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How Durable is a Sliding Phone? - Xiaomi Mi Mix 3

2019-01-16
the me makes three slid into the flagship playing field played last year so I hope you don't mind me sliding it into your sub box right now I'll slide my razor blade through the top plastic to convince the unboxing and then slide the top half of the box off revealing the xiaomi me makes three a non motorized sliding phone with hidden cameras between the two sliding halves can a sliding phone be durable let's get started this is one of the more interesting phones have come across lately last year was full of surprising new ways to hide the front-facing cameras and get rid of notches my favorite being d motorized pop-up cameras like on the vivo NEX s this non motorized magnetic sliding foam is another pretty valid solution sliding leaves us with a wide open no notch display I'm a fan xiaomi has tested this slider over three hundred thousand times with no damage done to the mechanism being a Xiaomi professional phone slider has got to be a fun job the mean x3 is one of the cheaper flagships these days and interesting Li enough in the Box Xiaomi has still included a full on wireless charging pad which is super nice of them an awesome example of a smart phone manufacturer making it easy to transition into a wireless ecosystem Apple on the other hand announced their version of wireless charging almost two years ago and we still haven't seen it yet maybe someday they'll catch up let's start with the scratch test you know how it works I have a set of Mohs mineral hardness picks with different tips on the ends these tell us what the screen is made from plastic scratches at level three while glass doesn't start scratching till level six and we should see ceramic and sapphires start scratching at level eight or nine getting a close-up look at the screen we can see scratches appearing at level six with deeper grooves at level seven this puts us on par with most of the other tempered glass screen flagships let's check out the front cameras on the sliding portion covered with glass there should be no scratch marks from the constant sliding motions there are two cameras a 24 megapixel and a 2 megapixel capable of doing that blurry portrait mode background thing even while shooting video which is interesting there's a flash tucked in here on the right as well the speaker grille is made for metal the grill on the top display portion of the slider just allows the sound to pass through from the actual speaker below in the body of the phone the lower grille is also very secure and won't be falling out on its own if we shine some light through the two halves of the phone we can see there is some distance between the screen and the body this is good so that there's no direct rubbing on the camera lenses but it does leave the gap more vulnerable to something like a grain of sand or dirt getting caught inside and jamming things up it'll be interesting to see how this slider phone holds up over time and in everyday life with Pocket lint and dirt there are obviously two halves to a sliding phone the top half containing the display is surrounded by plastic the bottom half of the phone is made from aluminum leaving us with a shiny metal scratch mark underneath the black paint this button up here on the left side is a metal customisable button it can launch Google assistant turn on the camera or start the flashlight thumbs up to show me for customizability it also has a dual SIM card tray but zero water resistance a phone with this many openings and surfaces makes it basically impossible to keep water out the top of the phone is made from metal along with the right side power button and volume rocker the bottom of the phone has no headphone jack but does have a USB C and one last figure the Xiaomi me mix series has always had pretty solid build quality and materials the original me mix having an impressive full ceramic body the stem around the fingerprint scanner is invincible so we're off to a good start and it looks like this rib texture on the other side is going to give the may 20 pro some competition for the most musical phone award so ceramic and glass might feel the same but they're actually totally different materials ceramic being a much harder and more scratch resistant even with my level 6 7 & 8 picks we don't see any major damage until level 8 with the faint marks at level 7 much better than a slap of glass six hardness for how inexpensive this phone is the materials accessories and functionality are impressive the camera lens is made from glass with dual 12 megapixel sensors one normal and one telephoto so far this phone is checking all the right boxes let's see what the screen is made from I always could just look it up on Xiaomi website to see what they say but lighters are just so much more fun after about 20 seconds of flame on the six point four inch naturalist display the results are in a white non recovering burn mark right in the center means AMOLED which makes sense LED displays are much thinner than LCD displays and thinness as a factor with the two sliding halves speaking of thinness discovering how well these two halves hold up under pressure is an integral part of my durability test it's time for the bend I was nervous about this one since there are more moving parts than a normal smartphone would have I thought this might be weak and while it does have some flex it's still surprisingly sturdy no creeks or cracks and more importantly no damaged parts the Xiaomi me mix is a well-constructed solid device with premium materials and a wireless charger included in the box Xiaomi is definitely looking out for their customers with this one and it passes my durability test the Xiaomi me mix is a win it'll be interesting to take it apart and see how that magnetic slider contraption looks on the inside it subscribe if you haven't already it's free and coming out with me on Instagram and Twitter let me know what phones you're excited to see tested this year down in the comments thanks time for watching and I'll see you around
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