Mumblings from China are suggesting that the first 10 CPU core smartphone could be the as yet unannounced Elephone P9000. According to the source, the handset will feature MediaTek’s Helio X20 SoC and is rumored to have a launch date scheduled for this October.

Back in May, MediaTek officially announced its deca-core Helio X20 chip for mobile, which features a tri-cluster CPU configuration of two heavy duty ARM Cortex-A72 cores clocked at 2.5GHz, a medium performance quad-core Cortex-A53 group clocked at 2.0GHz, and a further power efficient quad-core A53 group clocked at just 1.4GHz.

The Helio X20 caused a bit of a stir after its launch, with many questioning the performance, energy consumption and even the theoretical multi-core use cases of MediaTek’s latest design choice. Anyone still unsure on the subject should have a read of our latest dissection of the octa-core Exynos 7420. The more sceptical also wondered if this is just a marketing gimmick by MediaTek and we’ll have to wait and see if the chip can live up to its promises.

Regardless, the X20 chip isn’t just about squeezing more CPU cores into small gadgets. It also comes with a GPU from ARM’s latest high-end Mali-T880 generation, supports Category 6 LTE data speeds, and can manage dual image sensors or a single sensor up to 34MP. According to the rumor, Elephone will be making use of many of these high end features for the P9000. The X20 is to be built on a 20nm manufacturing node, meaning that it will be smaller and more efficient than MediaTek’s previous 28nm designs.

The Elephone P9000 smartphone is expected to arrive with a 5.5-inch 1080p display, 4GB of RAM, a 20.7MP front facing camera and 8MP rear camera. The handset is also rumored to feature a 3,100mAh battery, 32GB of internal storage with microSD card slot, and dual-SIM compatibility with 4G, making it a competitive high-end design.

The P9000 could cost around $500 upon release and is expected to launch in various regions on October 20th. What do you think about this rumor?