Zack Nelson of JerryRigEverything is renowned for his gadget durability tests and teardowns, so it's not surprising to hear that he has a track record of trying to bust up Xiaomi phones. Said record brings up the obvious trends: cheaper phones aren't as durable as those towards the mid- to high-end. So, how will the Mi 11 fare? Not too bad, for the sake of brevity.

For the hotness we make out of these new phones, the industrial design hasn't fundamentally changed over the years and neither has Nelson's examinations. You can take a look at the video above or scroll down to see the conclusions if you don't have the time.

  • The phone, in its TrimsGlass variants, is stocked with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus and a frosted glass panel held together with a metal chassis. The rear cameras are protected with clear glass, presumably more Victus.
  • As with almost every other type of glass, the display glass scratches at around level 6 of the Mohs mineral hardness scale. Don't rub sand onto it.
  • Nelson put his lighter flame to the OLED display for a full 20 seconds before pulling it back. By that time, the burnt diodes were able to recover somewhat, but have clearly been damaged beyond being able to return to normal.
  • For the bend test, the phone creaked slightly, but if there was any damage, it certainly wasn't visible.

The money gap in build quality seems to be in replicating this "premium" look on budget devices leads to some structural compromises. It sorta makes us miss smarter polycarbonate designs like the one on the Pocophone F1, a Xiaomi make.