We can all agree that teardowns reveal more than what we already know. Some OEMs have secrets that need to be uncovered. Without the companies showing off the insides of the smartphones or whatever products in their lineup, we won’t know how they are designed and how the components are laid out inside. Checking out the innards of a phone can be helpful so we’ll know how to care for it or repair in the future. Most teardown treatments we’ve seen reveal repairability while others show some anomalies inside. Well, they’re not really harmful but more often than not, they give us an idea about the integrity and work ethic of a brand.
A couple of months ago, Xiaomi introduced the Mi 8. The new phone quickly hit DxOMark and joined the big leagues. We noted the transparent back but once thought it might be fake.
The Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer Edition is the transparent version. It’s not clear transparent but more of black translucent. One tech channel on YouTube (Sami Luo) just made its own teardown analysis of the smartphone and discovered many interesting facts.
The transparent back panel that recently made us scratch our heads shows the beauty inside but apparently, that Qualcomm Snapdragon processor you see there isn’t real. If it’s not a real chip then what is it? It’s not a sticker either. It’s simply a fake circuit board.
So yes, it’s fake. As we noted before, not everything about the Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer Edition isn’t real. At this point, we’re considering it only as a decor.
Opening the smartphone isn’t too difficult though if you’ve done something like this before. Remove the glass back cover and then you will see the fake unit right away. Take it out and you will see the real processor.
We’re guessing Xiaomi won’t like this discovery but we want to know it has to resort to showing off fake components. Well, that’s just it: all for show.
VIA: Sami Luo
