When Xiaomi launched its Mi 8 Explorer Edition at the start of June this year, the company gave the phone’s transparent cover, which gave a clear view of what it adamantly claimed was the actual placement of the phone’s Snapdragon 845 SoC and the surrounding components. However, a new teardown video posted on YouTube has revealed quite the contrary.
The video, which was originally posted by @ifeng Tech and then translated by Sami Luo, shows the hosts of the video physically tearing down the phone and slowly revealing its innards. At around the 4:10 mark, the host shows that the Snapdragon 845 and its surrounding components seen through the transparent back cover is, in fact, merely another decorative cover that sits atop the actual innards of the phones.
To be fair, you still don’t get to see the phone’s actual PCB; the cover basically lays on top of graphic thermal paste and a metal shielding that actually sits on top of the PCB.
The host also said that the chipset components on the cover had a plastic feeling, but pointed out that the resistors and capacitors attached to it were actually real and looked as if they were attached on to it via SMT packaging techniques.
