OnePlus Believes Foldables Need More Time To Shine

Despite the OnePlus Open widely being praised as one of the best foldable phones to launch in 2023, OnePlus decided against launching its successor in 2025. The Oppo Find N5, which would have been rebranded as the OnePlus Open 2 globally, is currently among the thinnest and most impressive foldables on the market. Yet, OnePlus chose to skip a global release. A company executive has now shed more light on the reasoning behind this decision.

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When OnePlus announced it would not launch the Open 2 this year, it noted that it is not giving up on the category entirely. Instead, it is only recalibrating its plans. TechRadar’s Axel Metz recently spoke with OnePlus Senior Product Marketing Manager Rudolf Xu in China and asked him to elaborate on this decision.

Xu said that every smartphone maker in the foldable segment faces the same challenges: how to make the device slimmer and lighter, and to eliminate the crease from the display. He further adds that the company wants to bring the best possible foldable experience to its users.

“If you look back at the OnePlus Open, even up until today, it still has very competitive specs, honestly. It’s more about a timing situation. We are thinking about how we want to solve those [aforementioned] challenges in a better way. That’s why we decided not to launch a foldable this year,” said Xu.

There’s another major reason behind OnePlus’ decision not to launch the OnePlus Open 2 globally. Citing a report from Counterpoint Research, Xu pointed out that demand for foldable devices failed to grow as much as anticipated in 2024, with shipments only increasing by 2.9% YoY.

So, while there is demand for foldable phones, they still have a long way to go before becoming mainstream.

A classic chicken-and-egg situation

Looking past the marketing language, it means OnePlus believes that the investment required to launch a new foldable every year is not worth it, given the limited market. And that’s not surprising as this is a classic chicken-and-egg situation. Demand for foldable devices is not growing as anticipated due to limited options and issues like thickness, weight, and steep price. Unless companies address these drawbacks, they won’t go mainstream.

Despite having no plans to launch the OnePlus Open 2 this year, OnePlus has not given up on the foldable space. The company has only decided to “pause on foldable for this generation.” Rumors indicate the company is working on a foldable for 2026.