CHENNAI: Foldable phones are pushing the sales charts in an otherwise dull smartphone market. And to tap the opportunity before the next big innovative product emerges, more handset makers are gearing up to launch foldable versions. The latest to enter the scene is OnePlus. The Chinese consumer electronics giant recently released a teaser of its upcoming foldable phone, the first foldable from the company, on a YouTube channel.
Hinge is the most crucial feature of foldable phones and OnePlus seems to have done some work in the area. According to Pete Lau, founder of OnePlus and chief product officer of Oppo, the phone will lie flat, weigh lesser and be smaller in size, but will be stronger in terms of performance.
The company has also improved the material design. The foldable device, called OnePlus Open, will close without a hinge gap and can even hold a sheet of paper. In the Youtube video, the company showed off this feature by inserting a sheet of paper in between. After closing the phone, the paper can hold the whole phone, demonstrating the strength of the hinge. The durability of the hinge is crucial as it has to survive the wear and tear of multiple opening and closing of the device daily.
Chinese smartphone brands Oppo and OnePlus have started sharing their technology with each other after their merger last year. The designing teams of both the companies worked together on the upcoming product. The device will have 31 less components, and the size of the hinge is 37% smaller than Oppo Find N2. The new phone has 35 patents for its hinge design. OnePlus is also working with Google to improve user experience in the folded screen.
According to reports, OnePlus Open will have dual displays—7.8-inch inner display and 6.3-inch cover display—with the device running on Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.