JerryRigEverything’s Zack Nelson is renowned for his durability testing and gadget teardowns, so it’s no surprise to hear that he has tried to smash Xiaomi phones before. This recording brings out the obvious trends: Cheaper phones aren’t as durable as mid to high-end phones. So how will the Mi 11 behave? Not too bad, for the sake of brevity.

For the warmth we get from these new phones, the industrial design hasn’t fundamentally changed over the years, and neither have Nelson’s reviews. You can watch the video above or scroll down to see the conclusions if you don’t have time.

  • The phone, in its TrimsGlass variants, is equipped with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus and a frosted glass panel held by a metal frame. The rear cameras are protected by transparent glass, presumably more Victus.
  • As with almost all other types of glass, the screen glass scores at about level 6 on the Mohs mineral hardness scale. Do not rub sand on it.
  • Nelson put his lighter flame on the OLED screen for 20 seconds before removing it. By this time, the burnt out diodes were able to recover somewhat, but were clearly damaged beyond being able to return to normal.
  • For the bend test, the phone creaked slightly, but if there was any damage it was definitely not visible.

The lack of money in build quality seems to lie in reproducing that ‘premium’ look on budget devices leading to structural compromises. It kind of makes us miss out on smarter polycarbonate designs like that of the Pocophone F1, a Xiaomi brand.