One of the major uncertainties regarding the recently launched Xiaomi Mi 3 (our review) smartphone was whether the phone was protected by Gorilla Glass or not. This has been a confusion ever since the company launched its India specific page, but thankfully, @MiIndiaOfficial, the official Twitter account of the company has clarified that all the Mi 3s in India have Gorilla Glass 3 protection for the screen. The clarification puts an end to all the speculation that surrounded the screen’s protective capabilities, as Gorilla Glass has been known to be very tough, since its inception.
Here is the tweet that clarifies the presence of Gorilla Glass 3 on the Mi 3 –
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We had attended the launch event in Delhi and this was obviously one of the major questions we had regarding the device, as most of you, readers, have been asking about this ever since we posted the review. I personally had a long chat with John from Xiaomi regarding this, and what he had to say, was understandable from Xiaomi’s point of view. Apparently, due to high and continuous demand, the company uses protective glass solutions from different suppliers, one of them being Corning. He assured me that all the screens they used were of the same caliber, when it came to protecting the screen from scratches and drops, but Corning obviously had a bigger mind share.
However, Corning doesn’t list Xiaomi as one of the many clients it supplies its products to. The search term “Xiaomi” on their website yields no results, but we believe there is more to it than what meets the eye. Corning’s website usually has a full page product list of which companies are using their products, but also has interesting cross promotional agreements with them –
The manufacturers and devices detailed on these webpages are the only manufacturers authorized to use the Corning Gorilla Glass trademark in their device promotions. Select device manufacturers have not been willing to provide Gorilla Glass model verification.
The list of products, which includes biggies like Samsung Galaxy S5 and LG G3, has a lot of suffixes mentioning the usage of Gorilla Glass 3. It also mentions that select device manufacturers are not willing to cross promote, but just use the glass for their devices. This could be the case for Xiaomi, which is probably not authorized to use the trademark, and also because it doesn’t use Gorilla glass exclusively for the Mi 3. Either way, what matters to us, consumers, is 1. The Indian Mi 3 will have Gorilla Glass 3, which is good news for all of you wondering about it all the time. 2. You might already have Gorilla Glass, but just don’t know it because the device manufacturer might not have agreed on the cross promotion.
Xiaomi’s Indian journey had begun yesterday, with them selling out within 38 minutes on Flipkart. The company has said it underestimated the demand (100,000 registrations apparently overwhelmed them) and has promised to bring more phones for sale starting 29th of this month. While it is sad that the wait is 1 week more, a lucky few have already gotten their hands on the Mi 3, including us, so we made an unboxing video for you –
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kpevwr55JQw