Introduction:
Alright, it’s that time of the year again. I’ve got the OnePlus Open, and we’re going to talk about this device—my thoughts and opinions six months later, halfway into its life cycle. I’ll be straightforward: I think the OnePlus Open set the bar for what a foldable needs to be, especially in 2024.
I’ve been testing other phones after the OnePlus Open, like the OnePlus 12. This is a great phone, by the way. Definitely be sure to check it out—I have some videos on it on the channel. Awesome device. OnePlus has been doing a great job lately, but they have set the bar for what a foldable needs to be, in my opinion.
OnePlus open Display:
I’ve said this before on the channel: I love this device. So, starting things off with design, the alert slider has been phenomenal. Just having the alert slider on this has been great, and it’s something I love about OnePlus devices.
The Always-On (AO) screen is like a conventional smartphone. I can use it without opening it up, which I absolutely do appreciate. Whereas, the Z Fold 5 is too thin. The Pixel Fold is also really good, so I have nothing wrong with that. It’s also a conventional smartphone; it’s also really good.
The inner display, I got to say, makes watching YouTube videos great. I got back to Clash of Clans on the OnePlus Open, and switching to other conventional smartphones like the Galaxy S24 Ultra, the OnePlus 12, and the Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra, I haven’t been playing Clash of Clans as often. This just made me want to play because of that larger screen.
OnePlus open Fold:
The OnePlus Open folds completely flat. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it would open flat at first, and now it’s just something I noticed—it doesn’t fold as flat, like it doesn’t fold a full 180°. That’s just something I noticed. I think it’s perfectly fine. The crease is, again, really not that noticeable. If you really stick it up in your face and look at it from different angles, yeah, you’re going to notice the crease, but I really don’t see it 99% of the time. You can feel your finger run across it too, but again, I don’t think about it 99% of the time. I’m only thinking about it right now because I’m talking about it. So, just take it from my word: it really doesn’t get in the way of using this device.
Amazing display, though. The inner display and outer display get super bright. Max peak brightness of 2,800 nits, 120Hz. It’s awesome, like it’s really good, even by 2024 standards.
Specs and Performance:
And that’s to be expected. You get a phone from the year prior, and it’s not going to just stop working really well in one year. It’s still going to perform really well. That’s how far we’ve gotten with smartphone performance. They’ve gotten so good that you can use a 2-year-old or 3-year-old device and it’ll still perform really well.
One thing I love about this is that OnePlus goes big on specs. They’ve always had a “flagship killer” mentality: 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage. You’re not getting 16GB of RAM on the Pixel Fold or the Z Fold 5. Notice I’m not talking about their successors because those are still in the rumor mill. We don’t know what’s going on. We’re hearing about the Z Fold 6 Lite, Z Fold 6, and Z Fold 6 Ultra. We’ve heard things like a Pixel Fold 2, but now we’re hearing it’s going to be called Pixel 9 Pro Fold. It’s all over the place, so I’m not talking about those devices. I’m talking about what this currently competes with.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 performs much better than the Pixel Fold’s Tensor (I believe it was a G3 or G2). It performs better than the Tensor chipset and about the same as the Galaxy Z Fold 5 with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 as well. But here’s the thing: I think having more RAM and more storage should be a part of a foldable powerhouse of a device. Daily use has been great with almost no hiccups. The one thing that has annoyed me is clearing notifications from the lock screen. It takes about 3 to 4 times to clear them and they’re still present. I think that’s a software fix that can be addressed, but OnePlus has not fixed it yet.
Everything else has been great. OnePlus did throw in a lot of multitasking features, and I’ll be honest, I don’t use them. If I open up Twitter, I’m using the entire inner display. I’m not using half of the display for Twitter and half for YouTube. Maybe once a month I’ll use that feature. Other than that, I’m using one app and making use of the entire inner display. So that’s just me. Some may use it for multitasking, but for me, I prefer using one app at a time.
Camera, Battery & Speakers:
Now, let’s talk about the camera. The quality is really good; it’s flagship quality. Again, I think that’s something a foldable should have—a high-quality camera—because you’re paying a premium price. You should get premium cameras, premium software, premium build, and everything like that. The cameras don’t disappoint. I’ll let you be the judge; I’ll be putting up some sample photos on screen, but they really perform well.
Battery life is great too. Fast 67W charging is a huge plus. Now, OnePlus didn’t add wireless charging. They have their own reasons. I still think they could have, but that’s completely fine. The 4,805mAh battery does last me all day, which is a huge plus. If I need to charge it fast, 67W charging is great.
Some other miscellaneous things I want to add: the speakers on this are also really good. They get very loud. And calling—yeah, right now, I feel like someone’s going to make this remark. It says “no SIM.” Look, I’m testing phones here and there, so I’m always switching out. At the current moment, I don’t have my SIM card in here, but I have been using this for the past 6 months, and the calling is great. People on the other side can hear me very well. I’m using Mint Mobile. It may change from carrier to carrier. Mint Mobile, T-Mobile—I have both. I have two separate SIMs, and they both work really well for me and the person I’m talking with, so that’s just something that some people might be curious about.
The pricing on this is actually really good because it undercuts Samsung and Google. It retails for $1,700. I was going to say $700—$1,700. OnePlus always has amazing trade-in deals. They put their phones on sale, so I wouldn’t say pick it up at $1,700. Pick it up when it goes on sale. I’ll be leaving links in the description down below. Pick it up when there’s a good deal or trade-in deal. I traded in my OnePlus 11 and got this for $580. Granted, I did go through the pre-order process when it first came out, but nonetheless, that’s saying a lot. I got this for $580.
Conclusion:
Overall, I still think this is the best foldable you can pick up right now in 2024. There shouldn’t be any reason to wait for the OnePlus Open 2 or Samsung’s Z Fold 6, or whatever they’re going to call it, or Pixel Fold 2, again, whatever they’re going to call theirs. This is a first-gen device, and OnePlus did a phenomenal job. They’ve still got some stuff to work on for the second gen, and it makes me more excited for a second gen, but there’s no reason to wait for the second gen.
That being said, if there’s anyone I would recommend a foldable to here in the US, it’s going to be the OnePlus Open. Until Samsung and Pixel Fold kind of step up their game, it’s still going to be the OnePlus Open.
That’s for today, See you on next blog..