OnePlus Open is what the Galaxy Z Fold 5 shouldve been, but Im not sold on folding phones (yet

Publish date: 2024-05-30

really is OnePlus’ first attempt at a folding phone, and that’s because OnePlus’ sister company Oppo has been making excellent foldables for a while now. One of them, the Oppo Find N3, launched at the very same time as the

, and the two are pretty much the same phone, with the former being intended for sale in China.

But guess what… “Normal people” don't tend to care about any of that. In fact, as far as the average American is concerned, Oppo doesn’t even exist, and that’s why it’s pretty fair to treat the Open as OnePlus’ first-gen foldable, which it very much is.

Then, putting the Open in the context of the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Pixel Fold (the only real foldable alternatives in the US and Europe) makes OnePlus’ device seem even more special. But Google aside (I’m doing a separate story there), what stands out is that the OnePlus Open is pretty much what the Galaxy Z Fold 5 should’ve been - at least if you ask most tech nerds I’ve come across. And I’m jumping on the same wagon.

The OnePlus Open is a better version of the Galaxy Z Fold 5 in (almost) every single way

Oppo… Sorry… OnePlus nailed the design of the OnePlus Open from the very first try.

The OnePlus Open isn’t perfect - it lacks wireless charging; it’s only splash-proof instead of water-resistant, and it launches with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 as Qualcomm’s next flagship chip is days away from becoming official. But I’d argue all of this is easy to overlook considering how good it is in all other aspects.

In terms of design, while aesthetics are a personal preference, I think the OnePlus Open looks bolder than the Fold 5, and that’s something I’ve always liked in phones; what isn’t based on preference is that the OnePlus Open is about 15g lighter than the Fold 5, as well as nearly 2mm thinner, which makes it feel a whole lot more like a “normal phone” (it’s actually the same weight as the iPhone 14 Pro Max)

However, where the OnePlus Open runs all over the the Galaxy Z Fold 5 is in the display department - it has a wider, much more usable cover screen; brighter panels in and out; a nearly invisible crease; and even more importantly, awesome anti-reflective coating on the inner display that makes it look much cleaner than the Fold 5’s screen - quite literally

The OnePlus Open also reimagines the multitasking experience on foldables through a new take on multitasking called “Open Canvas”, which seems more intuitive than any other interpretation of this feature I’ve ever seen; seriously, it’s incredible, and I’ll get into more detail in a bit

Thanks to what according to OnePlus is literally an indefinite $200 trade-in offer, the starting price of the Open comes down to $1,500 for the (only) 512GB version; to take advantage of the deal, you must trade in any working or broken phone you have in your drawer; this (effectively) makes the OnePlus Open $500 cheaper than the equivalent version of the Fold 5 (or Pixel Fold) at launch, which is pretty impressive

Irony for smartphone nerds ahead: The OnePlus Open is called the “Open” but its cover display makes it much more usable when the phone is Closed or… “Fold-ed”. Meanwhile, the Galaxy Z “Fold” is more usable in its “Open” state, and pretty clunky in its “Fold-ed” form due to the narrow cover display.

OnePlus Open makes history as the first globally available folding phone with a flagship-grade camera system

3x Portrait mode, 1x, 3x.

The OnePlus Open also brings a noticeably more powerful camera system compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 5 (and than any other folding phone, really).

The Open seems to take noticeably better low-light photos with the Open’s zoom and ultra-wide cameras performing far better in low-light than the Fold. However, the OnePlus Open is prone to overexposing photos taken in daylight (which can easily be fixed with a software update).

The OnePlus Open might be the first instance of a folding phone that brings an outright better camera system than the company’s “normal” flagship phone. which is pretty unheard of, and something we’ll probably never see from Samsung, Google, or Xiaomi.

The Open has a larger, newer primary camera sensor, and a larger, longer (3x vs 2x), higher res optical zoom module than the OnePlus 11. An exception is the selfie camera, which is better on the “normal flagship”, but then again - you can use the cameras on the back of the OnePlus Open for selfie photos/videos, which flips the script.

Genius software innovation from OnePlus: Samsung and Google need to copy the Open Canvas multitasking abilities of the OnePlus Open now

The approach OnePlus has chosen for the multitasking of the OnePlus Open is pretty genius. If you open three apps in split screen, you can have one of them (or a third) take up a tiny space on the top or side of the screen - you can then summon it with just a tap, which allows you to fly between full/half screen apps in no time.

Innovation doesn’t only happen through hardware, and OnePlus proves this with the new multitasking experience on the OnePlus Open, which is like nothing I’ve seen before, and I… love it!

