Oneplusplus 7T pro - new concept phone @ CES

[williamcll]

 

The rumored special edition phone is being showcased at CES, outside its hiding camera, it's more or less a OP7TPro

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OnePlus has come up with a way to hide them from posing a potential eyesore. The solution: Placing the cameras behind glass that can switch between being transparent and opaque, and vice-versa again.

 

At CES, the Chinese vendor is demonstrating the feature with a concept device that's fitted with electrochromic glass, a material you can send an electric charge through to make it opaque. Electrochromic glass has been around for years now, and can be found on planes, sports cars and building windows to act as both a privacy filter, and as a way to instantly dim a room.

OnePlus essentially took the the technology and applied it to a smartphone, placing the electrochromic glass over the rear-facing camera modules. The result is the company's "invisible camera" system. When you need to take a photo, the electrochromic glass will automatically switch into transparent mode in 0.7 seconds. But once you're done, the glass will go dark, hiding the camera modules from view.It's a neat little trick, but subtle, and some might argue it's a gimmick. This is the first time OnePlus has come to CES with a concept device, so fans and tech industry observers may have expected a more ambitious device, like a foldable phone, as opposed to a product that simply hides the rear-facing cameras. However, OnePlus executives say their concept device is trying to a solve an unsightly problem with today's smartphone design. "We see this trend where there will be more and more cameras, where you'll have four and then five of them on a phone," said OnePlus's CEO Pete Lau at a press conference on Monday at CES. "From a design stand point, this isn't a good design to see all these camera holes on the back."

We tried the concept device and noticed the glass doesn't hide the cameras completely when switched into opaque mode. If you look hard enough, you can actually still see the outlines when the glass faces into some bright light. But for the most part, the lenses blend away into the strip of opaque glass. When you activate the camera, the same strip of glass becomes transparent, but will then go dim again when you switch out or close the camera app.

(The shader is activated on the left, making the camera image slightly dimmer.)

Interestingly, the electrochromic glass isn't simply a decorative feature. You can actually turn it on when you want to snap a picture. The glass will partially dim, becoming a pair of sunglasses for the phone's camera system. This can be useful for removing glare or excess brightness from images you want to snap.

 

Over an 18-month period, OnePlus designed the invisible camera feature with the help of sports car maker McLaren, which has also been using the electrochromic glass in its vehicles. However, the glass on the OnePlus concept device was made to be exceptionally thin, at 0.53 millimeters, so that it could be used over the smartphone's exterior casing.

Outside of the invisible camera system, there's not much new with the concept device. It's basically a OnePlus 7T Pro. However, it did come fitted inside a snazzy, hand-stitched leather casing that matches the looks to the McLaren 720S sports car. OnePlus is remaining mum on when the invisible camera system will come to the company's phones. The vendor still needs more time to test the technology, and its durability, before commercializing the feature. Nevertheless, the electrochromic glass doesn't add any significant cost to the phone, nor does it use much battery life, said OnePlus product manager Xi Zeng. The same glass is equal in strength with the protective glass on current OnePlus devices.

Source: https://www.pcmag.com/news/372867/hands-on-with-onepluss-invisible-camera-concept-phone

Thoughts: It's cool and all (and for once not an OPPO design), but from the looks alone I can guess this phone will cost a premium even compared to the price of the 7T pro. And the lack of oneplus 8 news outside some leaks are also disappointing. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

People are concerned about "ugly" camera lenses despite some of them putting phones in gaudy cases?

[TempestCatto]

I like the idea of the camera shade because sometimes when someone is holding their phone up to their face, it looks like they're filming me/taking pictures of me which makes me super uncomfortable.

 

Imagine you're on the train and someone is sitting across from you on their phone. They go from looking down to looking straight at you with their phone's cameras right at you. In reality, they're just scrolling through social media and wanted to adjust their viewing angle because their neck hurts (or maybe they're getting motion sick). They're not actually filming or even in the camera app, but you don't really know that. You think they're filming you and you become uneasy. You start to think "what am I wearing? how do I look? am I sitting in the wrong place?" and your mind just goes off and you suddenly become anxious and nervous. Next thing you know, you miss your stop because you can't take your mind off of it. Anxiety Disorder amirite? ;_;

 

That right there is why I think it's a great concept. I don't know how I feel about being able to film/take pictures with the shade "activated" but still, I like it.

[Mira Yurizaki]

4 minutes ago, TempestCatto said:

That right there is why I think it's a great concept. I don't know how I feel about being able to film/take pictures with the shade "activated" but still, I like it.

If you can do that and I knew about it, I'd be even more paranoid about someone taking a picture/video.

[NinJake]

Cool, but my main question is how durable is it compared to the standard lens glass? I've never cracked/damaged any of my phones but I know plenty of people who have.

 

Function over form has my favor. With that being said, I have nothing negative to say about the OP7Pro except for no wireless charging and no headphone jack.

[Lorant]

Isn't that this one from that's been on their website for a while now?

