During our review, we faced green line as well as a line along the crease within 10 days of use raising concerns about its durability.
Durability of any smartphone is a key factor determining the confidence of a buyer. In case of foldable form factor it becomes critical. As a consumer, the first thing that strikes our mind is how durable is the form factor as the display will be opened and folded several times during usage.
Compared to the two book-form foldable smartphones already available in the Indian market – Samsung Galaxy Z Fold and Tecno Phantom V Fold, OnePlus Open has several improvements that customers will love. For me, the best part is that its outer display is extremely useful, and one can use it as a standalone display catering to every use case and application. Its only when one desires to have a larger screen for say reviewing a document, presentation, watching some video content or playing a game that the inside foldable (openable) display adds to the convenience and comfort. In OnePlus Open the foldable display adds to the choice and comfort rather than ‘mandatory’ use in case of other foldable smartphones, where one can hardly do anything with the outer display. The screen aspect ratio of Samsung Z Fold’s outer display makes it hardly usable, even for WhatsApp, as it becomes very inconvenient to chat and respond using the outer screen.
Similarly, foldable smartphones support the split screen very well. This makes multitasking very easy. OnePlus has taken it to the next level with OnePlus Canvas. It makes swapping between applications so easy, which is an essential requirement these days as we need to flip through various applications at the same time.
The software optimisation for apps to seamlessly switch between outer and inner displays is also well done. Barring Facebook, we found all major apps perfectly swapping between the displays and showing the same screen where one leaves to switch to another display. Though there was an update from OnePlus that it has done some optimisation for Facebook also, when we tested, it did not work for us.
The other thing I liked about the phone is that it is noticeably light weight. Foldable smartphones are not pocket friendly in terms of carrying them. They are bulky compared to the sleek and ultra sleek smartphones that just melt in our pockets. On our pocketability index foldable smartphones do not score high. However, among the foldable smartphones, OnePlus Open has the best pocketabiltiy score making it the friendliest foldable smartphone to carry.
Pricing is something that I did not personally like about OnePlus Open. In my view the price should have been in the range of ₹120,000-₹125,000. Even this price range is not acceptable for OnePlus even to some of the users I interacted with, who have been incidentally lovingly using a OnePlus phone for years. In other words, they are OnePlus fans. As of today, in India consumers are reluctant to spend over ₹100,000 for any brand other than Apple and Samsung to purchase a smartphone.
OnePlus might also need to assess the timing of the launch. We all understand that OnePlus Open launch got delayed as it was expected to be launched sometime in August 2023, but delays saw it getting launched in October 2023. This delay has made it a flagship smartphone not with the flagship chipset. Just after its launch, Qualcomm announced Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which will make buyers dubious whether they should buy OnePlus Open now which does not have the latest chipset from Snapdragon. Some users will prefer to wait a bit more and go with an option that has the latest Snapdragon chipset.
Now coming on to the main issue of durability I am concerned about. I used OnePlus Open as my primary smartphone for around 10 days and to my surprise and shock, I noticed a green line as well as a line long the crease that developed in just 10 days of using it. Among the smartphone brands, OnePlus has reported several green line display issues in other models as well. This is something that OnePlus needs to arrest immediately and reinforce the confidence among users, especially before launching its next flagship OnePlus 12. Else the green line will see revenues in red line for the premium brand, which has made profound impact over the years by creating a new category in the smartphones.
The line along the crease is a concern specific to the foldable form factor. This also needs to be thoroughly investigated and resolved as it raises concerns about the durability of the hinge OnePlus is using.
Till the time OnePlus addresses these concerns and makes the problem as well as resolution public, and we can use the upgraded version of OnePlus Open, which arrests these issues, it will not be advisable to recommend buying the phone now. I have handed over the review unit to OnePlus for further investigations and am waiting their feedback. I will be updating it here as and when received. However, I know it is not an isolated case as few more reviewers have experienced green line issue with the phone. There is also some social media chatter about few reviewers experiencing the same globally. Even if the percentage of reviewers facing this is small, say 1-2%, projecting same for customers who are buying it now will not auger well.
For me, I would recommend customers to wait now buying OnePlus Open and for OnePlus my suggestion would be, let us not haste it to deliver an experience that you never want to.
