The Xiaomi 12 series of smartphones were officially launched in China at the end of last year but there have been few clues since as to when they might be available globally.

Well. according to a leaked marketing invite/save-the-date it shouldn't be too long now. It shows that Xiaomi plans to launch the international editions of its 12X, 12 and 12 Pro handsets on 15 March 2022.

First posted by Dutch website Android Planet (but subsequently removed on request by Xaiomi itself), the official-looking invite points to an online event under the tagline "master every scene". It also claims the Xiaomi 12 series is "the answer to all".

As well as a date, the start time for the event is listed as 20:00 GMT.

Certainly, Xiaomi requesting its removal is as good a sign as any that it's the real deal. We're a little surprised the company didn't want to schedule the stream to coincide with Mobile World Congress 2022, currently underway in Barcelona. But then, many others have opted to host events in their own time of late. Take the Samsung Galaxy S22 launch, for example.

In terms of what we expect, the 12 and 12 Pro will surely make it to Europe and further afield. The cheaper 12X too. We might not yet see the rumoured Xiaomi 12 Ultra until later this year, however.