Xiaomi wowed its audience yesterday when it introduced the Mi 8 Explorer Edition and its see-through back panel. The transparent cover shows what appears to be the phone’s Snapdragon 845 SoC and its surrounding components; although skeptics points out that it could just be visual trickery. Xiaomi, however, claims that it’s the real deal.
Twitter user Chengming Alpert claimed that the components around the SoC were too far away from each other, and that there were no graphite or other pipe / wire / cable for thermals. All of which meant that the layout is probably fake; and that people were being fooled by Xiaomi.
The reason for that: the S845 can't be in that position; all the components around is too far away from each other; no graphite or other pipe/wire/cable for thermal.
— Alpert7 (@Alpertcr7) May 31, 2018
In response, Xiaomi told The Verge that “the transparent back on Mi 8 Explorer Edition is indeed made of transparent glass, and there isn’t a sticker with a picture on it. The parts that you see on the back upper half, for example, are parts of the actual mainboard.”
Having said that, Alpert’s skepticism is understandable. HTC’s latest U12+ is another phone that comes with a see-through back panel, but it doesn’t showcase its components in as much detail as the Mi 8 Explorer Edition. Not to mention the limited amount of exposure the public gets to seeing what the internal layout of smartphones really looks like.
