Gadgetory

so I've been making clear phones for about three years now started back with the old galaxy s7 lately we've had a few manufacturers jump on the transparent phone bandwagon with me which is totally awesome I think it's super cool HTC made one and now Shelby's released the me8 Explorer edition this one caught my eye because it's transparency might not be the real deal it might all be a facade the only way to find out for sure was to get one for myself huge thanks to Nord VPN for sponsoring this video let's get started show me circuits back here on the me eight seem to perfectly aesthetic components don't match up to where they should be and each circuit has its own logo with quotes and specs don't get me wrong it still looks super cool and I'd totally still rock this phone but it might just be a sticker under the glass back and not the real components we'll have to find out starting the durability test like I've done with the last 100 phones I've tested we begin with the scratch test not all displays are made equally some phones have plastic screens that scratch at level 3 while HTC has made a sapphire screen that scratches at level 8 Xiaomi has been using the very much standardized Gorilla Glass 5 on this phone so we'll see the normal hardness level of 6 with the deeper groove at a level 7 it'll resist keys coins and razor blades but pocket sand and other minerals harder than at most six can still cause damage the me 8 top notch contains the face scanner and 20 megapixels selfie camera along with a wire mesh earpiece grille that's very solidly attached to the frame it won't be falling out the bottom of the phone has no physical buttons which is also the norm these days let's get a closer look at that back panel seriously one of the coolest looking phones I've seen in a while even if it does just end up being a sticker none of the printed words or logos are on the exterior of the glass and therefore can't be scratched off everything is underneath the Xiaomi me8 does have dual cameras and they're doing it right with both a normal lens and a two x optical zoom lens combo the dual LED flash is plastic the sides of the phone are made from aluminum a tad bit softer than the stainless steel sides we saw in the iPhone in us they are covered in a thin layer of paint so the silver will start showing through if it ever gets dropped or accidentally scratched the power button is painted red and still made from metal nice little accent to an already good looking phone the volume rocker is also metal if we accidentally scratched the top of the phone we get more metal Xiaomi has had plastic end caps on their phone in the past for signal transfer but it looks like they avoided that this time around with the glass back design allowing for the all-metal side rails there is a dual SIM card tray but no rubber waterproofing around the opening this me eight has no water resistance so keep that in mind down here at the bottom we find a USB C charging port more metal but no headphone jack it's interesting that companies yelling innovation the loudest usually have the least amount of features Xiaomi has plopped a 6.2 inch 1080p HD R 10 notched AMOLED display on the meet eight meaning that if we add a little heat it'll turn white now lately with the note 9 and the iPhone 10 we have had AMOLED screens recover after the flame is removed but after 15 seconds this mean eight remains burned and the pixels do not recover even when the screen is turned off one thing I forgot to mention is that this phone does have an N screen fingerprint scanner which is pretty awesome so far we've only seen this tech on vivo phones so it's good to see the in screen fingerprint Hardware expanding to other manufacturers thumbs up for that Apple is gonna be pretty pumped when they invent this tech in a few years now for the bin test sometimes bending a smartphone is the quickest way inside like with the me 5 back in the day shattering completely in half this time around though even with a hefty amount of force applied from both the back and the front of the phone the Explorer edition remains solid and intact it has a slight flex to the frame but nothing permanent remains when the pressure is released we still need to get inside though lucky for us with no IP rating the glass should pop off relatively easily which needs to happen if we're going to investigate circuits a little bit of heat to soften the adhesive and a slight bit of persuasion with my razor knife and metal pry tools and the back glass starts coming off the adhesive is only around the edge of the transparent glass so whatever material lies underneath is not stuck to the glass directly you can see the way to glass fades from transparent to black around the edges to kind of mask the adhesive holding the glass down this looks awesome and hopefully we see more of it in the future now for the guts from the outside it looks like this Explorer edition had a carbon-fiber layer over the 3000 milliamp hour battery but in reality is just a final sticker now I'm not gonna say I invented putting stickers on batteries but we kind of did do it first with the 1 plus 6 before the me 8 was even announced either way it still looks cool now let's dig into this motherboard thing whatever it is is held down with nine pentalobe screws the same style we see holding iPhones closed kind of interesting and then the whole decorative plastic top just pops off the actual motherboard underneath the whole thing is a decoration all made from plastic the quotes the Qualcomm logo are all superficial garnish covering up the real circuits below I'm definitely not complaining I think it's pretty cool that Xiaomi is leaning towards a more techie design but I do think that we shouldn't succumb to the unrealistic standards and expectations of what the world thinks circuit board should look like all circuit boards are beautiful just the way they are and we shouldn't have to cover them up huge thanks to Nord VPN for sponsoring this video rated number one Virtual Private Network by PC Magazine a virtual private network or VPN does a few different things with over 5,000 servers in 62 different countries Nord VPN encrypts your network traffic from one location to another so your personal information is untrackable while using public Wi-Fi at hotels or airports one subscription of Nord VPN can secure six devices simultaneously like your laptop desktop and cell phones all at the same time for a 30-day risk-free trial of north VPN use the code jerry-rigged to get a 66% discount that boils down to just three ninety-nine a month Nord VPN comm slash jerry-rigged link is down in the description there 24/7 customer support will always be there to answer your cool Nord VPN keeps things real just like my new jerry-rigged me8 Explorer edition the back glass is intact in place and honestly looks almost better with the real components visible instead of the printed slightly unrealistic bedazzle meant that Xiaomi had in place hit that subscribe button if you haven't already and come hang out with me on Twitter thanks ton for watching and I'll see you around