Phone makers collaborating with other brands to bring out special editions isn’t an unusual occurrence, but this latest pairing from OnePlus is a bit surprising, as the brand has announced a OnePlus Nord 2 Pac-Man Edition phone.
The company hasn’t actually shown the phone off yet, but has said that it has a dual-layer design on the back cover which incorporates phosphorescent ink allowing it to glow in the dark. That glow in the dark section shows off the famous Pac-Man maze.
Beyond that, the OnePlus Nord 2 Pac-Man Edition also has customized software that's full of nods to Pac-Man along with games, challenges and hidden Pac-Man content, some of which you’ll apparently need to unlock. Hopefully all these changes won’t make it any harder for OnePlus to update the software.
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In any case, the specs of the OnePlus Nord 2 Pac-Man Edition are the same as the those of the standard Nord 2, but this will only be available in a version with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, which is a match for the top Nord 2 model.
If you’re interested, you’ll be able to grab it for £499 (around $675 / AU$910 but with no US or Australian availability planned). That's marginally more than the same specs on the standard OnePlus Nord 2 cost.
You also have a chance to win the OnePlus Nord 2 Pac-Man Edition by playing Pac-Man on the OnePlus site. Score high before the end of November 10 and you’ll be in with a chance of either winning the phone or winning the ability to order it early – and to get a free pair of OnePlus Buds Z with your order.
The game will start back up again from November 12 -15, during which time the winners will get a voucher allowing them to claim a free pair of OnePlus Buds Z with their order (but no early access).
Exactly when orders will open or how the phone will look isn’t clear yet, but we should find out more soon.
Analysis: not the first and it won’t be the last
As noted, special editions of phones aren’t a new idea. In fact, even OnePlus has dabbled before. Last year for example the company launched a OnePlus 8T Cyberpunk 2077 Edition, so that too was a video game tie-in, albeit a more current if less iconic one.
Before that, the company sold a OnePlus 7T Pro McLaren Edition – so that one was themed around the famous sports car.
Huawei has also done similar, with Porsche Design versions of some of its flagships, and we’ve seen other sorts of tie-ins too, such as the Samsung Galaxy S21 Olympic Games Edition.
We’d expect to see many more in future – including from OnePlus itself, though it remains to be seen whether the company’s next special edition phone will be yet another game tie-in.
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