I'm very gentle too and I had hardly used it.
Ik opened it up (1 screw, easy) but the switches are attached very badly.There was nothing I could do.
Sending it back takes ages and is always a risk.
Maybe they added a different DAC but I for one will stay far from everything that looks like the same as the IQQ C18 and I'm sure this Saomai will be built on the same board.
I'll hope you are more lucky.
Edit : the power button just broke off too
Now I can only start it by plugging in the power cable and am not able to change the volume.
I just noticed the shuffle doesn't (re)shuffle. The sequence of tracks offered is exactly the same as yesterday's.
Worst buy ever.