OnePlus to launch a PacMan-themed phone

There's plenty of "special" or "limited-time" smartphone editions out there to catch your eye and make you dish out a couple of extra bucks to stand out from the crowd—for example, we've got the luxurious Thom Browne Edition of the Galaxy Z Fold 3 becoming somewhat of a staple for Samsung's Fold series.

But there's none who do it quite like OnePlus does it. The Shenzhen-based company has never been one to sell out to the luxury smartphone ideal for a ridiculous premium, but it has certainly come up with some unique pieces of custom-themed fanboy fodder over the past years—and it's always exciting to find out what the next theme of their special edition phones is going to be.

We are now waiting for the OnePlus Nord 2 x Pac-Man Edition to be officially announced, and in the meantime, we've got some juicy tidbits to share about the upcoming handset. 

If you're one of the more OG millennials, or an honorary boomer, who remembers the good ol' days of the arcades—where you could enjoy hours of fun with your friends without a note of worry about graphics or FPS drops—this is your chance to pay homage to one of the most popular video games of all time: Pac-Man.

OnePlus' latest custom design is set to be essentially a glammed-up version of the OnePlus Nord 2, with a few extra caveats: unlike previous "special edition" OnePlus phones, this one will have more than its outer design changed. 

AndroidCentral has reported, after private communication with the company, that OnePlus is delivering a specially re-designed user interface that has a gaming-themed feel and look to it, that sets the phone apart in more ways than physical looks.

"OnePlus deeply customized the hardware and software of the OnePlus Nord 2 x PAC-MAN Edition," says Oliver Zhang, who is in charge of the OnePlus product portfolio, "infusing it with endless fun and entertainment from the classic PAC-MAN arcade game."

The phone will bring custom OxygenOS icons styled on an arcade video game theme, and it features retro animations and live (and static) wallpapers to match. 

But perhaps most excitingly of all, the handset will come with the classic Pac-Man 256 game baked into it, where completing challenges will unlock extra content and customizations integrated into the system software itself that you can enjoy.

The phone will come with a tastefully designed body that, as you might expect, just screams Pac-Man, but in the most stylish way possible. The phone's back features a neon-colored Pac-Man maze that literally glows in the dark—with a "dual film, color, material, and finish (CMF)" that comes chock-full of Pac-Man-themed elements.

Frustratingly, OnePlus has yet to reveal a single photo of the exciting new phone, apart from a blog post announcing its upcoming launch. We'll make sure to let you know as soon as we have pictures!

Apart from the re-designed user interface and body, the Pac-Man Edition will have the same hard specs as the regular OnePlus Nord 2. 

That is to say, a MediaTek Dimensity 1200 chipset, a 50MP sharpshooter (with an extra Pac-Man filter, by the way), a 90Hz AMOLED display, and 65W fast charging with a battery that should last you a full day.

While the regular Nord 2 comes with a couple of options for storage and memory, the Pac-Man phone is set to come in a single variant with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage.

Once the Pac-Man Edition is released (which will likely be very soon), it is expected to sell in India, the United Kingdom, and throughout the rest of Europe upon launch. Unfortunately, it won't be sold in the United States, just like the regular Nord and Nord 2 didn't—but that doesn't mean it's impossible to get your hands on one in the US, if it's really your thing.

As for the price of this special edition handset, well, it will actually debut at a slightly lower price compared to OnePlus' exclusive handsets from the past few years.

Considering that the standard OnePlus Nord 2 price (with the same specs as the Pac-Man edition) clocks in at €499, you'd be paying a nearly negligible $30 premium for the limited edition—which may just make it one of the most popular OnePlus special edition to date, along with the re-designed user interface.

Last year, OnePlus fashioned an exquisite Cyberpunk 2077-themed limited edition to surprise its fans, just in time for the release date of what has become one of the most popular PC games yet.

Before that, OnePlus had entered into a partnership with Disney to create a OnePlus 5T Star Wars Edition, then followed up with a OnePlus 6 Avengers Edition to celebrate the ultra blockbuster Avengers: Infinity War.

And of course, we can't forget the classic McLaren Edition collab, which ran for the OnePlus 6T and the 7T Pro from 2019. This year, the PacMan Edition is looking like it's set to be one of the most popular special edition models yet, and we can't wait to see what OnePlus dreams up for us in the future!