Our Verdict
The OnePlus Open is a complete foldable package that doesn’t compromise in terms of performance, battery life, and overall quality. Its display has better proportions than the Galaxy foldables, making it usable without switching to the bigger screen all the time. However, there are some software quirks, and a higher IP rating and wireless charging option wouldn't go amiss in a follow-up device.
- Ergonomic design
- Nice multitasking features
- Top-notch cameras
- Stellar performance
- Reliable battery and charging
- No wireless charging
- A few OxygenOS bugs
- Basic IP rating
In the tech world, sites like ours often advise you to steer clear of first-gen products as they aren’t always fully market-ready. Such products don’t always offer a polished experience, which you expect from a device you pay a lot of money for. However, OnePlus took up that challenge and nailed it with its first-ever foldable smartphone, the OnePlus Open. The handset is already a few months old, and plenty of new foldable phones have since made their way to the market, but the Open remains my favorite.
Since its launch in October last year, the OnePlus Open has been the phone I return to immediately after testing any other handset; it’s just that good. It is by far the most proportionately balanced book-style foldable out there, which makes it a pleasure to use. But more importantly, OnePlus managed to get the software features right for its debut foldable, giving it a solid edge over some of the best foldable phones around. So, let’s get into the details.
Why you can trust our advice ✔ At Pocket Tactics, our experts spend days testing games, phones, tech, and services. We always share honest opinions to help you buy the best. Find out how we test.
Price and availability
The OnePlus Open is the brand’s most expensive smartphone to date. It launched at $1,699 in the US, putting it in the same bracket as book-style devices from Samsung and Honor. Considering how expensive high-end phones have become in the last few years, the Open begins to feel appropriately priced when put into perspective, especially after factoring in its often-discounted price on Amazon.
The Open is available in a single 16GB RAM and 512GB ROM combination, which should be spacious enough for almost everyone. You can pick the device in a matte frosted Emerald Dusk shade, which we are reviewing here, or a Voyager Black colorway with a leather-like finish to give you an even more comfortable feel and a better grip.
Specs
Features and software
Believe it or not, what sets a foldable apart from the crowd isn’t the hardware; it’s the software. If a phone gets the hardware right but its software can’t utilize that big display properly, then it’s a wasted effort. Thankfully, that is not the case with the OnePlus Open.
OnePlus thought of multitasking from the ground up for its first foldable, and it’s revolutionary. The company introduced something called Canvas. While we’re used to having at most two apps open next to each other on the main screen, Canvas takes multitasking complexity a couple of notches higher. Think of Canvas as a big whiteboard that extends beyond the phone’s visible display area.
You can have three apps open side by side on the screen, with two in your view and the third outside the display area, which you can tap on to bring it to the display. You can open these apps in a larger tablet-like format (two at the top and one at the bottom) and jump between them with simple taps. With a floating window, you can open up to four apps simultaneously on the screen, if you weren’t keeping count. It’s a dream for multitaskers like me.
While OxygenOS has introduced excellent features that I wish other brands were taking notes from, it doesn’t feel that polished, with a few bugs lingering here and there. After coming out with Android 13, the Open has been updated to Android 14-based OxygenOS 14. But even the latest updates keep introducing new problems as they fix the old ones.
For instance, the phone keeps audio from certain apps like Instagram and Twitter playing in the background even after I switch to another app. When this happens, the phone treats these apps as open in the foreground, adding to their on-screen time. These are the kinds of issues that OnePlus should pay more attention to down the line to make the software experience even cleaner for such a premium phone.
Design
Right off the bat, let me say that the OnePlus Open is an absolute head-turner. If you want your phone to be the center of attention in a room, this is the device to get. I cannot begin to tell how many of my friends, and even people on the street, have asked about the phone; it’s that much of a looker. That massive, centered camera island on the back is a big part of the appeal. Plus, its two halves stacked when closed instantly give it away that it is a premium device and not your ordinary candybar phone.
The camera island protrudes quite a bit out of the phone’s body. While its underside seems like the right place to rest your index finger, I tend to get a better grip when resting my finger on the camera glass, which often ends up smudging it. That’s the reason I find myself cleaning the glass each time I’m about to take photos. It’s a little irritating, but this isn’t the only flagship that has a problem with smudging lenses.
Despite its bifold design, two displays, and all the incredible high-end hardware inside, the phone doesn’t weigh much more than a non-foldable. It is comfortable to hold and is the perfect size to fit even smaller hands, as long as you’re comfortable with its thickness. One major gripe with the phone is its IPX4 rating. This is below the competition, with Samsung offering a better IP48 rating on its latest foldable, the Galaxy Z Fold 6. So, if you get one, be careful around water.
Display
A foldable’s display is the center of attention, and rightly so. Some incredible tech goes into designing the hinge precisely to get the main display to fold correctly. And I am happy to report that the OnePlus Open has one of the best foldable displays, and that’s because of one main reason: the crease. If you pick up a Samsung foldable, you will see a prominent crease on the main display’s spine, but OnePlus made it nearly invisible on its first try. That elevates the experience, as you don’t feel a sharp divide when gliding your finger across the screen.
