OnePlus Open evaluation: proper measurement, improper value

OnePlus likes to tout its “no compromises” tagline, however within the case of its first foldable cellphone, just a few extra compromises would have been good.

The primary drawback is the worth: $1,700. Is the OnePlus Open a cellphone that feels worthy of such a excessive price ticket? In some methods, sure. The flat edges exude iPhone in all the suitable methods. It’s skinny for a foldable, with out the chunkiness of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5. And once you open it up, the crease down the center of the interior display all however disappears. It’s a beautiful object to carry and use.

But the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Google Pixel Fold are every simply $100 extra and are IP rated for full-immersion water resistance. They additionally embrace wi-fi charging, which OnePlus continues to deal with as an non-obligatory function on high-end telephones. 

There’s loads to understand concerning the OnePlus Open’s {hardware}. There’s the useful alert slider, after all, and likewise the truth that the cellphone isn’t formed like a distant management. It’s a contented medium between the Galaxy Z Flip 5’s portrait-first orientation and the Pixel Fold’s landscape-first format.

The OnePlus Open’s outer display measures 6.3 inches with a 20:9 side ratio, which is considerably wider than the Z Fold 5’s 6.2-inch, 23.1:9 cowl display. OnePlus calls it a 2K decision display — it’s 2484 x 1116 particularly — and it’s an LTPO panel with a ten to 120Hz variable refresh price. Unfolded, the OnePlus Open matches the Pixel Fold’s thickness of 5.8mm, although the “vegan leather” black variant of the Open is 0.1mm thicker. 

The digicam “bump” on the Open is extra of a mountain. It’s a raised circle that occupies over a 3rd of the again panel, with three digicam lenses and a delicate Hasselblad H for type. OnePlus is making numerous noise about its design, which is supposed to catch the sunshine like a CD, and there’s a niche between the lenses and canopy glass that’s purported to remind you of the face on a luxurious watch. It actually instructions consideration, however I discovered its finest use is as a type of pop socket to prop the cellphone on my finger after I was utilizing it one-handed. 

On the within, the show measures 7.82 inches, with a 2440 x 2268 decision. It’s an LTPO panel, too, with variable refresh charges from 120Hz all the best way all the way down to 1Hz, and OnePlus claims the display can hit a peak brightness of two,800 nits in excessive brightness mode. That’s extremely brilliant, contemplating most flagship telephones prime out round 2,000 nits.

I noticed it ramp up in direct daylight, and I couldn’t let you know if it went all the best way as much as the highest of that vary, nevertheless it did hold the display readable even on a brilliant day. It maintained that brightness longer than the Pixel 8 or iPhone 15 Pro, each of which are inclined to darken after a couple of minutes to forestall overheating.

The inexperienced variant Open that I examined weighs 245g, and the black model is 239g. They’re each a bit lighter than the incumbents: the Z Fold 5 is 253g, and the Pixel Fold weighs 283g. The general impact is a foldable that feels nearly like a traditional cellphone when it’s closed. The lighter weight makes it extra comfy to carry for a very long time than the Pixel Fold, and the broader format means the quilt display is extra spacious than the Z Fold 5’s. 

OnePlus managed a neat trick with the crease, too. With the cellphone all the best way open, it virtually disappears until you handle to catch a mirrored image at simply the suitable angle. It’s much less pronounced once you run your finger over it than on the Pixel Fold or Galaxy Z Fold 5.

I’ve by no means discovered the crease on both of these gadgets to be bothersome since they principally disappear once you’re taking a look at them straight on anyway. But the crease does hassle some folks, and the OnePlus Open is proof {that a} almost creaseless foldable is feasible. 

The Open’s hinge is rather less stiff than the alternate options, too. You have to open it to about 45 levels to get it to remain open — something lower than that, and it snaps shut once more. The similar factor occurs on the opposite excessive — after about 135 levels, it flops all the best way open.

The firmer hinges on the Pixel Fold and Z Fold 5 will maintain the cellphone open at nearly any angle between zero and 180 levels, which might come in useful. In use, I didn’t have any drawback with the Open’s decreased flexibility, and it’s good not feeling like I’ve to pry it open each time I need to use the interior display. OnePlus says the hinge has been examined to face up to a million folding cycles, which is much more than the 200,000 folds marketed by the Pixel Fold and Z Fold 5.

