If you’ve ever thought, “Wow, my phone’s rear is so boring,” then Infinix has something just for you. At MWC 2025, the brand unveiled its E-Colour Shift 2.0 concept. Essentially, it’s a phone that changes its rear design on demand thanks to tech that’s similar to e-readers. And after getting hands on with it, I can confidently say… it’s really cool, if a bit over the top. But I can’t help but think that it would make more sense on a case instead.
This isn’t the first time Infinix has toyed with colour-changing tech, but this new iteration takes it up a notch. The backplate of the phone can shift between different colours and patterns in real-time. There’s an AI-powered app that lets you make designs based on your surroundings, wallpaper, or even the weather. Want your phone’s back to match your outfit? It takes just a few seconds. The only caveat? It needs a Wi-Fi connection to process these changes, which seems like an odd limitation, but hey, it’s a concept.
If you’d rather keep things simple, you can manually choose from six different patterns and six colour palettes, giving you 30 unique combinations. While the colour options are still a bit limited, I’d expect that to change once the technology matures. Still, the customisation aspect is fun, and it’s an easy way to differentiate your phone from the sea of boring black slabs out there.
But, of course, there are some drawbacks. The colour-changing area isn’t the entire back of the phone. Instead, it’s a smaller panel surrounded by a chunky white bezel, which slightly kills the illusion. And while Infinix claims the power consumption is minimal (thanks to E-Ink-like efficiency), I’d still like to see long-term battery impact before getting too excited. I will say that over the few days I had the phone, it didn’t seem to make a huge difference.
This concept is built on the Infinix Zero 40 smartphone, which launched last August. That means under the hood, you’re looking at a 6.78-inch curved display, a MediaTek Dimensity 8200 chipset, 12GB of RAM, and a 5000mAh battery – all respectable specs for a mid-range device. The curved back design also helps make it feel thinner in hand, which is a nice touch.
Unlike most concept tech that never leaves the showroom floor, E-Colour Shift 2.0 is already functional, and Infinix believes it’ll be ready for a mainstream device sooner rather than later. I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw this tech pop up in an actual retail phone in the next year or so.
But I’m not sure that’s the right approach. Most people (myself excluded, much to the horror of many) slap a phone case on the back of their handset. So you can’t actually see the rear. In fact, I’d almost argue that smartphone designs don’t much matter these days. So it seems somewhat short-sighted to make a design-changing smartphone rear, when most would want to cover it.
Instead, this tech should be applied to a smartphone case – much like Infinix’s own solar-charging smartphone concept. In that case, people might actually get to see and enjoy their customised phone design, rather than covering it with some silicone.
Does the world need AI-powered colour-shifting phone backs? Probably not. But is it a fun, unique way to add personality to your device? Absolutely. Whether or not this feature catches on remains to be seen, but one thing’s for sure – Infinix is determined to stand out from the crowd.