Beyond the Alphabet
Beyond the Alphabet is a weekly column that focuses on the tech world both inside and out of the confines of Mountain View.
When you’ve used as many phones as I have over the years, there are some that tend to stick in your memory better than others. Apple’s release of the iPhone 3GS sparked my love for smartphones, while jailbreaking laid the foundation for when I would later join the world of Android and rooting. The Galaxy Z Fold 2 was my first experience with a foldable phone, and now I don’t leave home without one.
Although I had been hoping for Google to release a foldable phone, the original Pixel Fold didn’t quite do it for me. Instead, the OnePlus Open captured my heart as it set the standard for what I think a book-style foldable phone should offer.
At the time, it was thinner than the Galaxy Z Fold 5 with larger screens while offering better battery life, faster charging, better cameras, and the list goes on. Sure, it lacked wireless charging, and I had to jump through hoops trying to find the right stylus. But hey, it got everything else right. So much so that I didn’t want to stop using it even as newer and more powerful phones came my way.
Unfortunately, not all dreams are meant to be granted, and this is the case with the OnePlus Open 2. Following the news that it would not launch in 2025, I was rather dejected and wanted to figure out how to get my hands on the Find N5. But without carrier subsidies to rely on, paying extra just to have it imported isn’t currently on the cards.
So, instead, I wanted to see if the Open was still as good as I thought or if I was just living in the proverbial “reality distortion field.”
Fast forward a week or so, and I think I’ve found myself stuck between fantasy and reality. From a hardware perspective, it’s a pretty tight race between the OnePlus Open and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. That’s a testament to both OnePlus and Google, as the Open was released in October 2023, while the 9 Pro Fold feels incredibly more modern than its predecessor.
The Open didn’t fall short in terms of performance, which, again, is no surprise. It’s powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and includes 16GB of RAM. Would I have wanted to see a OnePlus foldable with the Snapdragon 8 Elite? Absolutely, but that’s more of a feeling rooted in me wanting the fastest and most powerful phone possible.
As for the software, well, it’s exactly what you’d expect from a OnePlus or OPPO phone. All of the “normal” stuff works fine, but I didn’t come away feeling the same about multitasking. Don’t get me wrong, I think the Open Canvas is fantastic in a lot of ways, especially on the OnePlus Pad 2. However, I also think that I still prefer Samsung’s split-screen approach because of the way that I use foldables.
When it comes to the cameras, not much has really changed, as I still think it beats Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 6 in that regard. It’s not better than the Galaxy S25 Ultra or iPhone 16 Pro Max, but it’s right up there with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Of course, these all fall short when compared to foldable phones released in regions that aren’t the U.S., but I digress.
There was one thing that’s really left a thorn in my side since I started using the Open again — battery life. It’s just bad. Initially, I thought it was because I was switching over from the Galaxy S25 Ultra. That’s a new phone with a new battery, while I was switching to a phone from 2023 with a battery that has really been put through the wringer.
But then it got worse. Since moving my spare SIM over to the Open a little over a week ago, I’ve been unable to make it through an entire day without needing to recharge before bed. I don’t mean that the phone’s running out of juice an hour or two before. I mean that I take it off the charger between 7-8 AM in the morning, and I’m down to 20% or lower by 4-5 PM.
It’s reached the point that I actually couldn’t wait to be done using the Open so I could flip a coin and go back to either the Pixel 9 Pro Fold or the Galaxy Z Fold 6. And for the first time in who knows how long, I actually wish a modern phone had a user-replaceable battery. Just let me swap it out or take it somewhere to be done in a day or two, and everything would be golden. Which isn’t exactly something that I’d expect to say in 2025.
When it’s all said and done, I think that at that moment, the OnePlus Open was the best thing since sliced bread. In a lot of ways, it still holds up, to the point that I’d be happy even if OnePlus were to just re-release it. Oh right, that already kind of happened with the Apex Edition that you can no longer buy.
For as much as I wanted to fall in love with the OnePlus Open again, that “spark” just isn’t there for me. Maybe I will try to figure out a way to replace the battery and give it another shot. Or maybe I’ll just wait and see if the Galaxy Z Fold SE Z Fold 7 finally delivers what I’ve wanted from Samsung for the past couple of years.