- The Xiaomi Mi 11 was torn from the repair website iFixit
- It has the same score as the base Galaxy S21 and a higher score than the S21 Ultra.
Smartphones have come a long way since the dawn of Android and Symbian, but one aspect that hasn’t improved over this time is ease of repair. Now the DIY repair website iFixit has shut down the Xiaomi Mi 11 and it seems that the new Xiaomi phone is not changing things drastically.
iFixit gave Xiaomi’s flagship a rating of four out of ten. That rating means the Mi 11 is slightly easier to fix than the Galaxy S21 Ultra (three out of 10) and is linked to the vanilla Galaxy S21. It’s also linked to the Huawei Mate 40 Pro but is easily beaten by Apple’s latest iPhones.
The website praised the Xiaomi Mi 11 for only requiring a standard Phillips screwdriver for all of the associated screws. It was also found that the display and battery could be replaced separately, the adhesive wasn’t “super tough” (suggesting this was due to the lack of an IP rating), and that many parts were modular.
This phone has several drawbacks if you want to fix it yourself, as the socket complained about the curved screen that required special tools to remove, the glass body that was more prone to drop damage, and the need to swap out the entire screen when the fingerprint scanner was on malfunction. They also found that removing the battery and display can be “a hassle”.
There were several other notable discoveries made by the team. On the one hand, it turned out that the Mi 11 had some rubber seals around the speaker and charging connection area despite the lack of an IP rating. We also get another confirmation for two 2,300 mAh batteries, with the split design allowing for faster charging.
In both cases, the Mi 11 seems a matter of course when it comes to easy repairs in 2021. Hopefully, the introduction of the Right to Repair Act around the world means more phones are taking a DIY-friendly approach this year.