Vivo has confirmed it is making a smartphone whose rear panel can change colour with the literal push of a button.
The as-yet unnamed device was shown in prototype form in a video the company posted on Weibo (via Android Authority).
The company said (translated from Chinese) that “This is the electrochromic technology of the back cover of the mobile phone. The principle is very complicated, the effect is gorgeous, and the key is not to consume electricity.”
You can view the official video here that Vivo posted to confirm it was its work. The phone has a black piece of material stuck over the camera module to hide it from view. This was posted after videos had leaked online like the below one from noted leaker Ice Universe:
A mobile phone brand is developing a mobile phone with a discoloration rear case, which can adjust the speed of discoloration. Maybe the smart phone will only have one color in the future: discoloration pic.twitter.com/kSg5NSD0tL
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) September 3, 2020
The electrochromic technique on show is the same tech that OnePlus used for its Concept One concept phone at CES in January, when it was used to visually hide the camera lenses when they were not in use.
Vivo, which is part of the BBK Group that also owns OnePlus and Oppo, has not yet broken the Western market but is popular in its native China. Its recent X50 Pro phone has a global release and is marketed on its built-in camera gimbal.
With innovative features like that and this colour shifting back, we hope Vivo manages to bring more phones to these shores.
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Author: Henry Burrell, Phones Editor
Henry is Tech Advisor’s Phones Editor, ensuring he and the team covers and reviews every smartphone worth knowing about for readers and viewers all over the world. He spends a lot of time moving between different handsets and shouting at WhatsApp to support multiple devices at once.