My Samsung story is like many people’s. I’ve stuck with the brand through ever Galaxy flagship, from the original Galaxy S to theGalaxy Z Fold 5. and have seen it grow into the world’s largest smartphone maker. When Samsung launched the original Galaxy Fold, I was in heaven, and until a month ago, I had no qualms about saying Samsung is the company behind thebest foldable phones.
Everything changed I first laid eyes on theOnePlus Open. As soon as I held this — and the OPPO Find N3 that it shares DNA with — I knew we had a new foldable champion. It is not just a phone that could compete with Samsung and Google as book-style foldables sold in the US, but something significantly better.
I’ve never used a OnePlus phone as my daily driver for an extended period of time. I have reviewed many of them, sure, but always found something that inevitably meant I returned to my Samsung daily driver before too long. I expected the same with the OnePlus Open, but instead, I’ve found what is almost certainly the best foldable phone ever made and, quite possibly, the mostcomplete all-around phoneI’ve ever used.
This is why I can’t keep my hands off the OnePlus Open.
Style and substance, all in one complete package
No phone is the complete package, and while the OnePlus Open has some negatives, it is the most complete phone I’ve used in a long while. In building the Open, OnePlus found the perfect mix of its own DNA combined with recognizing — and fixing — the biggest complaints with the Galaxy Z Fold 5 andGoogle Pixel Fold. The result is a phone that doesn’t excel in every category but does everything so well that the sum of its parts is far better than the competition.
In September, the iPhone 15 Pro Max fast became my favorite phone to go to. It is svelte, light and the best iPhone Apple has ever made. Less than a few weeks later, I subconsciously reached for the OnePlus Open instead.
Why? The OnePlus Open combines style and substance in a package that feels as easy to handle as Apple’s best flagship. The key difference? The Open unfolds to a gorgeous big screen with a barely noticeable crease. The front display is also as good as any non-folding phone, giving you the best of both worlds in an extremely pocket-friendly way.
The Galaxy Z Fold 5 and the Pixel Fold offer substance in specific ways, either through software tricks or reliability. Still, the OnePlus Open offers substance in every category, excels in a few — such as charging and battery life — and delivers it all in a package that’s as sleek as a regular smartphone. It’s the ultimate foldable experience that is second to none.
A flagship camera
Had you told me that the OnePlus Open would have a camera that is — at least in my opinion — on par with the Google Pixel Fold, I probably would have laughed. OnePlus has included good cameras on its past phones, but the OnePlus Open has the hallmarks of OPPO cameras, which are some of the best you’ll find on the market. In particular, it reminds me a lot of the Find X6 Pro, which has an outstanding camera.
Samsung makes my favorite regular smartphone camera with the Galaxy S23 Ultra and its powerful zoom. The iPhone 15 Pro Max and Pixel 8 Pro cameras are well-recognized as the best all-rounders. The OnePlus Open brings the best parts of all these cameras to a foldable phone. Whereas Samsung chose not to include its best cameras in the Z Fold 5, and the Pixel Fold contains a great camera but is large and bulky, the OnePlus Open proves you don’t need to make trade-offs in the camera to keep a foldable light and thin.
I’ve captured most of my photos over the past six weeks on the OnePlus Open. At first, it was a necessity; I was reviewing it, after all. Quickly, however, it became out of choice because the OnePlus Open camera is more than good enough for most scenarios. Throw in the ability to use the front screen as a viewfinder so you can take selfies with the rear camera and have an extremely compelling camera.
The right set of compromises
When building a phone, every company makes a series of choices. Many of these are compromises, such as choosing a slightly different camera setup to prioritize weight or adding every feature possible while sacrificing the weight and design.
OnePlus also made a series of choices but made the right trade-offs. There’s no wireless charging, but there is super-fast 67W charging that takes 48 minutes to charge from empty to full. It doesn’t have a 5X telephoto lens, but the 3X telephoto lens is key to the 6x Hybrid Zoom feature that is fantastic, just as it was on the OPPO Find X6 Pro. The zoom is also capable at 10x and beyond, making for a truly versatile camera.
The secret to compromises is to make them in small and strategic ways. No wireless charging means a thinner design, which, combined with the faux leather back, makes the Open feel incredible in the hand. The 6x hybrid zoom is goodenoughthat you don’t truly miss the 5x camera found on many phones; sometimes you miss it, but they are few and far between, so it isn’t a dealbreaker.
A first-gen product with third-gen polish
Overall, OnePlus’s first folding phone is its best phone ever. I’ve used most of the foldable phones released globally, and the OnePlus Open is the best I’ve ever used. Having also tried out the Find N2 and N3 Flip from sister company OPPO, this doesn’t shock me, but it does surprise me just how well-thought-out the experience is for Western markets.
The Open experience feels complete for all the reasons I’ve laid out above and more, including phenomenal battery life that lasts a full day however you use it, excellent hardware, and the smoothest software on any foldable.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mentionOpen Canvas, a multitasking feature is truly game-changing. Despite being a first-gen feature that isn’t present on any of OPPO’s other phones, it has the polish of Samsung’s decade-old multitasking features.
Had you told me this when I first started? I would probably have laughed. However, the real surprise is that it’s not just me. I’ve seen many of my fellow content creators over the past few weeks, and many of them were using the OnePlus Open despite having many devices to choose from. The collective agreement is that OnePlus built something truly special.
The competition is heating up, andfoldable phones in 2024 will get a lot more competitive— and better — thanks to the OnePlus Open.
Nirave is a creator and Chief Analyst at Mint Insights, focusing on health, productivity, and technology. He has reviewed technology for 18 years and has used most flagship smartphones released globally over the past ten years. See his detailed insights, smartphone testing, and more atMintInsights.com,Twitter,Instagram,Threads, andYouTube.
OnePlus Open
OnePlus' first foldable is one of the best phones ever made. The lightweight design, the super-bright cover, and folding screens, the high-end internals, and the triple-camera setup make the OnePlus Open the best foldable I’ve ever used.
