The Xiaomi surprised the world with its full ceramic body phone, but should we be sure?

Xiaomi wasn’t the first to use ceramics as the housing material for the Mi MIX 2, but the first where the entire housing was made from it, including even the phone’s buttons. Ceramics give an extremely exclusive feel to Xiaomi phones, with manufacturers of cheaper handsets trying to mimic this effect by using a glass back cover. However, the glass will never produce the feeling like when we touch the ceramic housing.

However, there are many who say that this ceramic housing solution is not good, in fact, it is downright dangerous to use on the phone. The post below has been posted on the GearBest blog and I feel it’s worth reading so we can make a responsible decision before spending our monthly salary on a phone! 

"I will never buy a ceramic married Xiaomi Mi MIX, no matter how attractive it is to me!” said a Mi fan and continued- “Everything is perfect on Mi MIX except the ceramic body, even if it’s amazing and beautiful, but in my opinion it’s too fragile and I’m not sure it will survive if I drop it…" 

The Xiaomi Mi MIX was a phone that had a major impact on the mobile phone market, mostly because of its huge frameless display. Of course, we were really looking forward to the sequel, the Mi MIX 2, which was then unveiled by the manufacturer at this year's CES.

At CES 2017, thousands of visitors saw and touched and experienced the Xiaomi Mi MIX 2. While the majority was impressed with the concept of the smartphone, the stunning vision of the perfect phone, there were still those who expressed doubts about how good an idea it is to make the housing of a phone entirely of ceramic. For indeed, as you may have read above, in spite of the use of ceramics by Xiaomi and other manufacturers, no one has ever tried to make the body made entirely of ceramics.

Virtually every single smartphone on the market today is made of metal, plastic, glass, or a combination of these. This is completely understandable, since these materials are cheap, mature production technology is available for their use, so the use of these materials is extremely cost-effective. However, Xiaomi's smartphone is completely different from this "accepted" order. It uses an unusual material, microcrystalline zirconium oxide ceramic, the use of which requires very advanced technology, and the production technology is also extremely complicated. Xiaomi does not even hide this, according to their own statement "the production and production efficiency of the ceramic product is very low". This means that the manufacturer took a serious risk by choosing this material. This material has a fatal weakness: it is fragile. For this reason, even though many manufacturers would already be able to come up with a similar product, they are still waiting, in fact, it is quite possible that they will never launch such a phone on the market.

So there may come a million important questions: What is microcrystalline zirconia ceramics? Why did Xiaomi decide to use this type of ceramic for her smartphone? What are the main advantages and disadvantages of standard material, metal, glass and plastic? Finally, buy a ceramic body What is MIX 2 or not?

1. What is microcrystalline zirconia ceramics?

The main component of the material is ZrO2 (zirconia), to which a stabilizer is added during the manufacture of the smartphone housing.

As you may have read above, the production of a housing made of microcrystalline zirconia ceramics is an extremely expensive and complicated process. Production requires no less than sixteen workflows from start to finish. These are casting, punching, sintering, coloring, adjusting ?, CNC machining, sheet polishing, frame polishing, laser cutting, finishing CNC machining, inspection, laser milling, fingerprint coating application, re-inspection, packaging and shipping.

The production technology is extremely advanced with extremely high cost, which results in very low product yields and production efficiencies. The surcharge for ceramics compared to your glass on your Xiaomi smartphone is 75%, which is much more expensive to use. True, this material is much more resistant, much harder, and much (MUCH) less scratched than glass.

 Benefits in brief:

• On the Mohs hardness scale, the ceramic has a value of 8-8,5. In essence, only diamonds and sapphires are harder than this, better than the hardness of normal glass.
• The scratch-free ability is so high that only diamonds and sapphires can scratch!
• Excellent signal transmission and much stronger scratch protection compared to glass and metal.

 Disadvantages:

• The common feature of all ceramic devices is fragility and low impact resistance.

In recent years, due to high manufacturing costs, microcrystalline zirconium has only been used in military, aerospace, and other fields. It is only in the last decade that the material has been transferred to the field of civilian use.

2. Why did Xiaomi decide to use this type of ceramic on her smartphone?

Fact: The Xiaomi Mi MIX wasn’t the first smartphone Xiaomi tried to apply ceramics to - it was the Xiaomi Mi5.

The housing of the more expensive version of the Xiaomi Mi5 is microcrystalline zirconia ceramic. The pottery was able to give the phone a much higher, higher quality feel, but then the only real goal was to increase the quality, the more interesting look.

