The OnePlus 11 Concept brings liquid cooling to a phone with questionable results

It’s Mobile World Congress this week, which means entering the wild world of mobile imagination. Usually, these are flexible display devices that will never see the light of day, but this year OnePlus has the “OnePlus 11 Concept” phone. This has a water cooling system called “Active CryoFlux.” We’ll try to figure this thing out, but our first bright flag is that OnePlus isn’t detailing it.

It is worth noting that OnePlus has made many concept phones, which have never affected the company’s consumer products. One phone placed electrochromic glass in front of the camera lens, which made them invisible when not in use. The other phone will change color. No other brand has ever made it a consumer phone.

OnePlus’ press release said the system features a “piezoelectric ceramic micropump at its core, which is connected to a tube sandwiched between a large upper and lower diaphragm. The micropump occupies an area of ​​less than 0.2 cm², giving and the possibility of cooling water to flow around the tube without increasing too much. OnePlus 11 Concept’s weight and thickness.”

Those prominent blue lights on the back seem to be a cooling system and not just for looks. The press release says, “The background provides an interesting view of the CryoFlux Active tube at work,” which can also be illuminated. OnePlus also says, “Active CryoFlux water flows around the camera like a halo,” so everything blue is water-cooled, according to OnePlus.

Regarding the actual results of this system, OnePlus said, “In laboratory tests, Active CryoFlux has been shown to reduce the temperature of the phone during the game by up to 2.1 ° C, improving the frame rate of the game by 3-4 degrees, or by 1.6 ° C during charging, shave 30-45 [seconds] from charging time. they probably mean “frames” – and 3-4 frames is often the wrong side of the equation. Phones are very hot and usually solve their problems by reducing the heat so they don’t get too hot. the phone is very fast, especially for long-term use, such as gaming.

The water didn’t catch on go everywhere, which would explain why the OnePlus cooling results are so low. Liquid cooling in a PC works by connecting a block of water to a hot object, such as a CPU or GPU, heating this water, and then moving it to something that will cool it, usually a radiator with some fans behind it. Is the original cooling strap duplicated here? The phone has no discernible way to cool the water once it gets hot other than cooling. There is no fan, as we have seen in other phones, and there is no radio or other cooling devices.

There seems to be only a small amount of equal-temperature liquid circulating inside, and OnePlus is hoping it will dissipate the heat as it moves around the back of the phone. It probably doesn’t help that the cooling system is inside the phone through a glass pane, which is an insulator. OnePlus also does not clearly state that the liquid cooling is logically connected to the SoC through a liquid block. It is not clear what the modified cooling is.

Finally, some manufacturers decided to define the design of the phone with “Glass Unibody,” which looks like the perfect definition of a nightmare for the durability of the phone. There seems to be nothing to this claim other than marketing: There is still a metal frame around the phone, and OnePlus’ image of the “Unibody” only seems to be a normal glass back screen. A typical “unibody” would consist of the back and frame of the phone being made from one piece, with individual electronics mounted to that area inside the phone. Thankfully OnePlus didn’t use blown glass or anything else, and there doesn’t seem to be much more glass here than the normal OnePlus 11.