OnePlus’ industrial design team revealed a couple of pictures of OnePlus Concept One prototype in a recent interview. The first look at the pictures confirms a few things about the prototype. First, it is truly beautiful and elegant. Second, it seems to be made with style in mind. The transparent electrochromic glass seems to resemble pebble-grain leather in black. There is also a black glass stripe at the back, which might be black carbon fiber. The entire cellphone has only shades of black and dark grey, leading to a monochrome appearance.
In the interview, Kevin Tao, Industrial Design team, had these things to say about the OnePlus Concept One:
OnePlus aims to achieve “burdenless design”. The company explains this process as a situation where products are not imposed on users, but rather helps in freeing them. As the phone does not have any awkward parts or poor design elements, unnecessary design aspects are not imposed on the users.
The company also plans to make invisible cameras an important part of its burdenless philosophy. The idea is to make the back camera as non-intrusive as possible. Kevin also revealed why leather seems to be a better choice for the back design. He elaborated that leather has a premium look and feel to it, and any phone that aims at the luxury market gains for its addition. Leather’s softness also adds to the “burdenless design” of the phone.
From this interview, there is one thing that is very clear
- Premium design is slowly moving towards simplicity and minimalism again
- Carbon fiber seems to be returning after a long gap in premium design concepts
- Intuitiveness user-friendliness and simplicity are all part of one plus burdenless philosophy
- Leather seems to be coming back all across design rooms
What the OnePlus Concept One reveal suggests
The interview makes it amply clear that the luxurious design has not gone out of fashion. Premium leather and high-quality materials are still in demand and people will be ready to pay as long as gadgets look good. In addition, smartphone companies such as OnePlus are bringing back minimalism and simplicity to their design policy. OnePlus calls this burdenless design.
