If you live in the UK, US or Australia then you might've heard of Xiaomi phones without seeing one in the (metal) flesh - the Chinese manufacturer sold 61 million handsets in 2014 though has yet to release a single one in Western markets.

All that could be about to change with the arrival of its next flagship phone (presumably called the Xiaomi Mi 5) later this month. Xiaomi has scheduled a press conference for January 15 where it's expected to unveil the handset.

So what do we know about it? Officially, only that it's new and that it's going to be thinner than an insect's wings (according to the teaser poster) - so probably very, very thin then.

International expansion

Unofficially, plenty of leaked photos and specs lists have been floating around on the web. There's talk of a Snapdragon 810 processor, 3GB RAM, a 4K 5.7-inch display, 4G LTE support and a 20.7-megapixel camera, but how informed those leaks are remains to be seen. A price of CNY1,999 (about $320, £210, AU$400) has been mooted.

It'll definitely be slim though, and quite possibly mark Xiaomi's expansion into new markets, as we speculated last month - with strong domestic performance the firm can now afford to dip a toe into the international waters.

There were indications that the Mi 5 (the successor to the Mi 4) would be shown off at CES but that hasn't happened - all eyes will now be on Beijing on Thursday the 15th.