OnePlus Open launched in India: 5 things I like about the foldable phone, 2 things I don’t

The OnePlus Open is a little late to the party, but can the company compete in the foldable phone race? I got to use the smartphone for some time and here’s a quick look at what I liked and what I didn’t.

5 things I liked about OnePlus Open 

Design 

Even though this is the first generation of a foldable smartphone by OnePlus, it seems the company has put a lot of thought into it. The new foldable in town is lighter (239g) than its rivals in the market which are slightly on the heftier side. It is even slimmer (11.7mm) than its biggest rival Galaxy Z Flip 5 which is 13.4mm when folded. The leather finish of the Voyager Black colour variant provides good grip, making it easier to hold. 

Another great feature that is available only on this foldable phone is the iconic alert slider. This is something all OnePlus users love and I am sure that users who are new to the brand will also appreciate the functionality. The 3.5mm headphone jack is missing from this one but I can’t really blame OnePlus as brands like Samsung or even Apple do not provide it in their phones, at least not in the flagship devices. 

Display 

OnePlus Open comes with a 7.82-inch Flexi-fluid AMOLED primary display that offers a peak brightness of 2800 nits and 2K resolution. The 6.31-inch AMOELD cover display also offers up to 120Hz of refresh rate, just like the primary display. Streaming videos on YouTube or binge-watching on Netflix was definitely a treat for eyes on this device. It offers punchy colours and the crease on the display is not very pronounced, hence it does not affect the viewing experience much. While the display is good, the sound quality of the device on high volume was not very impressive. 

Camera

OnePlus Open comes with a triple rear camera setup that houses a 64MP primary sensor, a 48MP ultra-wide angle lens and a 64MP telephoto lens. One of the best things about the camera was the portrait images captured by the rear camera. The subject separation seems impressive and the colours also come out punchy and vivid. The rear camera manages to click good shots that are sharp, and colour-accurate, even in the ultra-wide angle shots. It can even record videos in 4K at 30/60 fps.

When it comes to the 20MP selfie camera on the primary display, the images captured were pretty average but the 32MP front-facing camera on the cover display was my go-to camera for most occasions. 

Fast charging 

OnePlus Open houses a 4,805mAh battery that supports 67W SUPERVOOC charging. Fast charging is one of the best things about the newly launched foldable phone. It can charge from 0 to 100 percent in nearly 50 minutes. This is a good feature given that foldable phones are power-hungry and tend to exhaust the battery faster than the standard smartphones.  

Performance 

OnePlus Open is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset in India. It runs on Android 13-based OxygenOS 13.2 and offers 16GB RAM and 512GB internal storage option. During my experience, swapping between the apps was pretty quick. I did not notice any heating issues while performing regular tasks or even charging the device. Even switching between the cover and primary displays was seamless. 

2 things I didn’t like about OnePlus Open 

Camera module design 

I liked the overall design of the phone, but one of the things that I didn’t find practical was the massive camera module. As a buyer, if I am spending a lot on this device, I will not want the camera module to get any scratches at all. The camera module is protruding and huge. 

Night mode 

While the camera managed to click good daytime shots, the night shots were not very great as they lacked colour accuracy and sharpness. This is not a deal breaker but I would like all things to be exceptionally good when I am planning to spend over a lakh on a smartphone.

Overall, this is OnePlus’ first attempt at a foldable smartphone and I must say they did a decent job at it when it comes to the features and specifications.

Also Read OnePlus launches its first foldable phone, One Plus Open; see detailed specs