In front of me I have a brand new Xiaomi Mi6.
You might remember its predecessor, the Xiaomi Mi5 from last year.
*Snap* *Crackle* *Pop*
It ended up on my Shelf of Shame with some other weak smartphones that I’ve tested
in the past.
So let’s hope that Xiaomi has implemented my suggestions from last year’s video and
designed a more solid Mi6 device this year.
Let’s get started.
[Intro]
Right out of the box I’m already a fan of this phone’s design; incredibly glossy and
very very black.
It feels heavy and cold in my hands which is something that my mind instantly associates
with quality.
Xiaomi calls this phone “splash resistant” but they don’t give it an IP rating.
So if it survives my durability test, I’ll open it up and see how water resistant it
really is compared to the Samsungs or new iPhones.
As with all of my durability tests, let’s start with the scratch test.
My Mohs picks help us test the screen for plastic, or for screens with inferior glass,
that would scratch at a level 3 or 4 and be damaged by keys and coins.
On some rare occasions we’ll get to see the ultra premium materials, like sapphire
on the HTC U Ultra that scratched at a level 8.
Normal phones with tempered or Gorilla glass will scratch at a level 6.
In fact, my Mi5 durability video from last year has been viewed by 2 million people,
but only 3 percent of those views are from inside the United States.
The Xiaomi brand is much more popular outside the US than inside.
The glass scratched at a level 6 which means keys and coins will have no effect on the
display and it is pretty durable.
This is on par with other flagships and is actually pretty impressive because the Mi6
is about half the price of a Galaxy S8.
Next comes the fingerprint scanner.
Since cell phones are usually bumping around in your pants pocket or jiggling around inside
of a purse, sometimes the home button can get scratched.
Luckily for the Mi6 though, the scanner is hidden under a glass layer which means that
it is scratch resistant to most objects, including my razor blade.
It does not appear to be ceramic though like the Mi Mix, since there are marks from my
level 6 and 7 picks.
Ceramic won’t scratch until a level 8.
The 8 megapixel front facing camera is covered by the screen glass so it is protected.
And the metal earpiece sits completely flat with the surface of the screen, giving a flush
clean look to the phone.
Hopefully this will also help keep dirt out of the speaker grill since there is no lip
to get caught in.
Now Xiaomi does have a deluxe version of the Mi6 that comes with a ceramic back.
I just have the regular version though with the rear glass panel.
Even with just the glass, my razor blade does no damage at all to the sleek surface or the
Mi Logo.
The Mi6 has two 12 megapixel rear facing cameras, similar to the iPhone 7 Plus set up.
One is a regular lens and the other has a two times optical zoom.
So you can take zoomed in pictures with no image quality lost.
This is actually a pretty cool feature and I’ve found myself using it regularly on
the iPhone 7 Plus when I was testing it out for a few months.
I would like to see it on more phones.
Lucky for the Mi6 everything is covered with that glass, even the two toned flash.
So that definitely gets a thumbs up from me.
Now one of the main problems I had with the Mi5 was the inferior metal alloy that was
used for the phone body.
The lightweight cheap metal and lack of internal mid-frame allowed the phone to snap in half
completely during my bend test.
But, with the Mi6 my razorblade is able to scratch the surface of the metal, but unable
to carve out any shavings on the metal itself.
It is much harder.
The phone has an IR blaster at the top which can be used as a remote control and that’s
pretty cool.
It almost makes up for the lack of upgradable storage.
The dual SIM card tray is metal, but the phone does not allow SD card memory expansion – kind
of a bummer.
Physically I was pretty impressed with this phone right up until I realized there are
not enough holes.
It is missing the headphone jack entirely.
I’m defiantly not a fan of removing still relevant and useful features from cell phones.
Like I said earlier, Xiaomi does claim the phone is flash proof and I’m sure removing
the headphone jack makes sealing the phone much easier for them while keeping the price
low.
It does have a USBC port though, so that’s good.
The Mi6 has a 5.1 inch 1080p IPS LCD display.
This means that the flame from my lighter kills the pixels after about 10 seconds.
The Mi5 had a reaction after 4 seconds.
So Xiaomi more than doubled their apocalyptic response time.
In all seriousness though, this phone might just have thicker glass or a more durable
LCD.
It’s hard to say for sure, but considering this phone has a 31 percent weight increase
over the Mi5, it’s probably using better materials.
Let’s admire the design for just a second in case it’s the last time we get to see
this phone in one piece.
The Mi6 has 4 sided curved glass.
The glass doesn’t just wrap around and fold on one side, like on the S8, it literally
curves in every direction; top, bottom, left, and right, which does make for a pretty darn
good looking phone.
And now for the bend test.
Applying pressure to the back glass yields a small flex in the device, but nothing permanent
and nothing catastrophic.
The phone is still 100 percent functional.
Bending from the display side of the phone has the same effect – nothing.
The phone returns to its original shape.
This device is an absolute winner when it comes to build quality.
An incredibly massive improvement over last year’s Mi5 and it could very well be the
new king in the realm of inexpensive flagships.
I’m definitely not a fan of removing the headphone jack or the SD card slot, but when
it comes to durability, this thing is a champion.
If you enjoyed watching the major quality improvement from the Mi5 to the Mi6, hit that
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Thanks for watching.
I’ll see you around.