The official name of the multitasking experience in “Open Canvas”. Essentially, it lets you run three apps side-by-side, with only two of them running at the same time. The nice twist is that you can keep the third app just a tap away (and still see it), while having two apps running in large windows in their native aspect ratio (for a normal phone), which guarantees they are always running as intended.

You can even pinch to zoom out, which lets you surf through the apps you’ve opened, creating the illusion of having a much larger “Open Canvas” to work with than the 7.8-inch display would suggest. It’s almost like magically expanding the already large inner display.

Frankly, it’s really difficult to explain in writing, but trust me - the new take on multitasking that OnePlus introduced with the OnePlus Open sets a new standard for how I’ll see and judge this feature on future folding phones from now on, and this means a lot.

When it comes to phones (“normal” or foldable), innovation of any kind is extremely rare these days, so kudos to OnePlus for pulling off something so clever that even the likes of Apple and Google would be jealous of.

The OnePlus Open’s superpower is that it (really) costs “just” $1,500, which makes it an incredible deal for a tablet-style folding phone

Including the $200 trade-in offer, the OnePlus Open’s 512GB variant costs $500 less than the equivalent version of the Galaxy Z Fold 5 at launch.

Including the indefinite $200 trade-in offer for any working/broken phone you might have in your drawer, the OnePlus Open effectively costs $500 less than the equivalent version of the Galaxy Z Fold 5 at launch, and considering how pricey foldables can get, this matters.Moreover, OnePlus is incredibly generous, giving you 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage, and a whopping 16GB of RAM for “only” $1,500. Now, does this make the OnePlus “affordable” in any way? Not at all. But it does make for a pretty sensible price, considering the prices we’re used to, and given what you get for the money.

In terms of the inevitable “foldable vs normal phone” comparison, the OnePlus Open costs only $100 more than the iPhone 15 Pro Max (matched for storage), which, in this price range, is practically irrelevant. Not to make it seem like $100 is “nothing”, but if you’re already willing to pay $1,400 for a phone, what’s $100 on top?

The $1,500 OnePlus Open won’t make anyone throw away their iPhone/Galaxy, but it changes the way folding phones are perceived by the average user

But what does the (relatively) more accessible and certainly more sensible $1,500 starting price of the OnePlus Open really mean in the context of foldables and their way to becoming “normal”?

Well, in my view, there are two important takeaways here:

The OnePlus Open is the cheapest tablet-style folding phone on the global market right now, and this is kind of a big deal - not to mention it should only be getting cheaper (and therefore easier to recommend) throughout the rest of 2023 and 2024

While the more acceptable pricing isn’t necessarily a reason to go out and buy a foldable, it’s more important that price is no longer a reason to avoid tablet-style folding phones in case you’ve always had your eye on one

OnePlus Open: Possibly the best folding phone (for most people) makes me excited for those who want a foldable - but that might not be me

I'm not sure the OnePlus Open has all it takes to get me to switch from my so-called normal phone.

Unfortunately, what stands out most about the OnePlus Open is that the best thing about it is also the worst thing about it - at least for me.

In other words, folding phones are now the closest to “normal” they’ve ever been, and even their prices are (slowly) coming down. But at the same time, why am I not so excited to buy and use one over a slab phone?

In my view, it’s the fact that foldables took a while to get to that “normal”, or “feeling as good as a normal” state, which makes the once mind-blowing innovation of the whole foldable experience take a backseat, and feel like a less impressive achievement today.

Technology moves forward fast, and I’m afraid by the time folding phones get to that “totally normal” state and price point, the world will have moved on to something else - whether that's rollable phones (which already seem more practical from a design standpoint); folding tablets (which might turn out to be more practical than folding phones), or even AR/VR headsets, which unlike foldables, offer something completely new.

The silver lining, IMO, is that every time I come out and say that a piece of tech doesn’t excite me enough to buy it, I look at this as a challenge for the companies that make it. But for now… I need a bit more to get rid of my boring but reliable iPhone/Pixel.

Right now, even though the OnePlus Open might be my first choice for a tablet-style foldable, I'd still pick an iPhone 15 Pro Max or a Xiaomi 13 Ultra to use on a daily basis. The former is arguably the most reliable phone on the market right now, while the latter (arguably) takes the best pictures.

“It folds” isn’t enough of a selling point for me, considering I can get a better camera, better battery, a more durable design, and faster performance with a regular slab phone. But foldables are slowly getting there - it’s about time. I just hope they won’t be far less exciting once they actually get there.