The OnePlus 11 is mostly a return to form for the Chinese smartphone maker. Our review noted how OnePlus had made the right compromises to make a worthy smartphone of the company’s original Never Settle motto after a few years of underwhelming flagship phones. The latest phone scored an eight in our review, but one of the drawbacks is the fact the design is just... fine. It isn’t particularly remarkable.

The newly announced OnePlus 11 Concept is different. It was revealed at MWC 2023, and it embarrasses the newly on-sale flagship from OnePlus because of its largely traditional design. I’ve had the opportunity to try out the new Concept device in real life. First things first, it’s unlikely you’ll ever be able to buy this. These concept devices from OnePlus appear every couple of years, and they’re purely designed to show off new technologies rather than be devices the company intends to sell.

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The OnePlus 11 Concept is a repeat of that strategy, and it’s designed to show off both new internal tech and a new design. Largely this is the OnePlus 11, but the phone features a different effect on the rear designed to emulate what OnePlus refers to as the “blood vessels of the phone”. This is eye-catching with a light-up rear that flows like a river on the rear of the phone and then circles around the rear camera in a halo-like effect.

The big internal change here is interconnected to that rear design, and this is what the company is calling its Active CryoFlux mobile cooling technology. OnePlus says this is a “gamechanger in mobile cooling technology”. The big stat here is the fact the tech can reduce the phone’s temperature by 2.1°C during gaming sessions allowing for three to four extra frames while you’re gaming. It’ll also help during charging by dropping the phone’s temperature 1.6°C, which OnePlus says will allow your phone to charge 30 to 45 seconds faster. The tech took two years to build, and it has been designed entirely in-house at OnePlus.

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These aren’t game-changing specs in my eyes, but if you’re into gaming you’ll know that every extra frame matters. This tech may be the next step to make major improvements in mobile gaming performance. So the rear design comes from the CryoFlux tech working inside and the translucent back of the phone allows you to see it at work. That improved performance largely won’t matter to most people, especially if you're not a big gamer. I do enjoy how this is more than just some pretty lights on the rear, and it's tied into the phone's unique functionality. You should note that the translucent back doesn't mean you can see the other internals of the phone though.

Sadly I haven’t been able to test out any gaming on the OnePlus 11 Concept, so we’ll have to take the company at its word for its performance improvements. While the tech sounds remarkable for the fact OnePlus has shrunk down hardware that is normally fit for gaming PCs, the improvements don’t sound worthwhile just yet. This CryoFlux tech is likely to take up a lot of room inside the device.

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Unlike traditional phone launches, we’ve yet to hear the specs of the OnePlus 11 Concept either. I’d be surprised if this has the exact same internals as the flagship from the company. The handset felt lighter than the standard OnePlus 11 in my quick demo, and we weren’t able to play around with most of the main elements of the phone.

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That doesn’t matter though as the OnePlus 11 Concept isn’t a phone you’ll ever be able to buy. Instead, it’s a statement of intent from the company to show off where the company may be heading in years to come. I don’t ever expect to see this exciting rear design on the main flagship series — we’ve yet to truly see a OnePlus Concept influence the design of the mainline phones — but it shows a playful side to OnePlus we don’t always get anymore.