OnePlus 16 Announces Gift Box with the Fan Ren Animated Series for October 12

OnePlus announced this October 10 a gift box in collaboration with the animated series Fan Ren (Fanren Xiu Xian Zhuan), which will launch alongside the OnePlus 16 on October 12 at 19:00. The package arrives just before the new flagship's release and is designed to appeal to both the Chinese animation community and those looking for a high-performance phone.

The box takes classic elements from the series' cultivation world and turns them into everyday accessories. Everything revolves around Han Li, the protagonist, and his most recognizable weapons.

Inside the package there is a magnetic phone stand shaped like a rotating sword, which recreates the classic sword formation from the series. It works as a desk decoration and also holds the phone in landscape or portrait orientation.

Stylized sword from the collaboration between OnePlus and the Fan Ren animated series.m.sohu.com

It also includes a metal SIM ejector card and a magnetic case themed after the Qingzhu Fengyun sword. These pieces replicate the details of the original weapon and place them into objects used every day.

Gift box from the collaboration with a sword design and the OnePlus logo.m.sohu.com

The set is completed by a translucent postcard and a sliding fridge magnet. With these, it covers everything from collecting to the desk or the home, aiming to keep the collaboration from being purely functional.

OnePlus did not choose this IP at random. The OnePlus 16 is marketed as a phone geared toward extreme performance and gaming, a message that fits the growth and combat tone of Fan Ren.

The phone arrives with the sixth-generation Snapdragon 8 Super Extreme processor and a new game engine called Fengchi. On AnTuTu it surpasses 5.63 million points, placing it in the top tier of Android devices in raw performance.

The display is a fourth-generation oriental screen developed with BOE, with 165 Hz global via hardware. In games it can reach peaks of 185 Hz, paired with the P4 display chip, which reduces ghosting in fast-paced scenes.

The battery goes up to 9,000 mAh with 100 W wired charging and 50 W wireless. For photography, OnePlus addresses the previous generation's shortcomings with a 200-megapixel main sensor at 1/1.4 inches, the LUMO system, and a Sony IMX882 telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom.

It also debuts triple-frequency GPS and quad-frequency Beidou, designed to improve outdoor accuracy.

The Collaboration as Strategy

Collaborations with Chinese IPs are no longer simple piles of products with a logo. Here there is a selection of accessories that tries to mix real utility with collectible value.

OnePlus is targeting a dual audience: those who follow Chinese animation and those who buy a flagship for its specs. The box does not change the phone's features, but it adds a layer of identity that can make a difference in such a repetitive market.

The Fan Ren Xiu Xian Zhuan franchise is one of the most popular in the cultivation genre in China, with years of history across novels, manhua, and now animation. Putting its iconography into a mass-market product like a OnePlus phone says a lot about the weight these properties carry beyond the page.

It remains to be seen whether the box will be sold separately or tied to the purchase of the OnePlus 16, a detail the announcement does not clarify. It also does not mention whether it will be released outside China.

Are you interested in this type of collaboration, or do you prefer brands to stick to hardware only? Let us know in the comments.