The OnePlus Open was a revelation; the glossy design, terrific digital camera bundle, and standout battery life meant that the gadget was a viable various to Samsung’s foldable efforts. Though OnePlus did not launch a successor in 2024, the Open held up extremely nicely towards the Galaxy Z Fold 6 — which tells you a large number about Samsung’s technique.
I used to be excited for the Open 2, however the foldable has been placed on ice — indefinitely. OnePlus introduced on its boards that it’s going to not launch a foldable this 12 months, with OPPO as a substitute taking the lead with the Discover N5. “At OnePlus, our core power and keenness lie in setting new benchmarks and difficult the established order throughout all product classes. With that in thoughts, we’ve fastidiously thought-about the timing and our subsequent steps in foldable gadgets, and we’ve got made the choice to not launch a foldable this 12 months.”
OnePlus says it is not exiting the class fully, however even when it had been to launch a tool subsequent 12 months, it could successfully have to start out from scratch, and I do not perceive why the producer is not debuting the Discover N5 in international markets because the Open 2. That is what it did with the Open — which was a rebranded Discover N3 — so to not do the identical in 2025 feels short-sighted.
OnePlus is principally ceding floor to Samsung on this class, and with the Open 2 not launching this 12 months, there is not a significant rival to the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 7 outdoors the Pixel 9 Professional Fold. I actually just like the Honor Magic V3 and Vivo’s X Fold3, however neither foldable is obtainable in North America. Availability within the area was what gave the Open a definite benefit, and OnePlus is dropping out on that this time.
OPPO has good presence in Asia and is as soon as once more beginning to promote its merchandise in choose western markets, however it does not have a foothold in North America — the area was seen as OnePlus’s territory throughout the BBK conglomerate. Whereas I am excited to make use of the Discover N5 — it guarantees to be the thinnest foldable but — it will not be bought in wherever as many areas, and that is annoying.
OnePlus’s technique simply does not make any sense to me. Clearly, the Open would not have bought in almost as many numbers because the OnePlus 11 and OnePlus 12, however it constructed a powerful basis for the producer, and to not develop on that’s the flawed transfer. If something, the Open 2 was set to be the most important challenger to Samsung’s dominance in North America, and because the gadget is not launching now, there’s even much less incentive for the model to introduce any significant modifications with the Z Fold 7.
