This Is Our First Look at OnePlus’ Affordable Folding Smartphone

OnePlus, the affordable smartphone maker co-founded by Carl Pei (who went on to start Nothing), has shared a teaser image of its first folding smartphone with The Verge. Details about specs, pricing and availability will be revealed at an Oct. 19 event.

Smartphone makers have been slow to introduce devices with folding screens, as their inclusion makes phones more fragile and expensive than traditional mobile devices. But after the success of Samsung's Galaxy Fold, now in its fifth iteration, more companies are introducing devices with folding OLED screens, including Google with its Pixel Fold. OnePlus is next at bat.

OnePlus' parent company, Oppo, launched its first foldable phone, the Find N, back in 2021. That phone, as well as its follow-up devices, have only been available in China, where it launched for the equivalent of $1,200. The OnePlus Open will hopefully see a wider release, but we won't know for sure until the Oct. 19 reveal event taking place in Mumbai, India.

$1,200 is expensive, but still cheaper than the competition: both the Google Pixel Fold and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 start at $1,799. We don't know for sure if the OnePlus Open will mirror the Oppo Find N's pricing, but it's likely given that the company's prior phones are often a few hundred dollars cheaper than similar Apple or Samsung devices.

For the time being, the only details about the OnePlus Open confirmed through the teaser is that it appears to have a thin design (at least when opened) and will carry forward the the three position slider featured on other OnePlus smartphones, allowing users to easily toggle between Ring, Vibrate and Silent modes.