The Xiaomi Mi 11 has been available in China since December 2020, but the global market is still waiting for its release. We've already got our hands on it, though, which you can watch here, but we haven't had a chance to test it yet. Jerry Rig's name comes up quite often, he's the bald guy who scratch and dent tests the latest phones, but also takes them apart.
The Mi 11 features the latest Gorilla Glass Victus glass front and back. It's more resistant to scratches and breakage than its predecessor, the 6. On Mosh's hardness scale, scratches started to appear at 6, with 7 having quite nice canyons scratched into it. Scratching the fingerprint surface of the display well, the reading performance isn't too bad either, although judging by the finger, it's not surprising.
The paint on the aluminium frame has come off nicely with a little scraping, but that shouldn't happen with all the daily use. The glass protecting the camera lenses also did well, not scratching, so that won't keep us from taking outstanding pictures. It didn't give in to bending or deforming, so carrying it in your back pocket won't make it bend when you sit down. He did very well!!!
Taking apart the Xiaomi Mi 11 is not so much of a task anymore, and Jerry has no problem with it either. As he gets inside, though, you can see that they've thought about servicing, with a separate tab for the battery for easy removal. If you look closely, all the connectors and openings are protected from dust and water by a very dense metal mesh, with rubber insulation all around.
After taking out the camera module, you can clearly see the movement of the optics of the main camera module, which is what makes phones rattle. The Harman/Kardon speaker is brutally big, it should sound as good as it does, as we noted in the video. I'm still amazed at the power packed into such a tiny motherboard, with the computing power of a PC, or even better.
Thanks to Jerry for once again torturing a Xiaomi phone, although we weren't happy to watch the Mi 11 die, it did bring us closer to the realisation that Xiaomi does make top phones.