Another little-talked-about aspect is the display’s consistency between the main and the cover screens. There is little to no difference between the sharpness, color reproduction, and refresh rate between the two. We all take this kind of uniformity for granted, but its absence would’ve become quite evident. The Open also boasts a peak brightness of 2,800 nits between the displays, so you don’t have to worry about visibility under sunlight.
A key reason why I prefer the Open and have stuck to it as my primary phone is because of its cover display. Its proportions are similar to those of a normal phone, making it usable without opening the big display for everything. The main screen is a bonus, which is always there whenever I need it, whether I’m watching a YouTube video, reading my Kindle books, or in need of a big viewfinder. At other times, it can stay shut and out of the way.
Camera
The OnePlus Open was the first OnePlus phone to have the kind of camera setup we could consider flagship-class with no cost cuts. The Hasselblad partnership has given OnePlus cameras a distinct visual feel. The images don’t look oversaturated and have a rather natural hue that many would opt for unless you prefer high-contrast shots straight out of the camera.
If simple point-and-shoot is your thing and you don’t like playing with the camera settings a lot, the Open is a solid option. The main shooter takes some pleasing shots in nearly all scenarios, whether in an outdoor natural setting or under artificial lighting. It automatically manages the white balance and exposure relatively well, so the resulting shots are almost always what you’d want.
What particularly stands out is the Open’s portrait capabilities using the 3x telephoto lens. While the colors are always close to reality, the fake bokeh works better on the Open than on my Pixel phone. It is spot on for something artificially separating the subject from the background. Portrait shots from the phone come out so well that people have asked me specifically to take their photos using my OnePlus Open, and I can see why.
The ProXDR mode in the phone’s Photos app adds another layer of HDR to your photos to make the lighting pop. Barring some areas where it overdoes the HDR processing, it makes the images appear more appealing. Another perk of the foldable is that you can use the cover display to take selfies using the main high-res cameras, making the phone ideal for bloggers.
While it gets a thumbs-up from me overall, the OnePlus Open’s camera still struggles with fast-moving objects, unless you intervene with manual controls to set the shutter speed. The image processing also sometimes fails to get a consistent white balance between two shots, which becomes noticeable when you take back-to-back photos of the same subject.
Performance
The OnePlus Open launched late last year, barely a month or two before the current-gen Qualcomm flagship processor came out. So, it runs the previous-gen Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. Is there a difference in performance compared to the OnePlus 12? I have used both phones side by side, and I can’t see a performance contrast even while using the most demanding apps or games such as Honkai Star Rail and Asphalt 9. The Open flies when it comes to the day-to-day tasks; the animations appear smooth, and it’s always a top-notch performer.
The OnePlus Open only has a single configuration, which makes sense for such an expensive device. You get 16GB of RAM and 512GB of super-fast storage. That is ample power for the phone to keep up with anything you throw its way.
However, because of its foldable form factor, there is little space inside to house a large heat sink like the one on the OnePlus 12. This is why the Open starts to heat up more than a regular phone would under similar duress. The heat has never hindered any usage or slowed the phone down, but it is still something you should know if you plan on pushing your phone to the limit.
Battery
With its 4,800mAh battery, the Open lasts over six hours on a typical workday. That involves receiving a lot of work and social media notifications, watching a couple of videos, and a few minutes of making calls. This screen time is after using the phone largely on Wi-Fi, with some outdoor use on 5G. While this battery life won’t win any awards, it is still pretty impressive considering the thing has to power two displays.
The middling battery life doesn’t bother me much, as I can quickly juice it up again. The phone supports 67W wired charging, the fastest among foldable phones, taking around 45 minutes to get the battery back to 100%. Unfortunately, there’s no wireless charging option, but I don’t really care for it since fast wired charging makes up for it. However, if you’re used to the convenience of wireless charging, you might miss it, especially after spending top dollar on a high-end handset.
Should you buy the OnePlus Open?
Foldables aren’t typically the complete package we expect from a top-end phone like the Galaxy S24 Ultra. They often make noticeable compromises, like the cameras on the Galaxy Fold aren’t bleeding edge, but except for wireless charging, that’s not the case with the OnePlus Open. It covers everything, from excellent displays and cameras to top-notch performance and software. It’s my favorite book-style foldable, surpassing Samsung’s offering thanks to its more usable outer screen and cleaner software experience.
As high-end smartphones get pricier each year, with the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Galaxy S24 Ultra touching $1,400, the OnePlus Open and its premium foldable design offer value for money at its $1,700 asking price. I just wish OnePlus had added better water and dust protection along with wireless charging, but other than those shortcomings, the OnePlus Open has my heart.
Alternatives
If the OnePlus Open isn’t your jam, check out our alternative suggestions below.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6
Samsung’s latest foldable phone is its most polished Z Fold to date. After five generations, it feels like a mature product in terms of hardware and software. The new boxy design makes it nicer to touch and feel, while the new Galaxy AI features add an element of fun and give you something to play with. For the full lowdown, see our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 review.
Google Pixel Fold
Google’s first Pixel foldable brought the best of Pixel phones to a foldable form factor. That means you get the same camera chops in a foldable body, plus all the software trinkets we’re used to on Pixel phones. The Pixel Fold wonderfully showcases how apps should look on a big screen. For more details, see our Google Pixel Fold review.