The next-gen version of Huawei's robust Mate 8 phablet — the much-rumored Mate 9 — is in the news again. The Android-powered smartphone has been spotted on a benchmarking site, which offers a peek into the handset's specs.
Huawei is poised to release new devices at the upcoming IFA 2016 and has a press event slated for Sept. 1. The OEM is widely rumored to be working on the successor of its Mate 8 phablet, but it's not likely to be unwrapped at the IFA 2016.
This news was confirmed in June by Bruce Lee, Huawei's Mobile Product manager. Lee revealed that the Mate 9's debut at the IFA 2016 would be too early for the company.
Now, a mysterious Huawei smartphone — believed to be the Mate 9 — has surfaced on the GFXBench database and reveals the upcoming handset's specs.
The GFXBench listing was first spotted by Dutch publication Telefoonabonnement on Aug. 10.
"The above benchmark we have discovered today and looking at the specifications, it could hardly be otherwise than that this should go Huawei's latest flagship (translated)," asserted the publication.
The listing of the impending Huawei flagship points to a 5.9-inch Full HD screen with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels for the device. Under the hood, the Mate 9 will supposedly house an octa-core HiSilicon Hi3660 processor, which is clocked at 2.6 GHz. The chipset's higher speed seems to suggest it is more robust than the Kirin 955, which clocks in at 2.5 GHz.
In April, Tech Times reported that analyst Pan Jiutang had noted that the Huawei Mate 9 would possibly be powered by the Kirin 960 SoC, which would support CDMA and LTE Category 12 speeds. The benchmark points to a Mali-T880 GPU for the Mate 9. A previous leak from Huawei vendor Gizok also hinted at a Kirin 960 SoC, but coupled with a Mali-T900 GPU for the Mate 9.
The listing also points to the Huawei smartphone housing 4 GB of RAM, as well as 64 GB of on-board storage.
The benchmark reveals an 11-megapixel primary camera (read: 12-megapixel) for the smartphone, with 4K video support. The Mate 9 will also come with a 7-megapixel (read: 8-megapixel) camera for selfie lovers. Previous rumors and estimates have hinted at a dual 20-megapixel rear-facing camera for the Huawei smartphone.
The Mate 9's listing also reveals that the smartphone will come pre-loaded with the latest Android 7.0 Nougat OS.
Considering that Android N will be released by Google in August, the Mate 9 could be one of the first devices from the company to boast the new OS.
A possibility exists that Huawei could launch the Mate 9 flagship in time for the holiday season or the end of this year, as estimated by analysts.
