Although a release is still likely a few months away, reports from China have already begun discussing likely components and designs for the Huawei Mate 9. What’s perhaps most interesting about these early rumors is that they point to a handset powered by the company’s next generation processing package and a high resolution dual rear camera configuration.

According to the rumor, the Mate 9 will be the first smartphone powered by HiSilicon’s Kirin 960 processor. Huawei’s Mate series has often be used to debut the company’s latest mobile processor technology. Unfortunately we don’t know anything official about this chip right now, although it will likely feature four Cortex-A73 cores and four lower power Cortex-A53s in a familiar big.LITTLE design. The chip is also expected to be manufactured on TSMC’s 16nm process, just like its predecessor, but the new CPU cores could allow for higher clock speeds.

The dual camera configuration is said to be built from two high resolution 20 megapixel sensors. It’s not clear if Huawei will be building on the P9’s monochrome 12 megapixel camera design, although this is the anticipated layout, or if the company will by trying something new for the Mate 9. The cameras are also rumored to come with optical image stabilization technology this time around. Oddly enough, this rumor was accompanied by a picture of a modified Mate 8, so treat its legitimacy with some scepticism.

The Huawei Mate 8 launched back in November last year, while the Mate 7 appeared in October. Some analysts are predicting that the Mate 9 will make an appearance in December, so it might just be best to expect a release sometime mid way though the fourth quarter. What would you like to see from Huawei’s Mate 9?