OnePlus is diving into the world of foldables to take on Google and Samsung.
The Chinese company has revealed its first foldable, the OnePlus Open, a luxury device that unfolds to reveal a massive 7.82-inch tablet-sized internal screen. When opened, it’s a tad bigger than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5.
Weighing in at 245g, it’s also slightly lighter than Samsung and Google’s latest foldables. Apart from that, it’s roughly the same size as the competition when unfolded (5.8 mm).
Price
Best of all, it's a bit cheaper than those rivals, which will set you back upwards of £1,700. The OnePlus Open, by comparison, costs £1,599. Hardly a steal, but this type of competitive pricing could lead to cheaper folding phones further down the line.
Pre-orders for the OnePlus Open kick off on October 20 ahead of its October 26 release date.
Display
On the outside of the phone is a 6.31-inch display with a sumptuous peak brightness of 2,800 nits. While its slick 120Hz resolution, and Dolby Vision HDR support, should make it great for gaming and high-quality Netflix binges. The phone’s dual displays are Amoled with 2K resolution.
To add some oomph to its performance, OnePlus has stuck the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip inside the phone. The same processor can be found in the OnePlus 11, along with a slew of the best Android phones. That’s not the only feature borrowed from the OnePlus family as the alert slider is also back. The button to switch between notifications (like silent, vibrate, and ring) has been shifted to the middle of the frame for easier access when folded.
Durability
Of course, if you’re willing to splurge on such an expensive piece of kit, you’ll want it to last. In that vein, OnePlus claims the cover screen is shielded by toughened ceramic crystals. This apparently makes it 20 per cent more impact-resistant than the Corning Gorilla Glass Victus found on Samsung and Sony’s top phones.
Ultimately, OnePlus boasts that the phone will last for more than 10 years. That’s one million folds, in case you were wondering, or 100 folds per day. It’s worth noting that those numbers are produced from lab tests on the phone – and, as we’ve seen in real-life demonstrations, they may not reflect everyday use.
OnePlus also says it used 69 components on the phone’s hinge, versus the average 100 parts used by other brands, but what that means for the phone’s general usability remains to be seen.
Camera
Elsewhere, the OnePlus Open packs three cameras on the back inside a very noticeable circular bump that’s bound to be a divisive design choice. They include a 48MP main camera, a 64MP periscope telephoto with 6x in-sensor lossless zoom, and a 48MP ultra-wide angle camera with AutoFocus. On the front are two selfie snappers: a 20MP sensor on the main display and a 32MP camera on the cover screen.
The OnePlus Open is the first foldable to offer Sony’s latest camera sensor, which should help you to capture brighter, clearer images with significantly less overexposure. Photography enthusiasts will also be happy to learn that the telephoto camera – the largest-ever on a folding phone – has up to 120X Ultra Res Zoom.
Software
Like other OnePlus phones, the Open offers the same OxygenOS operating system based on Android. Only here, you can stretch and resize app windows to take advantage of the added screen real estate.
It’s all thanks to a new, productivity-oriented Open Canvas feature that allows you to open up to four app windows at once. It also packs a desktop-style taskbar at the bottom of the bigger display for quick access to recent apps.
All told, it's great to see OnePlus embracing folding phones.
