The Chinese company Tecno “stole” the show at MWC 2023 with the impressive technology it showcased for the back of the smartphone, which allows the user to change their color or set it to change on its own, depending on the device’s status (e.g. to indicate the battery level).

The official name of the technology is Chameleon Coloring Technology and involves the placement of glass prisms on the back of the device, which change color when an electrical load passes through them. Essentially, the electric signal changes the position of the prism, resulting in different light reflection to change its color, and the challenge for Tecno is to manage to adapt this technology for use on portable devices and provide the ability to control the process (i.e., the sending of the electric signal) to the user.

Choose from 1,600 colors!

Logically this will happen with a separate software on the device that, according to the company, will offer a choice of 1,600 colors in the first phase for various processes. For example, the back could automatically turn red as an indication of low battery or change colors rhythmically when you listen to music.

Watch the video:

Information suggests that Tecno’s demo impressed by the response speed of the prisms (under a second). The company states that the prisms can withstand about 2 million color changes before they lose this property and believes that this is a satisfactory number to cover the average lifecycle of a smartphone.

In terms of energy consumption, Chameleon Coloring Technology will have a certain impact on the battery, but not as big as you might imagine. 1000 color changes are equivalent to the battery consumption of a 5-minute video on YouTube.

It sounds interesting, but it should be noted that for the user to see the color change, light must be present in the space they are in.