The Moto X Gen 4 could come equipped with some useful technology when it is eventually released.

According to the Chinese website TechWeb and as reported on by NDTV, the next generation Motorola smartphone could end up having a heat pipe installed to aid with cooling it down.

The Chinese website points to a prototype of the Moto X Gen 4 featuring the heat pipe as evidence that next year's model will also be sporting the same type of technology. It's currently unclear if the prototype being shown off actually came from Motorola.

Adding a new heat pipe would certainly seem to be beneficial to any new smartphone, given the increasing demands put on the internal components of these units.

The Moto X Gen 4 will also reportedly feature Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 chipset upon being released, according to GSM Arena.

Aside from rumors of a new heat pipe being featured in next year's Motorola offering, there have also been rumblings pointing to the possible inclusion of a fingerprint scanner in the upcoming Moto X smartphone. There's not a lot of details regarding this other rumored component of the next generation Moto X smartphone, so those eager to find out how Motorola will be employing the new technology will have to stick around for more updates.

As for the other specs and features of the Moto X Gen 4, rumors have unfortunately been scant thus far, and with most of the online chatter focusing on the iPhone 7 and the Galaxy S7, it seems unlikely that more details will come out, with the phone still presumably months away.

Speaking of a possible release date for the Moto X Gen 4, rumors currently suggest that the phone will likely be released in the second quarter of 2016, which could translate to more specific details regarding the upcoming Motorola offering being made available around the early part of next year.