Motorola is set to launch its first Snapdragon 800 series powered mid-range handset in early 2021, and according to a new leaked image, 'Nio' is the one. That's a code-name, of course. We expect the handset to roll out as a Moto G-branded device, as hinted at by President Sergio Buniac himself. We may even have had a brief glimpse of the new device during the teaser of the company's new desktop mode interface, earlier in the week.

Motorola Nio

Leaker extraordinaire Evan Blass posted the first image of the Motorola "nio" overnight, with a few hints as to what to expect. We'd already established that the device would likely be rocking a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865, first spotted by Techniknews. This puts it on processor-par with the likes of the Xiaomi Mi 10, the Samsung Galaxy S20, and the OnePlus 8. Not bad for a mid-range handset range! Also said to be included are a 5,000mAh battery and "at least" 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. It should run Android 11 out of the box, and offer Displayport Alternate Mode via the USB-C charging port, to allow connection to a monitor for that DeX-alike Desktop Mode. It's not yet known if the wired connection will be mandatory or if something like Miracast will offer a wire-free option, but there will be an option to connect wirelessly to a Windows 10 machine via FreeRDP. There's no detail on the display from Evan, but we're expecting that this could be the phone with that odd 105Hz refresh rate that we reported on a few days ago, too. It'll also have a 6.7-inch display at a resolution of 2520x1080 according to our information.

So far, that's all we've been able to glean from Evan's post and the stuff we'd already gathered. It's too early to speculate on a full spec sheet (though the double punch-hole front camera hasn't escaped our notice), and as of yet, there's no information about pricing or availability. We'd expect to hear something more official from Motorola in the early months of 2021.