There’s a catch. The Pixel and Galaxy foldables could also be heavier and creasier, however they arrive with IPX8 scores, that means they will stand up to full immersion in water. That just isn’t the case with the OnePlus Open. It’s merely splashproof, with an IPX4 score. On prime of that, long-term sturdiness is a priority with any folding cellphone. The expertise remains to be comparatively new, and it’s laborious to say precisely how effectively they’ll maintain up in the long term. Samsung and Google foldables have actually skilled their share of issues, even with full water resistance. Not to say that it’s a bit of unsettling to run round with a $1,700 that might meet an premature finish if it ever fell right into a puddle or bathroom bowl. 

For what it’s price, I haven’t encountered any severe issues within the final week that I’ve been utilizing the cellphone, and I haven’t been overly cautious with it. The cellphone stands as much as a bit of rain simply superb, and I haven’t seen any signal of mud intrusion inflicting issues with the show or hinge.

OnePlus has included some measures to cut back the probabilities of catastrophe, like drainage holes within the hinge in order that water can exit shortly. Some inside parts embrace a dispersive water resistant therapy, too. There’s a case included within the field, which is sweet, nevertheless it’s a flimsy type of body for the entrance panel and canopy for the again panel, so I wouldn’t belief it to offer any further safety. 

The OnePlus Open does the extra pedestrian cellphone stuff effectively, too. It comes with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset and a hefty 16GB of RAM for quick every day efficiency and straightforward dealing with of processor-intensive duties. The 8 Gen 2 appears to run cooler than both of the 8 Gen 1 fashions and manages battery life effectively.

I had no drawback in any respect getting by means of a full day of use on the Open by a cushty margin — a day that comprised 4 hours of screen-on time, together with about 45 minutes of Pocket City 2, solely drained the battery all the way down to 38 p.c by the top of the day. I spent my time with the Open’s always-on show enabled full time, which didn’t include any severe battery life penalties.

Fast wired charging remains to be very a lot OnePlus’ deal, and the Open helps 67W charging with the included cable and charging brick — you’ll nonetheless get quick charging for those who swap out the proprietary cable or brick, however you want each to succeed in the complete 67W. You’ll get a full cost in effectively below an hour, which suggests you’ll be able to skip the charging in a single day and energy up whilst you go about your morning routine, if you need.

But wi-fi charging is conspicuously lacking from the Open’s spec sheet, and that may be a actual bummer. Both the Z Fold 5 and Pixel Fold embrace wi-fi charging — as does just about each different cellphone bought in 2023 that prices greater than $700. Some folks can be completely proud of quick wired charging, however a cellphone at this value actually ought to embrace comfort options like wi-fi charging.

The OnePlus Open runs OxygenOS 13.2, which the corporate says it’s going to assist with 4 years of OS upgrades for the Open and 5 years of safety updates. That’s a welcome enchancment on its coverage of earlier years, and it matches Samsung’s dedication to the Z Fold 5. This iteration of OxygenOS comes with some considerate multitasking options to utilize the big interior display. You can open two apps in a cut up view, as you’d count on, however you can too add a 3rd app that type of hovers on the facet of the show so it’s partially seen and you’ll tab over to it shortly. App pairs and trios may be saved as homescreen shortcuts, too. 

It’s not fairly as versatile as Samsung’s four-app multitasking, nevertheless it’s higher than the cut up display or nothing that the Pixel Fold affords. There’s a taskbar which you can show and conceal simply, and it consists of latest apps in addition to a folder of latest paperwork. There’s additionally assist for floating home windows, which you’ll place wherever on the display, resize to your style, and decrease to a tab along side the display so you’ll be able to simply fetch them once more. 

By default, once you open an app on the interior show, it’s going to broaden to fill the entire display. Opening a second app in cut up display view doesn’t robotically resize the primary app to show on half the display, although. The first app type of scoots over, and your view of it’s reduce off.

You can work round this in settings by dictating how every particular person app ought to show on the principle display — in 16:9, 4:3, or full display. Switching to 16:9 makes room for an additional app on the unoccupied portion of the display with out chopping off the primary one. It’s a bit of inelegant, and I choose the best way the Galaxy Z Fold 5 resizes apps as you go to suit the whole lot in a single view.

