OnePlus may be working on its first foldable phone after its co-founder and CEO Pete Lau teased us with an image of a flexible hinge. While details are scarce, OnePlus is expected to inherit some of the folding tech from its sister companies like Oppo.
- OnePlus CEO teases hinges on foldable devices
- OnePlus could launch a foldable smartphone as early as next year
- Hypothetical OnePlus “Fold” will share some tech with Oppo Find N 2
Aside from Samsung, which owns the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Flip 4, only a handful of manufacturers are known to sell foldable devices globally. We have Motorola and its Moto Razr seeing the Razr 3 or 2022 announced last week. Xiaomi also showed off the Mi Mix Fold 2, but a wider release outside of China is unlikely. Fortunately, the arrival of OnePlus’ foldables could give consumers options, especially since the company is known to have a presence in most markets (for now, anyway).
In his latest tweet, Pete Lau shared some interesting pictures of the foldable hinge. Given its length, we can assume it’s implemented in a wallet-format foldable smartphone rather than a clamshell. Also, given the skeleton rendering, it could be an internal component and integrated with other parts.
The OnePlus ‘Fold’ could use the same hinge as Oppo’s foldable Find N 2 / © Twitter/u/PeteLau
OnePlus ‘Fold’ could share the same specs as Oppo’s Find N 2
The current CEO of OnePlus is also the product manager of OPPO. As such, the components shown are likely to come from the upcoming second-gen Oppo Find N, which is expected to debut with the so-called Find N Flip later this year. Ultimately, OnePlus could use the aforementioned hinge for an unannounced OnePlus “folding” smartphone.
In terms of specs and usability, we’ve yet to find out some details about OnePlus’ first foldable smartphone. Perhaps the arrival of the Oppo Find N 2 could provide some clues as to what to expect from the OnePlus “folding”.