Xiaomi is finally being more transparent about its see-through Mi 9

Last year, Xiaomi released a cool-looking, transparent version of its Mi 8 phone, the Mi 8 Explorer Edition, which claimed to have a see-through back to reveal the internal parts of the phone. There was just one problem: the “parts” were fake, revealed to be just a cool-looking plate covering the real (and much less photogenic) parts.

Today, Xiaomi announced that it’ll be offering a similarly see-through Mi 9 Explorer Edition for the upcoming Mi 9, but there’s one crucial difference: Lei Jun, founder and CEO of Xiaomi has admitted that the inside “components” are just a thin, CNC-carved aluminum sheet that looks like a stylized version of the parts, via Android Police.

It’s a nice change on Xiaomi’s part, and it’s good to see the company being more transparent about what’s actually inside the transparent phone. Because once you put aside the chicanery of last year’s model, it does look pretty cool from a visual perspective (even if that’s not actually what the inside of a phone looks like.)

Xiaomi is expected to fully announce the Mi 9 at MWC 2019, so expect more news on that in the coming days.