Eau de Android: Get ready for scented smartphones

This upcoming phone will smell as good as it looks... for about six months.

Apr 7, 2025 - 20:32

Eau de Android: Get ready for scented smartphones

Infinix is preparing to release an Android phone that has a built-in aroma.
The Infinix Note 50s 5G+ will use microencapsulation to incorporate scent into its vegan “leather” back.
The scent should last for up to six months before fasing.

The best-executed smartphones around offer something to satisfy many of the senses. Big, beautiful screens and finely crafted design are a delight to our eyes. Stereo speakers deliver rich, booming audio and let us take calls over speakerphone in a pinch. And some of the most premium models manage to combine sleek panels of metal and glass in a way that just fees enormously satisfying in the hand. Now one phone manufacturer is about get us thinking about a new way to titillate the senses, with the introduction of a phone that offers a signature scent.

It’s not too often that we bother to think about how our electronics smell. When we do, it’s often in a profoundly negative context, like when someone notices that Samsung’s S Pen has a weird smell to it. But while we occasionally see the odd entry like that ASUS Fragrance Mouse, for the most part it feels like most phone makers just don’t have olfactory considerations on the radar.