With the launch of the Xiaomi Mi MIX 2, we got to know the whole ceramic body, which is already an extreme use of ceramics, and with that, they thoroughly surprised the world. Of course, people are curious, so they wanted to know as much as possible about this material.

To date, Xiaomi has released an official statement on why it adopted zirconium oxide ceramics. In the case of the Mi 5, the goal was only "decoration", however, in the case of the Mi MIX, the fact that it is one of the best sound-transmitting materials, much better than glass or metal, may have had a lot to do with the design of the entire housing made of ceramic. .

3. What are the main advantages and disadvantages compared to the three standard materials?

Hardness: Nominal 8 to 8,5 Mohs hardness, only diamonds and sapphires can scratch.

Hardness essentially equates to scratch resistance, which is one of the most important features we look for when buying a smartphone.

The hardness of microcrystalline zirconia ceramics is extremely high; the mineral hardness of the internationally recognized Mohs scale is between 8 and 8,5, which is lower only for diamonds (10) and sapphires (9). This means that the scratch resistance is at the extreme end of the scale. With the exception of diamonds and sapphires, no minerals can scratch the ceramic body of the phone, it will always be in its original condition as in its new age.

Corrosion resistance: Nothing can corrode

If the metal gets in a wet place and will rust (oxidize). The plastic will not rust under any circumstances, but over time it will become vulnerable, its resistance will deteriorate and degrade, and it will be easily damaged by corrosive liquids. Glass and ceramic do not oxidize, do not decompose, so in this respect they are better than metal and plastic.

Thermal conductivity: Much better thermal insulation compared to traditional materials

The thermal conductivity of glass, metal and plastic is high. In contrast, microcrystalline zirconia ceramics are good thermal insulators, so the phone will not heat up in our hands even if used for a long time. Your phone will be much less damaged if you accidentally forget it in the sun.

Radio signal shielding: The Ceramic housing transmits signals extremely well

We all know that metal can strongly shield signals, so manufacturers need to apply tricks to metal-enclosed phones like the molded antenna on the outside of the enclosure. In contrast, plastic, glass, and ceramic do not shield the signs.

Handling and appearance: light, comfortable, unique and stylish

The touch of the ceramic is as soft as mild, like that of jade stone. Metal, plastic and glass are often used materials, however, the ceramic is impressively fresh, unique and innovative, especially the microcrystalline zirconia ceramic, which provides an extremely expensive feel. The pottery wins again!

Cleanliness: Just one wipe and it will shine brightly

Although all four conventional materials can be easily cleaned with a simple damp cloth, the lacquer of the metal body will gradually fade and the plastic will change from the detergent, but even from the water, and the glass will have low scratch resistance. Ceramics, as you may have read above, is resistant to essentially any material, so it stays in a new state for a long time.

Weight: The heaviest among traditional materials

Ceramics are heavy, that's a fact. If we had to set a sequence, the plastic, metal, glass, ceramic sequence would come out. In this property, therefore, ceramics have clearly lost the battle that plastic has won.

Conclusion

The characteristic properties of plastic: light, cheap, light mass product, does not affect the phone signal, so it was widely used in older smartphones. However, plastic is a weak, fragile material and has poor thermal conductivity.

The glass makes the phone aesthetically more attractive than the plastic cover, but the glass is fragile and almost attracts fingerprints, and its scratch resistance leaves much to be desired.

The metal is generally good in handling and appears to be of adequate quality, but essentially has no scratch resistance, and the varnish that protects it from scratches thins over time. The metal also shields the phone signal.

Compared to the above three materials, microcrystalline zirconia ceramics are the preferred material in almost all respects. Extremely hard, scratch resistant, corrosion resistant, low thermal conductivity, easy to clean, no signal reduction. It will always look as good as when you took it out of the box. However, ceramics are still a fragile material. If you drop it from a very high surface on a hard surface, you are afraid it will break.

4. Buy or not Xiaomi What MIX 2 phone?

If we take into account the above advantages and the only disadvantage, the yes wins by scoring! This phone is made with the latest state-of-the-art manufacturing technology, has the most exclusive look possible, and will continue to shine just like it did in its new age after many years. To make just a very compelling and obvious argument, you don’t have to add a case to protect your surface.

However, due to its fragility, it requires attention. Well, you can tell right now, but which smartphone is not. With the exception of rugged phones, all devices are delicate that if you drop them because the metal frame is pushed in, the lacquer will bounce off the glass. So whether your phone case is made of metal, plastic, ceramic, or maybe get a glass cover, we can advise you not to throw it away! And if you can, buy a Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 with a ceramic case!