OnePlus new concept phone is its coolest yet

OnePlus new concept phone is its coolest yet

Those glowing blue lines on the back aren’t (just) for show. | Photo by Jon Porter / The Verge

OnePlus’ latest concept phone is all about keeping cool. The company showed off the OnePlus 11 Concept device at MWC Barcelona, which features glowing blue pipelines on its back to represent the cooling liquid of its “Active CryoFlux” cooling technology.

Yes, it’s designed to look flashy, but OnePlus argues the cooling system serves an important practical purpose. By keeping the phone cooler under load, the company claims you can get better performance from games, and faster charging speeds. All without the need for the “size, weight, and noise” of a physically spinning fan like we’ve seen from the likes of Nubia or in smartphone cooling accessories from Razer or Asus.

Two quoted performance benefits include a 2.1 degree Celcius (around 35.8 degrees Fahrenheit) drop in temperature during gaming, which OnePlus claims could result in a performance uplift of between 3 and 4 frames per second, or, during charging, the Active CryoFlux system could reduce temperatures by 1.6 degrees Celcius (around 34.9 degrees Fahrenheit), leading to an increase charging speeds by 30 to 45 seconds.

Photo by Jon Porter / The Verge

The device didn’t feel significantly thicker or heavier than normal OnePlus phones.

Photo by Jon Porter / The Verge

There’s also a blue halo around the phone’s camera bump.

Unfortunately, none of these performance benefits were on display with the OnePlus 11 Concept devices the company was showing off during its MWC demonstration, so we’ll have to take the company’s word on the practical benefits. They sure look pretty, though.

OnePlus says an “industrial-grade piezoelectric ceramic micropump” pushes liquid throughout the device’s pipelines, and that takes up less than 0.2cm² of space. Despite the cooling system, the phone didn’t feel especially thick or heavy in the hand, although it’s unclear if other internal components were made smaller to make space for the cooling system.

Unfortunately it’s not clear when, or indeed if, the Active CryoFlux cooling system might make it into a consumer device. OnePlus has revealed similar concept devices before, including one with a color-changing back and another with disappearing cameras, and we’re yet to see either technology released out into the world. It’d be a shame if the OnePlus 11 Concept was consigned to the same fate.