It is already expected that Huawei will come out with a new flagship later this year. Speculations suggest that the new Mate 9 will offer top-tier specs, including a new iris scanner feature.

According to TechnoBuffalo, reports out of China suggest that one of the new, premium features that the Huawei Mate 9 will offer is an iris scanner. If this turns out to be true, Huawei's new flagship will then go head-to-head with the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, which is the first flagship to come out with the iris scanner option.

Meanwhile, although the iris scanner is a novel feature for the Huawei Mate 9, it is unclear if all the iterations in the lineup will offer the feature or if only premium variant will get it. According to rumors, the Mate 9 will be offered in a base model with 4 GB of RAM, while a top-tier version will carry a massive 6-GB one. Both models will carry the new Kirin 960 chipset inside. Should Huawei decide to feature the iris scanner on just one model, it is likely that the premium, 6-GB RAM variant will get the feature.

Another premium feature that the Mate 9 may get is another Leica co-engineered camera setup, the same as its current-generation P9 flagship. Speculations suggest that Huawei will be partnering with the imaging company for the Mate 9's main camera and will supposedly feature a 20-MP dual cam setup. Should the upgrade happen in the Mate 9, the new flagship will once again set the bar for top-tier specs. When Huawei launched the P9, its Leica-branded setup gathered favorable reviews for top-tier image capture features. The Huawei P9 is deemed to be one of the best smartphone cameras currently out in the market.

Meanwhile, other purported specs for the upcoming Mate 9 include a 256-GB onboard storage for the premium variant as well as Android Nougat 7.0 layered with Huawei's own Emotion UI platform.