OnePlus’ New Concept Phone Can Change Colors

At CES 2020, OnePlus took time to show off a new device under a “Concept” category that wasn’t meant to be sold, but instead was a way for the smartphone maker to show off ideas it had been working on. The phone, dubbed OnePlus Concept One, had a slick tinting glass trick that we have yet to see in a phone you can buy, though that wasn’t necessarily the point of the phone.

Since there’s no in-person CES to kickstart 2021, OnePlus is showing off their next concept a couple of weeks early. The OnePlus 8T Concept is the 2nd phone in this product line of ideas and it’s got one cool idea going for it: color-changing glass.

Using a technology OnePlus is calling Electronic Color, Material and Finish (ECMF), the OnePlus 8T Concept has a color-changing film that contains metal oxide in glass. When that metal oxide is activated, it’s able to change color from a dark blue to a silver, which you can see in the image above.

As an example of how this might work, OnePlus describes how a 5G mmW radar module transmits and receives electromagnetic waves. The combo of ECMF and mmW could potentially activate the color-change, if I’m understanding this all correctly.

OnePlus also suggests ECMF flashing colors for incoming calls or notifications, registering a person breathing to act as a biofeedback device, etc. It’s all very conceptual-level stuff.

Cool or nah?