Chinese phone brand Infinix is known for its bright concepts, and at this year’s MWC, the company is looking to the sky for inspiration. It is showing a phone with an integrated solar panel on the back, as well as a solar charging case. They are both at the concept stage, but the demos I saw at MWC were functional and the idea is very appealing.
Infinix calls this technology SolarEnergy-Reserving, and it uses perovskite solar cells, just like Anker’s beach umbrella and raincoat concept. These cells are thinner and cheaper to manufacture than traditional silicon solar cells. This is combined with a system that helps regulate the voltage called Maximum Power Point Tracking. The idea is to maximize power while managing heat; sitting in the hot sun can be good for solar cells, but in general it’s not good if you want to keep your phone from overheating. As it exists now, this technology can charge a phone with up to 2 watts of power and is designed to replenish the phone’s reserved charge when not in use.
A phone with a built-in solar panel on the back is self-explanatory, but I think the case is more interesting. It is combined with a prototype phone that has a couple of small contacts on the side to transfer energy from the case. Being able to swap it out for a regular case when you go out at night, say, would make sense. It would also be handy to have it on hand during a power outage.
Infinix is also having a little fun at MWC, and is also showing off its second-generation color-changing E Ink phone. In the previous version, the back panel only changed color when plugged in. Now it’s powered by the phone’s internal battery and can be customized with a variety of patterns and palettes.
They all look pretty similar, but in theory you can choose a photo as inspiration for the color palette or set it to change according to the weather. Since it’s 2025, it does this with the help of, you guessed it, artificial intelligence.
