Tech from Tecno that makes your phone act like a Chameleon and change color

These MWC (Mobile World Congress) announcements about cool mobile tech just won’t end! But that’s what us techies like to see, right? Straight out of the future (or maybe Hogwarts?) Tecno — a technology company that makes things such as monitors, buds and phones — showcased a beautiful concept at the event: the know-how to make your phone’s back panel color change.

Picture this: a smartphone with a back panel that can gradiently shift in color as per your battery status or even on a whim, with over a thousand color options available! The future? Sounds more like magic! The official term is “Chameleon Coloring Technology” and it can be scientifically explained through “full-spectrum electrically-controller prism coloring technology”.

Great! Now let's try to explain what is going on with normal people speech!

Basically, the back panel of the concept phone is made out of a grid of prisms — those typically made of glass constructs that can bend light to produce rainbows — which are then subjected to an electric signal in order to make them physically move, so that a different color is produced.

TL;DR: When a prism shifts its position and light reaches it, a different color is produced. The problem that Tecno solved is how to deliver this tech on a portable scale and how to provide users with control over the process.



Naturally the magic will happen through dedicated software, which does not only allow users to pick from out of 1,600 different colors, but also reportedly define behaviors for the grid. For example, if your battery is getting low, the panel may shift to red, but when you are listening to music, it may dynamically change to provide a type of visualization.

As per a report from AndroidHeadlines, the prisms have a sub-second reaction time, which is impressive for sure, but the technology is limited in the form of an expiration time. Basically, after two million color swaps, the prisms will start losing their properties, but Tecno is confident that this is enough to see a smartphone lifecycle through.

But what about battery life? It will surely be impacted by having a Chameleon panel on the back of your phone. And yes, it will. But in a way that you are likely to not notice at all. A thousand color changes equate to losing as much battery life as when you are watching a five minute YouTube vid.

So overall, this sounds like an extremely engaging concept with little to no downsides. And if you are wondering where the catch is, you’d be right to suspect that one exists: prisms only bend light and don’t produce it. Or in simpler terms: the Chameleon tech won't be doing its magic in the dark. But hey: darkness is only prevalent in part of the day, so you’ll still have plenty of time to bask in the glory of a hypothetical Chameleon phone.