It’s time to tear down the Mi Mix – the new bezel-less smartphone from Xiaomi.
As you can see this phone has no earpiece.
I’ll explain how and even let you hear the audio quality of a phone call later in this
video as well.
Let’s see what this thing is made of.
[Intro]
Remember that this whole phone is made out of ceramic, a super hard and brittle material
that scratches at an “8” on Moh’s Scale of Hardness.
Because of this, this back is actually pretty hard to remove.
Even though there is no adhesive, it is held in place by a series of snaps and since the
frame and back don’t flex, my thin pry tool struggles to get inside.
I was eventually successful though and the back panel pops right off.
It’s nice not having to use a heat gun for a change.
The fingerprint scanner has an accordion style ribbon cable attaching it to the motherboard
so be careful not to rip that.
There are 10 regular Philips head screws holding down the plastic shield over the main board.
Keep your screws organized and I’ll be linking a tool kit and replacement parts in the video
description of this video.
Once that protective plastic is off the main board we can unclip the fingerprint scanner
just like a little Lego.
Then the rear flash and camera lens on the back panel are also replaceable at this point.
It is important to disconnect the battery first.
Then we have the screen ribbon on the left, and the front camera and the power button
ribbons, and the extension ribbon for the charging port all unsnapping like little Legos.
This clear plastic is also the earpiece right here along the edge, and I’ll get to that
in just a second.
To remove the 4300 milliamp hour battery it has some of the magical pull tabs at the bottom
that easily slide out the adhesive from underneath the battery.
Unfortunately these are also very easy to break and if they do break, you must commence
the pry of shame, taking immense care not to puncture or bend the battery during this
pry…because the batteries do catch fire when punctured.
Also watch out for these extension ribbons underneath the battery if you’re wanting
your phone to still function after the battery removal.
Here’s the rear 16 megapixel camera for the Mi Mix, and judging by the fact that the
lens does not move around inside of its housing like on the Galaxy or newer iPhones, I’m
going to say that it does not have IOS which is unfortunate.
Xiaomi has used OIS on some of their other phones though.
One more wire cable to remove and then there is a little screw holding in the vibrating
piezoelectric earpiece.
I should have taken out the SIM card tray before I started this teardown, but sometimes
I get a little too excited.
The motherboard is held down by a little latch on the top left corner so unclip that and
the motherboard pops out.
Now you can see where the processor sits and some of the thermal rubber stuff to help the
heat dissipation.
Let’s look at this piece of electric speaker.
This is the thing that makes noise by vibrating the actual frame of the phone.
So during a phone call, no matter where your ear is along the frame on either side, front
or back of the phone, you can hear sound emanating from the device.
It’s rather weird.
I knew the most asked comment in the comments section would be “Hey Jerry!
How does this vibrating earpiece sound?”
So, don’t worry.
I’m going to let you hear it for yourself.
So this is what the earpiece sounds like from the iPhone 7.
This is the standard earpiece that has a little tiny speaker inside and this is what most
every Android and iPhone have inside of them.
And this is what the Piezoelectric speaker sounds like inside of the Mi Mix.
This speaker is making sounds by just vibrating a little bit.
It doesn’t actually have a speaker inside of it like most other phones do.
So now you can tell the sound difference between the two phones.
While both speakers are clear and understandable, to me the Mi Mix sounds a little bit like
the other person is on speaker phone when they actually aren’t.
But it’s still a pretty cool invention and its fun to see innovation in the cell phone
world.
The charging port shroud is held down by 5 more screws.
I’ll remove that.
The shroud has a loud speaker attached to it as well.
Unclip two more ribbon cables and the signal wire and we get to look at the bottom microphone
and the USB-C charging port.
It’s nice that the charging port is replaceable.
The 5 megapixel front facing camera is also down here at the bottom of the phone, strangely
enough, and it has the longest ribbon cable that I have ever seen attached to a camera.
It wraps all the way up the side phone to the main board above the battery.
Pretty crazy.
One of the things I mentioned during my drop test video was that the ceramic frame of the
phone would be damaged easily during drops.
The good news is that the frame is absolutely replaceable, with 12 silver screws holding
it in place it can pop off from the frame of the screen.
Replacement parts for this phone are going to be hard to find since this phone is limited
production, but it’s good to know that Xiaomi is planning for the future if they mass produce
ceramic phones.
The frame is replaceable.
Very smart.
They really need to include a rubber barrier between the frame and the screen though to
minimize damage transferred to the front glass during drops.
Speaking of the screen, this is it.
It is adhered to the mid-frame and hopefully Xiaomi will sell replacement screens already
attached to the mid-frame, but if they don’t, you’ll have to remove the old display from
the mid-frame and attach the mid-frame to the new screen.
I’ll link any replacement parts that I find in the video description, but like I said
before, they are going to be difficult to find.
I’ll get those 12 screws around the ceramic frame in place, and then the charging port
can go back in its slot.
Down here at the bottom microphone holes, most of them are for decoration.
The mic only fills one hole so make sure that particular hole is never plugged up.
Get that wire cable plugged in along with the two ribbons next to it and the front facing
camera.
The plastic loud speaker and it’s 5 screws go down on top of that, then the piece of
electric speaker gets set down before the motherboard does.
There is a little pin and a screw hole that guide it in place.
The motherboard can be set down after that.
Clipping in the wire cable, the extension ribbon down to the charging port, the screen
ribbon, and the power button ribbon, and the front camera ribbon.
Then the rear camera can also get snapped in, and finally, the battery.
Before putting the protective plastic layer in place, make sure that the fingerprint scanner
is also clipped in just like a little Lego. 10 screws later and you can take the ceramic
back and snap that into place.
Make sure that the phone is working first because getting the back panel off if you
forgot something is a real chore.
Overall the Xiaomi Mi Mix has a solid build.
The earpiece is very interesting and I’m super glad that the ceramic frame can be replaced.
I wish the camera had OIS, but at least the phone is good looking.
My channel is full of teardown reviews like this one.
Bonus points for following me on Instagram and Twitter.
I post my behind the scenes stuff over there.
Thanks a ton for watching!
I’ll see you around.