Remember that transparent Xiaomi Mi 8 phone that doesn't actually show what's inside the device? It must have gotten a pretty good reception, because the phonemaker has gone through the trouble of designing a fake-transparent version of the upcoming Mi 9. Xiaomi chief Lei Jun has posted some photos, which look like renders, of the Mi 9 Explorer Edition on Chinese social media platform Weibo. As Android Police noted, the company has taken a different approach this time: instead of insisting that the circuit board visible to the eye is the real deal like it did with the Mi 8, Jun has admitted in his post that you're only going to see fake components underneath the transparent case. He explained that the company will carve out the design on a 0.3mm aluminum sheet with a CNC machine, using a tiny cutter to create all its tiny details. In addition to explaining the process behind the design, Jun has also revealed that the phone will be equipped with a 7-piece lens, 48-megapixel rear AI-powered camera that features an f/1.47 aperture and 12GB of RAM.

Xiaomi may have already released the Mi Mix 2S earlier this year, but it's actually kept its true 2018 flagship, the Mi 8, for marking its eight anniversary -- hence the jump from last year's "Mi 6." As announced in Shenzhen today, the new handset starts at 2,699 yuan (about $420) and comes in a familiar-looking dual-sided glass design, with the most notable difference being the new vertical dual camera -- exactly the same module found on the Mix 2S, according to Xiaomi. And yes, there's a notch, which is for accommodating an infrared front camera for facial recognition. There's even a higher-end Mi 8 Explorer Edition which uses a more powerful 3D face scanner instead -- one that's similar to the TrueDepth camera on the iPhone X. Not only that, this version also has a fully transparent back to show off its chips and battery. For the sake of this cool look, there's no rear fingerprint reader; instead, this device uses an in-display fingerprint reader, which is backed by pressure activation to save power.