Subway Strikes Back: Xiaomi 12 leaked in the wild

Xiaomi went ahead of its usual schedule last year unveiling the Xiaomi 11 in December shortly after the Snapdragon 888 SoC announcement. The actual sales, however, only opened in January 2021, and the device took more time to reach global markets. Despite this, one could expect Xiaomi 12 to go official at the end of this year, or perhaps, at the very beginning of 2022. Apparently, this is exactly what is going to happen as the device has been a target of multiple rumors and leaks. Today, we get live images of the upcoming flagship.

Another smartphone spotted in the Subway

Interestingly, the leak confirms a center-aligned punch-hole for the new flagship. Xiaomi has been using the side-aligned cutouts in its flagship lineup but changed this with the Xiaomi 11T series. We may see the Xiaomi 12 series sticking with this new placement as well.

According to leaks, the Xiaomi 12 will come with an exceptionally high screen-to-body ratio. The device will also come with a punch-hole camera, but this time around it will be much smaller than its predecessor. Interestingly, the device was already spotted on BIS certification. In fact, it's preparing the terrain for a release in the Indian market. So we wouldn't be surprised to see the Xiaomi 12 being unveiled in December this year.

Xiaomi 12 may be revealed in December

One time that the device is expected to debut with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 898 SoC, we assume that Xiaomi will wait until this chipset's announcement to start teasing its flagship. Qualcomm may bring its new flagship chipset based on the 4 nm architecture in December. That's the usual schedule for Snapdragon Summit events. The chipmakers are having troubles in keeping the stocks amidst the chipset crisis, but nothing can prevent them from, at least, announcing new chipsets.

If the Xiaomi 12 is really coming in December, we can expect the sales to start by the end of the year or early in January. The device may remain the only flagship for a couple of weeks, or for at least one month. After all, recent rumors have been pointing to a delay in the Galaxy S22 series release.