The Xiaomi Mi 11 will launch 28 December 2020 - as the first flagship phone to feature Qualcomm's top-tier Snapragon 888 platform with integrated 5G connectivity.

Seeing as Snapdragon 888 has always been penned as a 2021 product, Xiaomi sure is keen to acquire that 'first!' for the launch of the Mi 11, releasing far ahead of the originally anticipated February 2021 launch cycle (probably due to Mobile World Congress now being out of sync).

It's official, too, as revealed in a Weibo post and from Xiaomi's Senior Product Marketing Manager via Twitter.

But what do we know about the actual phone? There are a handful of rumours, but not much thus far.

The follow-up to the Mi 10, the Mi 11 is expected to initally arrive in two variants: the Mi 11 and Mi 11 Pro. It's likely a Mi 11 Lite will arrive later down the line, while the Mi 11T series will probably follow around six months on, as is typical for Xiaomi's launch cycles.

The Mi 11 is expected to have a flat-edged screen, while the Mi 11 Pro is said to have a curved-edge display to every side. Size, resolution and refresh rate aren't known at this moment, there's only rumour of dynamic HDR (high dynamic range) application.

The Mi 11 is thought to have a triple rear camera, the Mi 11 Pro upping that to a quad rear camera. The thinking here is that the Pro will add a periscope zoom lens for proper optical zoom with a reach beyond the standard model. Otherwise both are expected to have a 50-megapixel main camera, 12MP wide-angle, and 48MP zoom.

Everything will of course become clear on 28 December - well, if you're not full of turkey sandwiches and watching Christmas movies - following the China-only launch. The global launch is likely to occur in early 2021.