OnePlus had a busy time at MWC 2023, showing off a OnePlus 11 Concept phone, allowing us to give a hands-on OnePlus Pad review, and unveiling a OnePlus 45W Liquid Cooler. But the company may be saving the best for last.
In a panel hosted by TechRadar’s Senior Phones Editor Alex Walker-Todd, we learned from Kinder Liu, President and COO of OnePlus, that the company is building the first foldable phone, and plans to launch the device before the end of 2023.
Specifically, this OnePlus foldable is scheduled to land in the second half of the year, so between July and December.
Speaking about the phone, Liu said: “Our first foldable phone has the signature OnePlus fast and smooth experience. It should be a flagship phone that is not solved due to its folding form, in terms of industrial design, mechanical technology, and other aspects. We want to launch a device that aims to be at the pinnacle of experience in today’s folding market.
So it seems like a no-compromise phone, and it can also be very expensive. That said, most OnePlus phones – including the OnePlus 11 – are cheaper than most of their rivals, so there’s some hope that the same will be true of the company’s first foldable.
OnePlus has yet to reveal anything about this phone, but says more information will be revealed in the coming months. It’s a company that tends to drip-feed information before launch though, so we’ll know most of the details before the OnePlus foldable is fully revealed.
Analysis: it may be similar to Oppo Find N2
While OnePlus hasn’t said anything about its foldable phone, there are some hints about the shape it might take.
For one thing, we’ve heard rumors of a OnePlus foldable for a while, and recent ones have suggested that it could be based on the Oppo Find N, which is only available in China.
OnePlus is a subsidiary of Oppo, so this is a possibility; however since we heard these leaks, the Oppo Find N2 was launched, so the OnePlus foldable based on the newer phone seems more likely.
The Oppo Find N2 is also only available in China (although the Oppo Find N2 Flip was launched more widely) so in most of the world it is not a competitor to a OnePlus device.
This is just speculation, so don’t be surprised if the OnePlus foldable is something completely different; but for reference, the Oppo Find N2 has a 7.1-inch 1792 x 1920 foldable display with a 120Hz refresh rate, a 5.54-inch 1080 x 2120 cover screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, and a 4,520mAh battery with 67W charging.
It also has a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset, up to 16GB of RAM, up to 512GB of storage, and a triple-lens camera with a 50MP wide snapper, a 48MP ultrawide, and a 32MP telephoto with 2x optical zoom. That’s an impressive range of specs, so if the OnePlus foldable is based on it then it has a good shot at ranking among the best foldable phones.