate 9 will be powered by the manufacturer's in-house HiSilicon Kirin 960 Octa-core 64-bit processor and six gigabytes of RAM. There will allegedly be different versions of the Mate 9 and the 6GB RAM version will sport 256GB of internal storage to go with all that memory and processing power. There could also be a more modest version of the smartphone that will sport the same chipset, but 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal memory. All versions might also be powered by a big 4,000mAh battery.

Camera has been the highlight of the Mate 9 in all recent rumors since they have partnered up with Leica, the German camera maker for providing a rumoured dual camera setup at the back. The two 20-megapixel sensors from Leica will supposedly work together to provide stunning details even in low light, thanks to the f/2.0 aperture. The 5.9-inch (QHD resolution) metal-clad phablet will run on Android 7.0 and the OEM will make sure that customers get a LOT of colors to choose from while buying the smartphone. Apart from the 256GB/6GB version ($700/4700 yuan) and the 128GB/4GB version ($580/3899 yuan), there will also be a more affordable 64GB/4GB version ($480/3199 yuan) as well.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

Apparently, everybody doesn't believe that one flagship per year is enough! The recently released P9 is the king of Huawei smartphones right now, but it is about to be dethroned as Huawei plans to release the Mate 9 by the end of 2016. Phone Arena adds that a late 2016 release is an educated guess because the Mate 8 was indeed revealed towards the end of 2015.

The rumored Kirin 960 SoC will power the device, placing it above the P9, which sports the Kirin 955 chipset. Expectations from the camera department are very high as the rumored 20-megapixel dual sensors at the back will presumably be designed by Leica, who had helped Huawei earlier to build the P9's camera setup as well.

Huawei has never exactly skimped out on power when it comes to the Chinese manufacturer's top-tier handsets, so we expect the Mate 9 to be packed to the gill with the latest hardware. At this point though, it is too early to predict other specifications of the device because even the prototypes are probably not ready yet. Nonetheless, we expect at least 4GB of RAM (if not 6GB) to accompany the Kirin 960, along with a powerful battery, a large display and a next-gen fingerprint sensor.

Author: Saikat Kar (Tech-journalist and enthusiast)