Maybe it’s as a result of I simply switched from a Pixel cellphone, however the factor I’m appreciating probably the most concerning the OnePlus Open’s digicam system is its coloration rendering. The {hardware} is respectable, together with a stabilized 48-megapixel primary digicam, 64-megapixel 3x telephoto with optical picture stabilization, and a 48-megapixel ultrawide.

It all comes with Hasselblad branding and, based on the 2 firms, Hasselblad’s affect on the digicam’s coloration science. And it actually is sweet — it’s not afraid to embrace heat tones and handles blended lighting higher than most cellphone cameras. 

It’s an excellent digicam system for static scenes, however I want it dealt with shifting topics higher. The digicam tends to make use of too-slow shutter speeds in average and dim gentle, so you find yourself with numerous pictures the place your topic seems to be gentle. Forget attempting to get a low-light shot of a shifting topic. 

Portrait cutouts are often convincing, with the stray error right here and there. The telephoto lens affords a 6x lossless crop zoom mode, which is — once more — simply superb in case your topic isn’t shifting however struggles with movement. I took some photos from the stands at an NHL recreation, and it couldn’t handle a pointy shot of any of the gamers as they took the ice, despite the fact that they have been illuminated with a brilliant white highlight. One of my photographs has some uncommon artifacts the place it seems to be just like the system tried to piece collectively the shifting topic from a number of frames and couldn’t fairly get it proper. 

There’s an ordinary 32-megapixel selfie digicam on the entrance display and a 20-megapixel digicam on the interior show that’s primarily for video calls. The digicam is tucked into the nook of the show, which I a lot choose over the under-display digicam on the Z Fold 5. The solely drawback is you’ll be able to lose observe of the place it’s — helpfully, it’s illuminated by a flashing ring for a second once you flip the digicam on so the place to look. 

Video recording with the principle digicam tops out at 4K 30 / 60p, however you’ll have to drop all the way down to 1080p to make use of the extra strong stabilization mode, which does an excellent job of smoothing out jerky movement from strolling. The front-facing digicam on the quilt display information as much as 4K video, however there’s a little bit of a wobble everytime you transfer the digicam barely, just like the digital picture stabilization is preventing again in opposition to the motion. That’s not one thing I observed with the principle digicam, and for those who’re going to file selfie video, your finest wager is to unfold the cellphone and use the rear digicam with the picture preview on the quilt display — among the best tips a folding cellphone can do.

The OnePlus Open will get loads proper, nevertheless it’s laborious to suggest when an additional $100 will get you higher water resistance, wi-fi charging, and — within the case of the Galaxy Z Fold 5 — a extra mature foldable software program expertise. The Open stands to make OnePlus followers who’ve been hoping for a folding cellphone fairly comfortable — a minimum of those that are sticking round within the firm’s Oppo-ified period. 

You don’t need to be a card-carrying Red Cable Club member to understand the gadget’s form, both. It splits the distinction between the lengthy and thin Z Fold 5 and the broader Pixel Fold and comes up with one thing higher than both. It’s lighter, and it feels extra pure to make use of as an everyday smartphone when it’s closed. It’s all supported by stable efficiency, high-quality screens, and a pleasant digicam system. But at $1,700? When the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is correct there for $1,800? That’s powerful.

OnePlus can be fast to let you know that the $1,700 price ticket may be offset by buying and selling in any cellphone — any previous cellphone in any respect! — for a fast $200 low cost. That’s not an introductory deal, both; the corporate says it’s going to provide this low cost all through the lifetime of the cellphone. That’s good and all, however then why not simply make the cellphone’s MSRP $1,500? And it’s not as if OnePlus’ opponents are shy about providing promotional pricing. At the time of this writing, Samsung is providing $300 off a Galaxy Z Fold 5 for those who commerce in an previous cellphone — even one which’s cracked.

I believe the most effective factor the OnePlus Open can do is push Samsung and Google to extra aggressive innovation on their telephones. We don’t have to think about what a foldable may appear like if it occupied the center floor between the Galaxy and Pixel foldable designs — it’s proper right here, and it’s nice. The value hole between the Open and the competitors isn’t a lot, nevertheless it’s one thing a minimum of. If nothing else, it places the strain on Samsung and Google to persuade us the following time round that their gadgets are undoubtedly price the additional cash. They are proper now, however I’m starting to see the place OnePlus might actually open up some new prospects out there.

Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge