OnePlus Open First Impressions: It’s Finally Here!
19.10.2023 - 15:29
/ gadgets.ndtv.com
Smartphone technology moves at a blistering pace, at least, on the Android side of things. Folding smartphones has been out for several years, but Samsung has been the face of it in India even though brands like Motorola, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi have also been experimenting with this category. It's only over the past two years that we have started seeing some of the Chinese clamshell foldables getting launched in India. This is mainly because Samsung has been the only smartphone brand to bring every single foldable model it announced globally, to India.
Another smartphone brand which has been making headway into the premium segment for a while now is OnePlus. The Chinese smartphone maker has time and again proved that it can offer immense value with its products, but has always shied away from the ultra-premium (Rs. 80,000 onwards) smartphone segment. So, what happens when a brand as competitive as OnePlus comes up with a foldable? I've been using the OnePlus Open for over a week and here's why I think it's a solid rival to Samsung in this segment in India.
The OnePlus Open is quite skinny and light
The OnePlus Open sure looks the part and makes a solid first impression when you hold it. I received the Voyager Black version with a faux-leather textured back and a slate-grey matte finished frame which instantly reminded me of retro-looking, premium compact cameras. The large, cookie-sized camera protrusion around the back (which is almost as thick as the phone when unfolded) is a proper indicator that OnePlus is serious about this foldable's cameras. And if that's not enough, there's a Hasselblad ‘H' logo branded onto the raised camera module to reiterate its seriousness on the same.
The overall design is quite modern and minimalistic even though this version (with the leather back) gives out some retro feels. The bezel around the outer display is quite thin and the same can be said about the inner folding display. Both displays have embedded hole-punch selfie cameras which are visible and not hidden from view like on Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 5.
The protruding camera bump adds a couple of millimetres to the back panel
It's also quite thin and light. When folded, the OnePlus Open is 11.9mm thick (excluding the camera bump) and when unfolded, it's quite thin at just 5.9mm. Both of these measurements are downright impressive for a full-size foldable. It's also quite light with the Voyager Black version weighing just 239g. Apple's iPhone 15 Pro Max, which is a lot lighter this year and far simpler in terms of engineering, weighs 221g. In the foldables space, Samsung's recently launched Galaxy Z Fold 5 weighs over a quarter of a kilo (253g) and felt far heavier and chubbier when I used it. Indeed, it seems