Earlier in December, some images purporting to be the 2017 Motorola Moto X appeared online. Now, some renders of the same device have surfaced, from usually reliable Twitter user @OnLeaks, and they look strikingly similar to the in-the-wild photos. While it's not set in stone that it will be called the Moto X (2017), no other names have been suggested and it's likely it will be a mid-range phone.

The first thing that's obvious from the renders is the lack of pins on the rear, which all but confirms this won't be a replacement for the flagship Moto Z. While we didn't think the modules were a success for the Moto Z, we expect Motorola to carry them on with the next model whenever it arrives.

Another thing the images and video appear to show is a Micro USB port and 3.5mm headphone port. While it's conceivable for the Moto X (2017) to retain the headphone port - we can't expect all phones to migrate to USB Type-C for audio - but it is a little strange for the phone to stick with Micro USB at least. However, since these are just renders and not official images, we'll take them with a pinch of salt for now.

The oval-shaped home button/fingerprint scanner is still on the front, but the Micro SD slot has moved from the side to the top and the screen is likely to be 5.2-inch, with the larger 5.5-inch reserved for the flagship Moto Z series.

There's no official word on when we can expect to see the Moto X (2017) revealed. Some fingers are pointing to CES 2017 next week, but if not it should be seen at MWC in February.