While China-based Huawei hopes to continue its partnership with Google for Nexus devices (the company is rumored to be coming back with another Nexus smartphone and a Nexus 7 tablet), the company is not neglecting its own lineup. According to speculations, Huawei will be expanding its high-end, premium smartphone flagships by adding another lineup.

In a report by Phone Arena, it is speculated that the Huawei D8 was hinted at subtly by Huawei's head of smartphone division, He Gang, when he said that the company will be expanding its high-end smartphone lineups next year.

This statement dovetailed with an earlier speculation reported by the industry follower, saying that based on Huawei's roadmap schedule, the D8 lineup is bound to come out in 2016, after another lineup, the Huawei Mate 8, has launched. The Mate 8 launched earlier this month.

While details about the Huawei D8 remain sketchy pending confirmation from the company, industry followers like VR Zone reported that the new flagship might come out with Huawei's rumored next-gen chipset, the Kirin 960.

If the rumors about the new processor are proven true, then the timeline dovetails with the D8 having a 2016 launch date. As Huawei is yet to announce the new processor (as the current-gen Kirin 950 was just recently released), the industry follower said that the Huawei D8 could be the launching pad for the new SoC. This makes the D8 one of Huawei's high-end, premium flagship for 2016.

Aside from an all-new processor, the D8 is also rumored to feature a 5.5-inch Quad HD display with sapphire glass protection, as well as at least 4 GB of RAM inside. Meanwhile, it is still unclear if Huawei will go all the way to make the D8 a high-end smartphone and integrate premium features such as a fingerprint scanner and a sleek, all-metal body similar to the recently launched Mate 8.