Is the Google Pixel 5 Really made of Metal? - Durability Test!

On the Google Pixel 5 website, it is advertised that this phone has a 100% recycled aluminum casing and a waterproof

metal

body, which logically leads most tech websites and tech YouTubers to repeat We parrot that same information, since you know we trust the manufacturers. However, we know that the Pixel 5 has wireless charging and wireless charging doesn't work through

metal

, so the Pixel 5 on paper is breaking the laws of physics. Today it's time to see what the Pixel 5 is

really

made

of and how wireless charging

really

works. it works, this video is sponsored by audible, let's start with a flagship model, this Google Pixel 5 is surprisingly affordable, only $649, it's half the price of other top phones like Apple and Samsung, and I take that into consideration during my review. you pay and if it costs half as much you can expect half as much, plus Google has never tried to compete on hardware specs as it's mostly about the software experience.

That said, while clear advertising is important across the board, whether a phone costs six dollars or six hundred dollars. The six-inch display is

made

of Gorilla Glass Six, so we start to see scratches at level six with deeper grooves at level seven. The front display also contains that eight-mega

pixel

front punch-hole camera and no speaker grill. The Google Pixel 5 appears to have an under-display speaker that we've seen on other phones and it will be quite interesting to see what it looks like from the inside when we get to the teardown. . Now, nowhere on Google's website does it.

Let's say the outside of the Pixel 5 is a layer of plastic. Remember they call it metal three different times, but we can see from the ease with which my razor blade cuts through the phone that there are in fact large amounts of plastic on the back. We have to go. pretty deep before we find any shiny metal, Google has told other websites that the phone is covered in a bioresin which is a plant-based polymer or a more environmentally friendly plastic, they just don't mention it anywhere on their own page website, which I think is a missed opportunity since the bioresin actually sounds great and would be a good selling point on the Pixel 5.

The volume rocker is plastic but the power button is metal. We can see how thick the plastic is by cutting into a V shape. We slot into the top of the phone through that bio-resin layer and we see that basically the entire curve of the phone is plastic up to the screen and it's the same on all sides, the SIM card tray does not have expandable memory. but the phone is ip68 and has usbc charging, there is no headphone jack, the g on the back panel is embedded in the plastic, kind of like what we saw on the back of the plastic Nexus 5s in 2013.

The letters on that phone had a history of dropping over time, so let's hope Google is using a stronger glue this time. There are two cameras on the back, a 12.2-mega

pixel

regular camera and a 16-megapixel ultra-wide camera. Google cameras have been accepted as some of the best smartphones across the board. for quite some time now, even if they don't have that telephoto option before we dive in and see how wireless charging works, let's

test

the fingerprint scanner which is on the back of the phone, so it's more of a fingerprint than a fingerprint digital and has a much faster setup time than under-screen fingerprint scanners and once heavily damaged, it still recognizes and unlocks the phone with my fingerprint every time.

Thumbs up for that now for wireless charging, if my estimates are correct the wireless charger should be in this general area and don't get me wrong, I have nothing against plastic, the bioresin on this pixel 5 seems to be durable, it won't scratch It doesn't even splinter on its own, it's much harder than the coating on the LG G5s we saw. A few years ago I definitely don't have a problem with plastic, the only thing I have a problem with is that Google calls it metal three times on their website without mentioning plastic or bioresin anywhere, they have no problem calling pixel 4a plastic and clearly this pixel 5 has as much plastic as 4a, it just goes on, really goes on, we finally get a glimpse of some copper under the bioresin layer.

These are the 12 watt wireless charging copper coils that can reverse wireless charging. Other 5 watt devices are all sitting here under that thick layer of plastic and if we look very closely we can accidentally discover that the battery is right underneath, that the wireless charging coil batteries and sharp objects don't mix well and now the phone is dead. Let's watch it one more time in slow motion just for fun, since that was very expensive now if the phone was actually made of metal as Google advertises, that wouldn't have happened, although I'm sure there is more metal in other parts of the phone.

It may just not be in this specific location, so let's get some science out of it and see if we can dissolve some of this plastic. I always have some acetone on hand. It is a flammable, transparent and colorless solvent. I use it for cleaning metal before soldering but it's also good for dissolving some plastics, rubber and adhesive as well as paint, we'll let the phone marinate in this acetone for about an hour and see what happens while you watch the time lapse. Let me tell you about an audiobook that helped me understand the world. of social networks before entering them, many thanks to audible for sponsoring this video.

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I'll leave a link in the video description now that The time lapse actually lasted about 50 minutes and I honestly thought it would do something else to the phone but it turns out that acetone mainly only affects PVC and Styrofoam. , which are more common forms of plastic, but acetone does not affect bioresins and that bioresin. It's just as strong now as it was when I first put it in the solvent, but fear not, we still have other options. I'll grab a plate from the kitchen, don't tell my wife and if I use a heat gun it can rise. at about 1000 degrees Fahrenheit we can heat that plastic, the glass plate is here so my desk doesn't start on fire once the bioresin is heated, it's much easier to remove the foam which reveals a metal subframe under the plastic of this subframe.

It must be that 100 recycled aluminum that Google mentions on their website. It also has some extra cutouts near the bottom for what I assume are the antennas. Personally I think the Google pixel is metal the same way my body is bone metal which provides the structure but it's definitely not what's on the outside just for fun and giggles we can look under the coil of wireless charging and get a direct glimpse into the center of the phone, the motherboard and battery that we successfully stabbed earlier in the video are clearly visible, there is no metal backplate behind the wireless charging coil which also goes against this image of the pixel 5 that has been floating around this image is not a true representation of how the phone is built as it is missing the gigantic hole in the center some clarifying words on Google's website about the composition of the phone would be of great help, there's not even continuous metal under all the plastic and the phone no longer works after the battery puncture, we can't really do the screen burn

test

which I'm sure will cause a lot of disappointment to everyone, but we still have a question which we can answer since this phone has such a big cutout in the center for wireless charging.

Does the hole structurally weaken the phone? Even though we're missing large chunks of the phone's plastic exterior, the Pixel 5 holds up very well. Well, flipping it into the container from the back shows the screen starting to come out of the frame ruining that water resistance seal, but there is no catastrophic damage to the screen or frame, well no additional catastrophic damage to make a long story short. the pixel 5 really is made of metal, the answer is yes, but

google

also doesn't seem to have done a good job with almost everything except explaining precisely what the pixel 5 is made of, which is pretty much the entire phone, let me know What you think.

Below in the comments if this pixel 5 has the plastic or metal mark. I'm curious to come with me on Instagram and Twitter. Get your free audiobook from audible with the link in the description and thanks so much for watching. See you there.