Although speculations suggest that Huawei will be launching its new flagship by December, fans may have to wait until early 2017 to get their hands on the new Mate 9.

Huawei has yet to come out with a specific unveiling for its new flagship, and the subsequent release dates for its global rollout will have to adjust. Should Huawei opt for a mid- or late December launch for the upcoming Mate 9, it will mean that the global launch of the new flagship will stretch out to early 2017 since late December generally has the holidays already included. However, if the China-based tech maker decides to launch the new flagship by early December, then the Mate 9 may still make it as a late 2016 release.

Meanwhile, it remains unconfirmed if Huawei will really launch the Mate 9 in December, as most observers agree that it may be much earlier than the rumored schedule. It seems likely, given past iteration launches. The current-generation Mate 9 iteration was launched in November last year and was immediately available in the market. Meanwhile, the previous-generation Mate 7 launched in October 2014 and also made its global rollout during that year.

As Huawei has yet to come out with specific release details, speculations about its specs and features have already made it online. According to speculations, the new Huawei Mate 9 will feature the latest Kirin 960 processor, and will come out with at least 6 GB of RAM. There are also rumors that as a flagship iteration, Huawei will use the same dual-cam setup — this time upping the megapixel count to 20-MP — that the company used for the Huawei P9. It remains unclear, however, if the Mate 9 will also use a Leica-engineered camera setup.

Other purported specs for the Huawei Mate 9 include a back-mounted fingerprint scanner, as well as Android Nougat 7.0, layered with its own Emotion UI.