The newly-announced Huawei Mate 10 ships with Android 8.0 Oreo and the new EMUI 8 interface, but Huawei isn't limiting its latest software to just the new releases.

At a meeting at Huawei's headquarters in Shenzhen, China, ahead of today's Mate 10 announcement, the company's software boss told Android Central that updating existing handsets to the new versions is also a priority, while also commenting on security updates and the next version of Android, Android P.

Dr. Wang Chenglu, Huawei's President of Consumer Business Group Software, told AC that Oreo for the Mate 9 will arrive around four weeks after the Mate 10 begins shipping. Assuming the new phone ships within the next month, that should mean unlocked Mate 9s will be upgraded to Oreo before the end of the year.

Dr. Wang confirmed that the Oreo update will bring Google's Project Treble feature to the older phone, potentially accelerating any further updates. In addition to new features in Oreo, Mate 9 owners can look forward to performance improvements in EMUI 8. The company's own internal benchmarks showed a small but significant improvement in responsiveness for the Mate 9 going from 7.0 to 8.0, with a score of 85, up from 79. (The Mate 10 scored 89 in the same tests.)