AdminOnePlus had a busy time at MWC 2023 showing off the OnePlus 11 Concept phone, allowing us to deliver a hands-on OnePlus Pad review, and revealing the OnePlus 45W Liquid Cooler. But the company may have saved the best for last.
In a panel led by TechRadar’s senior phone editor Alex Walker-Todd, we learned from Kinder Liu, president and chief operating officer of OnePlus, that the company is building its first foldable phone and plans to launch the device before the end of 2023.
Specifically, this foldable OnePlus is expected to land in the second half of the year, so between July and December.
Speaking about the phone, Liu said: “Our first foldable phone will have OnePlus’ signature fast and smooth performance. It must be a flagship phone that does not settle down due to its foldable form, in terms of industrial design, mechanical technology and other aspects. We want to bring to market a device that is destined to be at the top of today’s foldable market.”
So it looks like it’s going to be a no-compromise phone, and that’s probably why it’s going to be very expensive as well. That said, most OnePlus phones – including the OnePlus 11 – are a bit cheaper than many of their rivals, so there’s hope the same could be true of the company’s first foldable phone.
OnePlus hasn’t revealed anything else about this phone yet, but said more information will be revealed in the coming months. This is a company that tends to drop information before launches, so we may know most of the details before the foldable OnePlus is fully revealed.
Analysis: May be similar to Oppo Find N2
While OnePlus hasn’t said more about its foldable phone, there are some clues as to what form it could take.
First off, we’ve been hearing rumors of a foldable OnePlus for a while now, with more recent ones suggesting it could be based on the Oppo Find N which was only available in China.
OnePlus is a subsidiary of Oppo, so there is certainly a possibility; although since we heard these leaks, the Oppo Find N2 has launched, so it seems more likely to base the foldable OnePlus on the newer phone.
The Oppo Find N2 is also only available in China (although the Oppo Find N2 Flip has been rolled out more widely), so it wouldn’t be a competitor to the OnePlus device in most of the world.
This is just speculation though, so don’t be surprised if the foldable OnePlus is something else entirely; but for comparison, 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 resolution screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, and a 4520mAh battery with 67W charging.
It also has the 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-angle, 48MP ultra-wide, and 32MP telephoto camera with 2x optical zoom. That’s an impressive range of specs, so if the OnePlus foldable is based on that, it could have a great chance of ranking among the best foldable phones.
