Apple is relatively fresh from its annual iPhone refresh, having just released the iPhone 15 and 15 Pro in September. The hardware updates for this generation are solid and substantial, but also iterative — meaning that the iPhone from this year is very similar, in the most substantial way, to last year’s iPhone. Meanwhile, Apple’s competition is increasingly investing in alternative form factors to the standard glass rectangle — and foldable phones in particular are having a real moment.
The real flip phone moment for me is the arrival of the amazing OnePlus Open, which just launched to a very positive review from YouTubers and critics. The OnePlus Open manages to address many of the minor annoyances and failings of other premium foldable smartphones on the market — and it does so in a first device for a company with a reputation for quality at a fair price. You could argue that the OnePlus Open is a bit pricey for the company’s existing flagship, but it’s hard to dispute how fantastic both the hardware and software are.
The OnePlus Open brings together a number of mature, excellent options, as well as some very strong new contenders, such as the Samsung Galaxy Fold 5 and the Google Pixel Fold. I had a chance to spend some time with both of them recently, and my time with them, along with the very strong reception at the OnePlus Open out the gate, led me to switch to this new foldable as my personal everyday device , away from the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Yes, I’m actually about to switch platforms, after a long, long time as an iPhone user — and what makes me take a walk on the wild side (read: Android) is something I would have called a gimmick just a few years ago : A folding screen.
Image Credits: Darrell Etherington
The folding screen really now seems to have outgrown its novelty value and turned into a genuine utility function. I’ve certainly used it a ton in the early days of owning the OnePlus Open, and I’ve seen firsthand the interest and appreciation it garners from others as well. All of my family members have been impressed with it and more than a few have noted that using something like this would obviate the need to own an iPhone and iPad, as many of them do.
This may be one of the reasons why Apple doesn’t seem interested in diving into this category: It’s basically the only consumer device company out there with a truly viable tablet business, and therefore may be less interested than competitors. of those focused on Android. potentially cannibalizing sales across its product lines.
Apple has also always displayed a healthy skepticism when it comes to adopting new industry trends, and the company has rightly built a reputation for rarely being a first-timer, but almost always being the company to turn a good idea into something that works. at the right level to drive mass adoption.
This has historically worked very well for the iPhone maker, but it occasionally leaves the company looking a bit flat-footed or backward when competitors spend a lot of time and attention repeating an experiment and bringing it to a mature state. Samsung has essentially done this job with the Fold series, to the point where it’s received a healthy dose of criticism for essentially leaving its approach to foldable phones pretty much unchanged between the 4th and 5th generation.
OnePlus, meanwhile, hasn’t come out of nowhere to perfect the form and take the crown: its hardware is actually a revamped version of parent company OPPO’s Find N3, which is the third iteration of the foldable of this company. plan. The fact remains though that it’s still something that Apple hasn’t even touched, unless they’re doing it in their labs and already have multiple iterations deep in unreleased test hardware, which is certainly possible.
Wherever it is in its development cycle, one thing is becoming clear — Apple needs to fold, and fold fast. The company is of course still selling obscene amounts of hardware, and the iPhone 15 is at least doing well, if not at the level of some of its truly revolutionary smartphone releases. But the perceived lack of innovation in design fundamentals won’t show in the short term. Instead, they’ll gradually reveal themselves, like a live wallpaper that blooms as you unfold your smartphone screen to reveal a much larger, more expansive inner surface.