 

https://www.oneplus.com/7t-pro-mclaren?from=head

 

 

[TempestCatto]

38 minutes ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

If you can do that and I knew about it, I'd be even more paranoid about someone taking a picture/video.

That's why I'm kinda leaning towards not liking that you can still film with it activated. I can see this being used to exploit people in things like dressing rooms and in public (up skirting). It's a double edged sword it seems

[Bombastinator]

This definitely feels like a “throw it at the wall and see if it sticks” kinda thing.  I report bouncing.

[Belac F]

Hopefully the leather stays as an option for the final version, looks pretty cool. 

 

Is the camera cover functionally useless and will probably drive up the price of the phone? 

Yes.

Do I still want it?

Hell yeah.

[Doobeedoo]

I mean ok whatever. Cool for a cam light filter on demand and such but yeah. It will be way more interesting to see front cam under the display really.

[Brooksie359]

I wish a company did a mock press conference for a new phone feature talking about the way they were able to get rid of the notches and puncholes. We call it a "bezel". I guess this us pretty pointless in comparison. Fix the notch and punchole designs and you got me sold. 

[dizmo]

This is more what their McLaren phones should have been like IMO. They should have always made them some very expensive, over the top, posh device with tech that they simply don't have down the product stack. Something where people would be like "woah...the McLaren version...siiick." Not "oh, you got that...why'd you pay so much? It just has more RAM and a different color." At least the one before last had faster charging; the latest one seemed like such a waste.

 

Producing phones like this would also give OnePlus a reason to push themselves into the higher price brackets.

 

6 hours ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

People are concerned about "ugly" camera lenses despite some of them putting phones in gaudy cases?

I think the leather case looks absolutely beautiful, and would much rather have that then some plastic and rubber.

6 hours ago, TempestCatto said:

I like the idea of the camera shade because sometimes when someone is holding their phone up to their face, it looks like they're filming me/taking pictures of me which makes me super uncomfortable.

 

Imagine you're on the train and someone is sitting across from you on their phone. They go from looking down to looking straight at you with their phone's cameras right at you. In reality, they're just scrolling through social media and wanted to adjust their viewing angle because their neck hurts (or maybe they're getting motion sick). They're not actually filming or even in the camera app, but you don't really know that. You think they're filming you and you become uneasy. You start to think "what am I wearing? how do I look? am I sitting in the wrong place?" and your mind just goes off and you suddenly become anxious and nervous. Next thing you know, you miss your stop because you can't take your mind off of it. Anxiety Disorder amirite? ;_;

 

That right there is why I think it's a great concept. I don't know how I feel about being able to film/take pictures with the shade "activated" but still, I like it.

Haha that's odd. If they're taking pictures of you, it should be flattering. If you're doing something weird...well...maybe you shouldn't be doing that in public.

Definitely seems like a disorder

 

Why would it matter if the shade was activated when they're taking pictures? It's not like there's a red recording light they're hiding or something...

6 hours ago, NinJake said:

Cool, but my main question is how durable is it compared to the standard lens glass? I've never cracked/damaged any of my phones but I know plenty of people who have.

 

Function over form has my favor. With that being said, I have nothing negative to say about the OP7Pro except for no wireless charging and no headphone jack.

Probably pretty close, considering it's derived from tech that's used in automobiles. I don't think you really have to make the glass weaker, it's likely just a layer that goes under the current glass.

4 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

This definitely feels like a “throw it at the wall and see if it sticks” kinda thing.  I report bouncing.

I could see it taking off, as more and more camera modules become a thing.

3 hours ago, PeterFile said:

Hopefully the leather stays as an option for the final version, looks pretty cool. 

 

Is the camera cover functionally useless and will probably drive up the price of the phone? 

Yes.

Do I still want it?

Hell yeah.

Agreed! There needs to be more use of it in higher end phones.

1 hour ago, Doobeedoo said:

I mean ok whatever. Cool for a cam light filter on demand and such but yeah. It will be way more interesting to see front cam under the display really.

Yeah, those will come next month. I don't think I'll jump on board though...I'll wait till second gen next year.

[TempestCatto]

24 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Why would it matter if the shade was activated when they're taking pictures? It's not like there's a red recording light they're hiding or something...

As I said to someone else

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I can see this being used to exploit people in things like dressing rooms and in public (up skirting). It's a double edged sword it seems

 

[dizmo]

3 minutes ago, TempestCatto said:

As I said to someone else

 

Again, it's not like it changes anything vs what we have now. There's still no way to tell from a camera sensor that it's recording.

[Bombastinator]

I don’t mind them putting the lenses behind a single plastic panel, though it’s going to get scratched all to hell.  The whole opaque black thing to hide the visibility of the lenses is just pointless though.  I think the lenses look fine.  It just adds an unnecessary point of failure.

[Dezz]

11 hours ago, PeterFile said:

Hopefully the leather stays as an option for the final version, looks pretty cool. 

