WTF?! Remember when PC cases didn't have tempered glass in them? Being able to see the internals used to be a luxury. Now, the majority of chassis show off your expensive hardware. However, a prebuilt system from Japan combines both elements through the use of smart glass that turns opaque with the press of a button.
The new Nextgear EG-series gaming PC from Japanese company Mouse Computer has a unique feature: a "Clear Shift" case that allows the glass panel to switch between transparent and opaque via a button on the top panel.
It's likely that the technology being used here is PDLC (Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystal) smart glass/film or something very similar.
PDLC glass contains microscopic liquid crystal droplets suspended in a polymer layer. When the power is off, the crystals are randomly arranged and scatter light, making the glass appear opaque or frosted; when electricity is applied, they align and the glass becomes transparent.
Because this alignment requires a constant electrical current, the glass only works when the PC is powered on, which is why the panel reverts to its opaque state when the system is off.
Most people want to be able to see their PC parts, but having the option to hide them could be useful. Maybe you want fewer distractions, to keep a room as dark as possible when gaming at night, or to simply hide the hardware from prying eyes.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, the Nextgear EG-series also has an LED button on the top panel for selecting different ARGB effects, with 10 different lighting patterns available.
Specs-wise, the PC packs a Ryzen 7 5700X, RTX 5060 8GB, 16GB of DDR4-3200, and a 1TB NVMe SSD. It's definitely a more mid-range option, so the $1,103 price seems a bit steep, but a chunk of that might be for the smart glass.
Response to the case has been mixed. Some think it's an excellent idea, while others say it's a completely pointless gimmick that needlessly inflates the price. Let us know what you think in the comments below.