Check out this 160W color changing phone that you can’t buy

Infinix isn’t exactly the most recognizable name in the smartphone space, but the Transsion-owned brand has seen success on the African continent, the Middle East, and parts of Asia. The firm is generally known for offering mid-range and entry-level smartphones, but it’s aiming pretty high with the newly announced Infinix Concept Phone 2021.

The concept phone has a few standout features, but the most eye-catching element has to be the color-changing back. Infinix says the phone combines electrochromic film and electroluminescence film to deliver the first “dual color-changing back cover” in the industry. So what does this enable?

“When there is an incoming call, the back of the smartphone changes between silver gray and light blue. When charging, it will change color and flash in the middle of the device,” Infinix explained in a press release sent to Android Authority.

Ultra-fast charging gets faster

The most impressive technical feature has to be the addition of 160W wired charging (dubbed Ultra Flash Charge), with Infinix claiming it can top up the phone’s 4,000mAh battery in 10 minutes. That beats last year’s Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra, which charged its 4,500mAh battery in 21 minutes via 120W charging. The company says the included charger also supports several protocols so you can charge your laptop and phone with the same brick.

Infinix says it’s implementing over 60 protections to ensure safe charging and charging temperatures that stay under 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). It’s also touts a charging conversion efficiency of 98.6%. Otherwise, the Infinix Concept Phone 2021 also packs 50W wireless charging. There’s no word on how long it takes to charge the battery from zero to 100% capacity via wireless charging.

We’ve got some reservations about battery health when charging at 160W though. Oppo and Xiaomi have previously claimed that their batteries degrade to ~80% after 800 charging cycles with 125W and 200W charging respectively, although it’s unclear whether these cycles occur at maximum charging speeds.

Nevertheless, a battery degrading to 80% isn’t all that great when Samsung has previously touted 95% capacity after two years of charging. We’ve asked Infinix about battery degradation and will update the article if/when we get a response.

Don’t expect flagship power here, as the Infinix Concept Phone 2021 is equipped with a Helio G95 4G SoC that’s broadly equivalent to the Snapdragon 720G. This isn’t really a surprise given that the firm hasn’t actually released a phone with a flagship SoC before. Other core specs include 8GB of RAM and 128GB of RAM.

Otherwise, the Infinix Concept Phone 2021 is also equipped with a triple rear camera setup (64MP main, 8MP 5X periscope camera, 8MP 120 degree ultra-wide), a 32MP selfie camera in a punch-hole cutout, an in-display fingerprint sensor, a 6.67-inch OLED curved screen with 88-degree waterfall edges, and Android 11. The firm’s XOS Android skin had a reputation in bygone years for being horrible, but hopefully the firm has improved matters in recent years.

This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen a phone with color-changing properties, as OnePlus revealed the Concept One phone at CES 2020. We still haven’t seen a OnePlus phone with electrochromic glass and/or color-changing capabilities though. Nevertheless, Infinix notes that it’ll continue to develop the tech seen in its concept phone so it can be brought to future devices.

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