BEIJING, Feb 19 — The Xiaomi CEO announced yesterday via Weibo that the company is bringing back the transparent smartphone design for the Mi 9 Explorer Edition, but this time, they're being honest about the authenticity of the visible components.

Last year, Xiaomi launched the Mi 8 Explorer Edition, a smartphone with a transparent back revealing the interior circuitry that the company initially tried to play off as the as the real deal.

Fast-forward a few months after the release, however, and it became clear that the visible machinery was actually fake — the real functioning components could be found under this imposter sheet of aluminum.

Though designing a mock board complete with an artificial SoC and non-electrically connected components seems like frivolous work and perhaps even a waste of precious space, it must have been well received because the next generation of the handset will feature a similar design.

Yesterday, Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun shared images of the upcoming device on his Weibo account explicitly admitting that the circuit board on display beneath the see-through cover is just an imitation; in fact, the post "explains the complicated process of carving a 0.3mm aluminum sheet with all fake components”.

A Qualcomm Snapdragon logo is still visible even though the chip isn’t real.

Apart from the exterior design, Jun further said that the new Explorer Edition will come with a "7-piece lens,” a 48MP rear AI camera, and 12GB of RAM.

The Mi 9 Explorer Edition will launch tomorrow, the same day that Samsung finally debuts the Galaxy S10 lineup. — AFP-Relaxnews