In 2018, Dai Nippon Printing unveiled an e-ink dress that allowed you to create new designs in an instant. Last year BMW showed the i Vision Dee concept carwhich also had color-changing e-ink panels. Wouldn’t it be a shame to have such things if your phone couldn’t customize its appearance?
Infinix loves experimenting with this kind of technology. The Infinix Concept Phone 2021 had both a solid electrochromic film that could change color and an electroluminescent film that could light up. Earlier this year we got hands-on experience with another prototype device being used E color shift to change the appearance of his back. Today we look at the next evolution of this technology: E-Color Shift 2.0.
Infinix concept phone with E-Color Shift 2.0
First of all, what is it? It covers the back of the phone and can change color at the user’s request. It is similar to e-ink, where it takes a while for the new colors to sink in. But once they get established, they don’t require power and will remain there even if you turn off the phone. Note that this isn’t a display, it can’t actually draw things, but it can change the color of different elements individually.
And this is where v2.0 wins over v1.0: the original E-Color Shift concept phone could only change the color of four quadrants on the back in a 2×2 grid. The new version can turn the background plus several foreground elements into quite freeform patterns. This allows you to create many more different looks.
The ColorShift app controls the rear
You control the back via the ColorShift app – you can choose from six different designs and six different color palettes. Look at the palettes (the colorful circles in the screenshots below), the top left quadrant represents the background. It can be white, black, orange, yellow or blue. The other elements are colored so that they stand out well against the background.
Here are some of the different looks you can enable:
Yellow, white and blue backgrounds with E-Color Shift 2.0
And some different patterns so you can see the different elements that can be controlled:
Various pattern options
The colors aren’t particularly vibrant (especially yellow and orange), but the blue is a nice, inky color. The blue and black wallpapers really change the look of the phone.
You can also go for a white background, which then only shows a pattern of diamond shapes on the back. Or even disable this feature for a simple look. If you do that, you can’t really tell that anything is there.
Or you can take the fun option and enable the Loop Display switch in the app. It will cycle through different designs and animate them as you go. This keeps things moving, but will get better once technology improves and can change colors more quickly.
As with previous concept phones, Infinix is exploring different ways to use color-changing technology beyond just the appearance.
Incoming and especially missed calls and new messages can be displayed on this back. We say “mainly” because it takes some time for the colors to settle, meaning this isn’t suitable for “Pay attention to me now” type notifications. As usual, notifications on the back face the same problem: most people hold their phones with the screen facing up. Especially since most phones have always-on displays, which handle notifications just fine.
But with this, you will know that you have missed a call even if your phone battery is dead! Then you can plug it in and watch the colors change as the phone finishes charging.
Infinix also explores how this technology can be a reflection of you, beyond your style and color preferences. AI Emotions Recognition analyzes your photos and detects how you feel. Then the back changes to reflect those feelings.
Likewise, it can detect weather conditions and adjust accordingly: a nice yellow background for sunny days or blue for gloomy, rainy days. We think this is a nice idea, but we would rather have it linked to the weather forecast than to photos.
ColorShift styles can be created based on weather, emotions and colors
One day in the not-so-distant future, this technology could put an end to different color SKUs for phones – the back color will just be a setting, similar to your wallpaper. And as the technology matures, it can form complex patterns so your phone looks different every day.
Of course, this could turn out to be one of those “in the year 2000” predictions that never comes true. And it can be for the most mundane reasons, like people putting cases on their phones. E-Color Shift does work with transparent covers, for what that’s worth. Either way, we like to see innovation and forward thinking, even if it never makes it past the prototype stage.