CES in Las Vegas is a tech fair where you can see quite a few concept designs, and one of the brands that will present their next futuristic idea is OnePlus. This was confirmed by the brand itself, confirming that it will show the world the so-called OnePlus ConceptOne. The question we all asked ourselves was, what exactly will be special about it? Well, it seems we already know.
A disappearing camera
En Wired They have met with the brand in a super secret meeting and have been able to take a look at what they are preparing. The secret of Concept one? A disappearing camera. It is a technology that uses a electrochromic glass which is responsible for revealing what is under the glass when it receives electric current.
It is a technique used in buildings and airplanes to control the entry of light into windows without the need for blinds, curtains or any other visible element, and which is based on glass that loses transparency when an electric current is applied to it. It's not groundbreaking technology, as it exists in so many places today, but it is a pretty exciting idea that could lead to new form factors and design in future mobile phones.
In the following video you can see how the Guggenheim Bilbao museum used this technology to avoid solar exposure inside the building.
What design does the OnePlus Concept One have?
That is another of the things that they have been able to discover in Wired, since at the meeting they were able to take a look at a prototype of it. As it could not be otherwise, the official partner of OnePlus, McLaren, is also involved in this exclusive model, since the logo of the team appears on the body of the terminal.
We're bringing the #OnePlusConceptOne to #CES2020, but you don't have to wait: you can get a sneak peek at it right here, along with its groundbreaking "invisible camera" and color-shifting glass technology. pic.twitter.com/elsv9dkctn
- OnePlus (@oneplus) January 3, 2020
With this detail you can imagine that the design will be quite striking, highlighting the use of papaya orange leather with visible seams, and a central column on the back made with the electrochromic glass that we talked about earlier. The idea is to show a completely clean phone on its back, with the peculiarity that when starting the camera application, its location is revealed.
It is a trick that visually seems extremely original to us, and that will undoubtedly serve to stand out from the rest of the proposals on the market, however, it does not seem enough to us to consider the Concept One as a newcomer phone from the future. In fact, the model shown was based on the camera configuration of the OnePlus 7T Pro, so it is clear that this is a new technology applied to an existing model. Could it be that OnePlus has more things to show?
Knowing that we can easily hide the cameras, it would be easy to imagine a device similar to the Xiaomi Mi MIX Alpha that would hide the cameras with this system. Thus, the phone would look like a single piece of glass when the screen was turned off, something that would look like something more advanced. We'll see if OnePlus has something more to tell us at CES about this technology and if the Concept One is finally something more than another phone with McLaren leather.