OnePlus Open review

Design, build quality, handling

The OnePlus Open is among the best-designed foldables. It has great looks, it provides a great grip, and its build quality is outstanding.

Let's start with the frame and chassis - they are made of proprietary cobalt molybdenum alloy and titanium alloy. According to OnePlus, these aerospace-grade alloys are stronger than stainless steel, yet lighter and more robust.

The frame is flat and thin and has a matte finish.

Then comes the hinge, lighter and allegedly, up to 50% thinner than some competing solutions (probably Samsung Fold's) thanks to a new streamlined design with fewer parts. Its single-spine architecture (vs. 3-spine on competitor) has made this new hinge quite light too.

The external display is protected by a new glass called Ceramic Guard, a proprietary solution with ceramic crystals that is supposedly 20% more impact-resistant than the Gorilla Glass Victus.

The rear panel on our Voyager Black versions seems to feature a plastic layer covered with black vegan leather. The texture is really nice, grippy enough, and fingerprint-resistant.

The Emerald Dusk (a.k.a. green version), which will be the only one sold in Europe, has a matte glass back instead. And because the glass is usually thicker than plastic, the Emerald Dusk version is 6g heavier and a hair (0.2mm) thicker than the Voyager Black .

The foldable display has the usual ultra-thin glass layer, with a plastic protector on top that keeps the vulnerable flexible screen from the usual dangers like dust and sand particles. It is not recommended to peel off this layer.

Finally, the OnePlus Open is IPX4-rated for splash resistance. Having seen how this IPX4 test is done with multiple nozzles rotating at 360-degrees and spraying low-pressure water all over the device - we can safely say the Open is waterproof enough even if it wasn't rated for water submersion.

And now, let's take a closer look at the OnePlus Open, shall we?

The huge 7.82-inch foldable OLED screen is a pure joy - it is a heaven for people who like using more than app at a time, the web browsing experience is superb, and so is gaming. It appears to be super bright and of accurate colors, it spreads side to side, but it's not bezel-less as there is a plastic border surrounding it.

The screen has a small punch hole in the top right corner for the 20MP inner camera, and it's the only distraction.

Another thing to note is that we couldn't feel the crease on the OnePlus Open's unfolded screen. We had similar experience with the foldable Finds by Oppo, but it is even better on the Open. The crease can be seen at a right angle and light, of course, but the only way to feel it is to press harder. If you are only scrolling and swiping - you won't be able to tell you are going through it. Nice!

In the Open's closed state, you will be using the 6.31-inch OLED at the front. It has reasonably thin and even bezels, rounded corners and a small punch hole centered around the top so it can accommodate the 32MP front camera. There is also a thin outlet about the screen - this is your earpiece. It has more components, but we will talk more about the speakers in a bit.

This cover screen has the perfect size and 20:9 aspect ratio to serve as a proper primary one. And that's not all - it is also of high resolution, dynamic refresh rate, quite bright, and supports Dolby Vision as the inner display.

There is no under-screen fingerprint reader on the Open, instead OnePlus has put a conventional always-on scanner on the surface of the Power/Lock key. This is on the right of the Open in both folded and unfolded states, so it's best used with your right thumb.

The alert slider is also on the right side, now a bit smaller, but with the same robust feel, tactile feedback, and superb texture. It has three positions - Ring, Vibrate, Silent.

The top of the phone has two speaker grilles, a microphone, and an IR blaster. One of these outlets is a secondary for the earpiece. Both play sound when you are watching movies, listening to music, or gaming.

The bottom of the Open has the primary microphone, the dual-SIM tray, the USB-C 3.1 port, and another two outlets. Only the one next to the port outputs sound. The other grille could be a heat vent, or have another purpose we are oblivious to, or it just serves a pure decorative purpose.

Finally, let's look at the gorgeous back panel of the Voyager Black model. It is covered in nice vegan leather and has a huge round camera housing that juts out a lot at the back.

Inside the camera plate you will see the 48MP primary (top), the 64MP periscope 3x telephoto (left) and the 48MP ultrawide/macro camera (bottom). There is a subtle Hasselblad logo around and a multi-channel color temperature sensor.

A single LED flash sits outside this large camera housing.

Open and Fold5

The Voyager Black OnePlus Open measures 153.4 x 143.1 x 5.8mm when open and 153.4 x 73.3 x 11.7mm in closed state. It weighs 239 grams. This makes it a bit thinner than the Fold5 and about 14 grams lighter. Then we have the Emerald Dusk version, which is 153.4 x 143.1 x 5.9mm open and 153.4 x 73.3 x 11.9mm closed, with a weight of 245 grams.

The OnePlus Open turned out to be a beautifully looking smartphone, captivating with its digital camera-like design and vegan leather back. It seems OnePlus has put a tremendous effort into its build, and you can not only see it, but feel it, too. The Open offers an excellent grip and handling experience, and it feels premium in your hand whatever you are doing. Overall, an excellent job from OnePlus.