(Image credit: OnePlus)

OnePlus Nord 2 Pac-Man phone is here, and it glows in the dark

Yours to buy or win

by · TechRadar

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.

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.

The OnePlus 8T Cyberpunk 2077 Edition (Image credit: Future)

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.

James Rogerson James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps.