Cumbersome, expensive and slightly worse than using a phone and tablet independently, who wouldn’t want to get into the foldable game?
If your answer was OnePlus, you’re mistaken. The Chinese company previously announced that it would be releasing its first foldable in the third quarter of the year, and now it looks like we might have a date for it: August 29.
According to the leaker Arvind talking to Smartprix, sources inside OnePlus have confirmed that the launch is scheduled for then, though if I were the company I’d now reschedule just out of sheer bloodymindedness. Especially as the brand would be discounting two leakers in one, with Max Jambor also backing up the August 29 reveal.
According to Jambor, the phone will be called the OnePlus Open, which makes it sound more like a tennis tournament than a smartphone, but there we are.
Like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Pixel Fold, it’s set to be a 2-in-1 tablet and smartphone. When closed, it’ll look like you’re holding two stacked 6.3in phones, but these will open up to reveal an internal display predicted to be around the 7.8in mark.
It’s expected to be as powerful as the year’s top-end Android handsets, powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, with 16GB RAM and at least 256GB storage (actually, at the time of writing Smartprix says it’s the other way round: 256GB RAM and 16GB storage — now that really would be doing things differently if it weren’t obviously a typo.)
Both screens will be 120Hz numbers for higher framerates and smoother motion, and there will apparently be a triple-camera array featuring two 48MP sensors and a 64MP telephoto lens. A 4,800mAh battery will support up to 67W charging which is unsurprising, given ridiculously fast charging has been a calling card for OnePlus for years.
Of course, OnePlus hasn’t shown much interest in selling to Kiwis to date, so you’ll almost certainly have to import if you’re keen. Given the high price of foldables to date, you may want to start saving now.
