OnePlus is back again this year with another concept phone based on the OnePlus 8T.
Last winter at CES, the company showed off a concept phone with tintable glass on the rear that could hide the camera. This year, the Chinese phone manufacturer is using an electronic colour material film that changes colour from a dark blue to a silver when electrons pass through it to accent the phone’s rear.
The OnePlus 8T is an amazing overall smartphone, but we’re always exploring cool new technologies—not necessarily to bring to market, but just to see what else is possible. Check out our latest experiment: the Concept 8T. pic.twitter.com/jmJMVcyBMT
— Pete Lau (@PeteLau) December 21, 2020
To take it further, this material is also sensitive to mmWave 5G signals, which can also change the colour of the phone’s back. OnePlus says this has the potential to be a new way to notify users when they get messages or calls. The users could then use a gesture on the rear of the phone to potentially answer the call.
There’s a really slim chance that this phone will ever come out since last year’s concept device never did. Judging by the material’s complexity, I wouldn’t hold your breath for any manufacturer to add it to their devices any time soon.
However, it’s still a cool concept, and I’m sad that there can’t be any in-person events for CES in 2021, so I won’t be able to see this phone in person.
The idea of changing the phone’s physical colour to show things like battery life or incoming notifications passively seems like an incredibly cool trick.