We had reported earlier this week about the incoming Honor V40. The official China launch event is Friday 22 January at 10:00 (GMT), which is when the company will show off the new phone for its Chinese audience.

But the story is bigger than that. Not only is the V40 the first Honor phone following the company's split with Huawei, it's also thought to be the first new Honor phone to relaunch in global markets - under the V40 View name - with Google Play Services in tact, meaning Google Play Store should be on board.

We've reached out to Honor for comment, because at present it's an unconfirmed rumour. Furthermore, with the company's software - called Magic UI - based upon Huawei's EMUI re-skin over Google Android, there's the inevitable question mark over the possibility.

As Android is an open source operating system, however, there's no reason for any problems. Honor isn't on a blacklist with the USA, unlike Huawei. And with previous experience it should be as simple as flicking a switch.

If true, then, the forthcoming Honor View V40 could be a mighty appealing phone for the European market. It's got a lot of the Huawei P40 Pro's looks - that curved screen, for example - but with even more advanced features, such as an expected 120Hz screen refresh rate.

We hope to know more soon, as 2021 could be Honor's big global comeback.