The Xiaomi 12 series was confirmed by the company's CEO, Lei Jun, as the first flagship to feature Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 platform. But little else was revealed back in early December.

Now, however, a leaked case for the Xiaomi 12 Ultra - i.e. the top-end product in the series - reveals what looks like a hyper-complex rear camera setup that's a total departure from the earlier Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra handset.

That's not a total surprise: back in mid November we reported that the Xiaomi 12 was likely to ditch the rear display of its predecessor, instead opting for a different design. And this leaked image from GizmoChina certainly supports that rumour.

So what can you expect from the Xiaomi 12 UItra's rear camera setup? There are no fewer than eight openings to the rear, but we don't expect these to all be camera related. The circular design is very much in-keeping with 2021 style, but some of those openings are likely to be for a microphone and flash - so not all cameras.

Rumour has is that the 12 Ultra will feature a 50-megapixel Samsung GN5 main sensor - not the 200MP Samsung sensor as first thought - along with a trio of 48MP snappers to cater for 2x, 5x and 10x zoom. A fifth sensor could be for wide-angle, while a sixth could be for time-of-flight (ToF).

It's worth noting that the Xiaomi 12 Pro and entry-level Xiaomi 12 designs are entirely different, meaning the 12 Ultra will very much stand out on its own. We suspect the product to have a late-December China reveal, with international launch to follow in the first quarter of 2022. So we'll know more as and when the information is official and verified by Xiaomi proper.