OnePlus’ first foldable will arrive in the second half

The OnePlus which was founded in 2013 was a cautious, deliberate move in its release schedule. The Shenzhen-based company is reportedly announcing one to two phones a year, with no hesitation in being first to market with new features. It was a cadence that set the company apart, in part, through pricing, with products often selling hundreds of dollars less than flagships from Samsung and Apple.

The company’s focus on device quality hasn’t gone away – OnePlus is still releasing products that can compete with the biggest names in the space. Its release roadmap, on the other hand, is less measured. In January, the company unveiled its new flagship, the OnePlus 11. Earlier this month, the India-focused 11R arrived. These days, the company is also offering last year’s 10T and 10 Pro, three budget Nord devices, five headphones, and a tablet. A new mechanical keyboard is on the way, ushering in a new “Featuring” series focused on product collaborations.

2023 will also see the release of OnePlus’ first foldable, delivering on the promise of “something phenomenal” teased at the 11th launch this month. Following yesterday’s reveal at MWC of the shiny liquid-cooled OnePlus 11 concept, TechCrunch sat down with COO Kinder Liu to discuss, among other things, the company’s entry into the category.

“We will release our foldable phone in the second half of this year,” Liu told TechCrunch through a translator. “It’s also going to be a flagship phone, like the other best-positioned products in our portfolio. That’s why we haven’t released foldable phones in the last few years. Because we really wanted to release the best .

The sentiment is reminiscent of that deliberate release schedule that defined OnePlus’ early days. Samsung defined the form factor in 2019 with the release of the Galaxy Fold, refining the category with 2020’s Galaxy Z Flip. Last summer, it claimed to have sold nearly 10 million folding devices in the first three years of the line.

“Our first foldable phone will deliver the fast and smooth OnePlus experience,” Liu added during a press conference today at MWC. “It must be a flagship phone that does not settle because of its foldable shape, in terms of industrial design, mechanical technology and other aspects. We want to launch a device that aims to be at the forefront of today’s foldable market experience.

Just over a week ago, OnePlus parent Oppo launched its own foldable device, the Find N2 Flip, which is inspired by the Flip form factor. Asked about the design of OnePlus’ first foldable, Liu brought his hands together, opening them like a book, seeming to confirm something more in keeping with the Fold.

Liu did not provide any further product information. Speaking more broadly about the company, the executive referred to the “support” OnePlus has received as an Oppo-owned company. Such cross-brand collaborations might well explain why the two are releasing their own version of the foldable this year. It may also explain why the two products have adopted starkly different form factors for fear of potentially cannibalizing sales in what is still a small niche in the smartphone market.

I spent some time with the Oppo Find N2 Flip at this year’s MWC and found it to be a solid foldable, which early reviews so far have reflected. The product’s $1,025 price tag also managed to undercut Samsung’s Flip significantly. Given OnePlus’ track record, it seems likely the company will offer its own foldable at an aggressive price.