Hands-on with OnePlus 11 concept phone: taking cooling to the next level

Today kicks off the incoming wave of announcements from tech companies at MWC Barcelona. OnePlus took to its own smaller stage to announce a new concept smartphone that visually shows its high-performance cooling system working in a unique and engaging way.

The OnePlus 11 Concept smartphone is indistinguishable from a OnePlus 11 from the front. Turn it around, however, and you’ll see a striking pattern on the back of the 11 Concept. The liquid cooling system can be seen thanks to the illuminated “Active CryoFlux” which equips two ceramic micro pumps to move cooling liquid through the phone’s system of cooling channels that showcase the translucent glass back. The same liquid also flows around the camera ring, giving it a halo effect. The result is a smartphone with a cooling system that appears as if it was living and breathing.

OnePlus claims its Active CryoFlux solution is able to lower a phone’s temperature while gaming by up to 2.1 degrees Celsius and is capable of improving a game’s framerate by 3-4 frames per second. 

The camera ring is detailed by Guilloché etching, a high-precision technique often used in luxury timepieces. The etching is very nice and can only be admired with a close eye on the camera bump. The words “Active CryoFlux” can be spotted right smack in the middle of the 11 Concept’s camera ring. The OnePlus logo, meanwhile, can be found at the lower right corner of the rear glass panel.

In hand, there’s no difference in feel between the OnePlus 11 and 11 Concept. The latter has a slightly thicker profile due to the flashy cooling system but the glass is smooth and glossy. All controls are placed just as they are found on the OnePlus 11 including the power key, alert slider, and volume rocker. 

This kind of design pushes engineers to really think about how OEMs could make products more expressive in such a way that emulates living and breathing beings. The CryoFlux system is an active cooling system compared to a traditional passive one that’s normally found in mobile devices. The future of smartphone thermal cooling systems could benefit from ideas learned by the companies involved in the making of the OnePlus 11 Concept.