HTC is expected to release a new smartphone before this year ends. There are some reports that the upcoming device will be named as the HTC A9 with the codename "Aero," Android Central wrote. Just recently, a new rumor has surfaced about the handset's operating system.

LlabTooFeR, who previously leaked info about HTC's products, recently tweeted that the smartphone will run using Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

"Hima_Aero will run Android 6.0 and Sense 7 GP on the launch..." LlabTooFeR wrote on Twitter.

HTC A9 'Aero' Design & Display

Last August, Steve Hemmerstoffer leaked alleged photos on Twitter of the HTC Aero's design, which bears close resemblance to Apple's iPhone 6. Twitter user @evleaks said that the smartphone will be "classified as an intermediate device" and will be "One" branded.

As translated by Pocket-Lint, Mobile-Dad claimed that the device will have a thinner and enhanced design, with gold and dark grey as the available color variants. Design renders also indicate the absence of the "double chin," which Pocket-Lint describes as "an additional bar at the bottom of the display that currently carries the HTC logo but serves no other purpose (in the past it was the site of capacitive buttons)."

There are suggestions that the HTC Aero will come in with a 2560 x 1440 Quad HD display covered with Gorilla Glass 4, and that it would be a 2.5D display, Pocket-Lint added.

HTC A9 'Aero' Specs

The HTC Aero is said to be powered by a MediaTek Helio X20 10-core processor, Pocket-Lint wrote. The chipset runs eight ARM Cortex A53 cores (at 1.4GHz and 2.0GHz) and two ARM Cortex A72 cores (at 2.5GHz). The handset is also said to have 4GB of RAM, a microSD card slot, a standard 32GB of storage, and a 3,500mAh battery.

As for its camera, Pocket-Lint reported that the HTC Aero will have an f/1.9 aperture and can store photographs as raw files. The HTC One M9+ is equipped with a 20-megapixel camera (similar with the M9), as well as the Duo Camera sensor for extra shooting modes with UltraPixel on the front. It's still unclear whether these features will be present in the Aero.

HTC A9 'Aero' Release Date & Price

HTC CEO Cher Wang that the Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer plans to unveil a "hero" device in October 2015. Another tweet from @evleaks said that the HTC Aero will be released in early November, with Sprint as one of the major networks carrying it. An estimated pricing for the handset is yet to come out.

Note that these are all currently unconfirmed and HTC is yet to issue an official statement.