A star is born: Insiders confirm that a new Xiaomi Mi Mix flagship is on the way

The rumour mill for the next Mi Mix smartphone is hotting up. Last month, renowned leaker Sudhanshu Ambhore, who goes by @Sudhanshu1414 on Twitter, posted a screenshot of an Alipay rental page that listed the hitherto unknown Xiaomi Mi Mix 4. He has since confirmed that the smartphone is codenamed 'Hercules', after Mishaal Rahman, the Editor in Chief of XDA Developers, posted information about the Roman God namesake on Twitter.

Xiaomi will reportedly market the Hercules as the Mi Mix 3s or Mi Mix 4, but the device will be the Chinese manufacturer's next Mi Mix flagship. Rahman claims that his information about the smartphone comes from source code, although he has stressed that some of the specifications he has reported may be "subject to error due to interpretation". So, take the following with a healthy amount of scepticism, but this is what we know about the Mi Mix 3s/4 so far:

• SoC: Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
• Cameras: 60 MP, triple rear-facing sensors and single front-facing sensor
• Biometric authentication: In-screen fingerprint scanner
• Charging: Qi wireless
• Display: Foldable
• Release date: Second half of 2019

Interestingly, Xiaomi is seemingly switching from the dual front-facing cameras with which it equipped the Mi Mix 3 to a single sensor for its successor. Moreover, the Chinese manufacturer will ditch the sliding mechanism too, which is one of the stand-out features of its current Mi Mix. Additionally, it would be odd for Xiaomi to have two Mi Mix devices on the market that are both powered by the Snapdragon 855, what with the recent release of the Mi Mix 3 5G. If all true, the Mi Mix 3s/4 will be a step away from the Mi Mix 3 rather than an evolutional of it, as is usually the case with 's' named devices. Either way, the next Mi Mix looks to be shaping up as another market disruptor for Xiaomi.