with Concept One, OnePlus eliminates photo sensors

OnePlus unveils a luxury smartphone concept produced in partnership with MacLaren. On the back of the mobile, in addition to a topstitched leather covering, the tint of the glass darkens in less than a second to hide the photo modules.

As with an auto show, CES in Las Vegas is also concept-friendly. The Chinese manufacturer of high-end smartphones OnePlus has just unveiled its own on its stand. OnePlus had announced the color, but while we expected a model with a foldable screen, a smartphone with a luxurious and refined design, created in partnership with McLaren, was presented. 

The OnePlus Concept One is sheathed in leather with the orange hue specific to the brand’s sports cars. The topstitching found on leather-wrapped steering wheels or the trim of a car reinforces this association with British racing cars.

Besides the aesthetics, the mobile is equipped with a technology based on an electrochromic glass. It allows you to modify the opacity of the glass in order to hide the optics of the cameras on the back. The surface of the shell dedicated to the photo module is then smooth and opaque. Just activate the camera to change the hue. 

It would only take 0.7 seconds according to OnePlus to hide the four optics of the photo module. This electrochemical technology is also the one used by McLaren to darken the glass roof of its Supercar 720S. For the smartphone, the difficulty was to use layers of glass 0.1 millimeters thick each, for a total of only 0.35 millimeters.

Integrated neutral density filters

OnePlus and the automaker are not at their first meeting. Futura had already presented a  OnePlus 6T in MacLaren edition  taking up the symbolism of the race, with a carbon fiber shell used for sports cars and 10 GB of RAM.

On the OnePlus Concept One, the shade change is not only an aesthetic asset, it also acts as an ND filter. With these filters, well known to photo enthusiasts, it is possible to reduce the amount of light absorbed by the sensor when the brightness is high, for example in a snowy landscape. In the case of the concept, the shade would provide the equivalent of an ND8.

For the rest, the mobile takes on the characteristics of the OnePlus 7T Pro in its most muscular version. Remember that this is a concept and that electrochromic glass technology may never be deployed on series models.