 

Is the camera cover functionally useless and will probably drive up the price of the phone? 

Yes.

Do I still want it?

Hell yeah.

It's a concept phone, they are not going to sell it. 

[RejZoR]

13 hours ago, NinJake said:

Cool, but my main question is how durable is it compared to the standard lens glass? I've never cracked/damaged any of my phones but I know plenty of people who have.

 

Function over form has my favor. With that being said, I have nothing negative to say about the OP7Pro except for no wireless charging and no headphone jack.

Technically, it's just an LCD layer. Same thing LCD displays have been using for ages to shade the light behind. So you can put any kind of glass you want in the front. I don't think it's any different than any other glass on cameras.

[Bombastinator]

29 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

Technically, it's just an LCD layer. Same thing LCD displays have been using for ages to shade the light behind. So you can put any kind of glass you want in the front. I don't think it's any different than any other glass on cameras.

A one gigantic pixel LCD.  You can by whole window panes of it.

[Doobeedoo]

11 hours ago, dizmo said:

Yeah, those will come next month. I don't think I'll jump on board though...I'll wait till second gen next year.

Well I'm interested to see phones with it because it seems everyone are following the bad trend of eating into display. Personally don't even care for front cam if it may affect quality being under one extra layer. But we'll see. 

[Belac F]

7 hours ago, Dezz said:

It's a concept phone, they are not going to sell it. 

Dang, that sucks. 

 

Hopefuly they are planning on incorporating something similar into a new phone. I don't see why they would spend that much time and money on a partnership with mclaren if it wouldn't be a feature abailable in the future.

 

Also remember when oneplus was the brand that had cheap phones that performed like flagships, and they could do it because of a lack of gimmicks? 

[dizmo]

2 hours ago, Doobeedoo said:

Well I'm interested to see phones with it because it seems everyone are following the bad trend of eating into display. Personally don't even care for front cam if it may affect quality being under one extra layer. But we'll see. 

Well I mean...if you wanted more display, you had to do that. You can't just wish under display cameras into existence. Apparently it does affect the quality a little, but I mean...it's first gen. It's not going to be perfect. You don't like the pop up option? If you hardly use it, it seems just as useful as the under display.

[Doobeedoo]

1 hour ago, dizmo said:

Well I mean...if you wanted more display, you had to do that. You can't just wish under display cameras into existence. Apparently it does affect the quality a little, but I mean...it's first gen. It's not going to be perfect. You don't like the pop up option? If you hardly use it, it seems just as useful as the under display.

I mean, I don't want more display per say if it actually means etching into it, I don't consider that more display, full screen is not proper full screen if there's obtrusion like notch or a hole then. Would be fine if we retained 16:9 on phones and just shrink bezels to it. I don't get the insane obsession with phone manufacturers increasing few mm of display to say they have higher screen to body ration, which again how they measure it is even incorrect. 

Yes the pop up seems much better option really. Though it seems it's not gaining traction and some that used it may not continue maybe. Like how 1+ did it, though there are leaks that new one will have a hole, that would be a major fail

[Touch My Hamm]

On 1/7/2020 at 12:03 PM, Mira Yurizaki said:

People are concerned about "ugly" camera lenses despite some of them putting phones in gaudy cases?

I agree, I see people bragging they got the Red Model or the special edition with X color thats super rare then they put on a otterbox with a belt case where its 10X the size and is ugly as sin. I just pay monthly for damage coverage and do not use any case and if i drop it I pay very little and get a new one or replace the damaged parts. But to each their own I guess. I just hate how 90% of cases as VERY ugly.

[dizmo]

59 minutes ago, Doobeedoo said:

I mean, I don't want more display per say if it actually means etching into it, I don't consider that more display, full screen is not proper full screen if there's obtrusion like notch or a hole then. Would be fine if we retained 16:9 on phones and just shrink bezels to it. I don't get the insane obsession with phone manufacturers increasing few mm of display to say they have higher screen to body ration, which again how they measure it is even incorrect. 

Yes the pop up seems much better option really. Though it seems it's not gaining traction and some that used it may not continue maybe. Like how 1+ did it, though there are leaks that new one will have a hole, that would be a major fail

Yeah but you can just run black bars and run it in 16:9...

I much prefer the added screen. It just looks cooler, and it's not like that little notch really affects that much. Just video, and I don't watch enough video on it to matter.

[Doobeedoo]

11 hours ago, dizmo said:

Yeah but you can just run black bars and run it in 16:9...

I much prefer the added screen. It just looks cooler, and it's not like that little notch really affects that much. Just video, and I don't watch enough video on it to matter.

I know, but loses the purpose to have phone built like so, makes it less compact too. I also don't watch a lot of video and such, but oh boy is it an eye sore full screen. I also can't stop noticing it in general use hah. 

Sony did it the best, actually higher 21:9 ratio which is also an actual standard and no notch. I wonder what they'll reveal new.