After teasing the electrochromic glass on the OnePlus Concept One last week, OnePlus today fully showed off the new concept phone and its disappearing cameras.
The highlight feature of the OnePlus Concept One is the electrochromic glass covering the three rear cameras. As reported by Engadget, this glass is made up of five layers, with the middle being the electrochromic material. When you apply a voltage to the glass, it changes from translucent to transparent and back again, a shift that takes around 0.7 seconds.
In addition to hiding the rear cameras when not in use, the glass can act as a neutral density filter for the cams. This means that it can reduce the amount of light entering the camera by around three stops, letting you shoot with a wide aperture and bokeh without overexposing your image.
The other notable feature of the OnePlus Concept One is the bright papaya orange leather that covers most of its backside. While that may not be quite as functional as the phone's electrochromic glass, it still looks pretty cool.
OnePlus has said that it has no plans to actually sell the Concept One any time soon. Instead, this device seems to be meant as proof that OnePlus could use this electrochromic glass on a phone and have it work to hide the rear cameras. It's possible that we'll see it on a future OnePlus phone that does launch to the public, though.
Lots of smartphones are coming to market lately with multiple rear cameras taking up a good chuck of their backsides. Some folks might find that look unsightly, which is where this electrochromic glass comes in. When translucent, it hides the cameras and gives the back of the phone a cleaner look, which could be really appealing to some people.
What do you think of the electrochromic glass on the OnePlus Concept One? Is this a feature you'd like to have on a future smartphone?