OnePlus recently gave a teasing glimpse of its first foldable phone. Well, that glimpse was actually turned into a high-resolution view of the upcoming device, thanks to leaker @OnLeaks (via SmartPrix). The leaked renders of the upcoming OnePlus Fold show a device that is unmistakably OnePlus, with some standout design touches and a promising camera perk.
But a word of caution before you start digging into your wallet. The leaked renders are reportedly based on “a prototype unit in the testing stage,” which means the final version hitting the shelves later this year might look a tad — or maybe entirely — different.
Smartphone brands usually test multiple design ideas in the prototyping stage before they zero in on a final look. Simply put, take this leak with a healthy dose of skepticism. Now, let’s dissect what the OnePlus Fold has to offer.
The round camera island appears to have been borrowed from the OnePlus 11, but it looks closer to sister company Oppo’s Find X6 Pro flagship. The phone looks impressively slim, and there’s a leather finish on the rear panel, which is a standout aesthetic touch.
Notably, the OnePlus Fold retains OnePlus’ signature physical alert slider on the side, while the fingerprint sensor has been embedded inside the power button. Another aspect that is going to attract eyeballs is the impressively thin bezels, unlike the Google Pixel Fold and its unsymmetrically thick bezels.
The OnePlus Fold has a centrally positioned selfie camera on the outer cover display, while the snapper on the inner foldable screen has been neatly positioned in the top-left corner. It looks like a regular sensor, unlike the camouflaged approach that Samsung took for the Galaxy Z Fold 4.
A foldable with serious camera chops
According to Smartprix, the OnePlus Fold will offer triple-lens camera hardware that will be headlined by a 50-megapixel main snapper that relies on the Sony IMX890 sensor. There is no word on the megapixel count of the other two cameras, but there’s still a visibly standout perk to be seen in the leaked renders.
The round camera island features a rectangular lens cutout, which is a telltale sign that it’s a telephoto zoom camera with a folded lens system underneath. Also known as a periscope camera, this zoom camera mechanism first passes light through a prism, which bends it at 90 degrees, and then passes the light beam through a tunnel of lenses before it hits the sensor.
The longer lens element tunnel allows a higher degree of focus adjustment, which in turn offers a higher optical zoom range. With the exception of the Google Pixel Fold, there is currently no foldable phone sold in the U.S. that offers the convenience of a periscope-style zoom camera.
For reference, the Pixel Fold offers a 5x optical zoom range, which is over twice what the iPhone 14 Pro Max can muster. Now, we don’t know the optical zoom range on the OnePlus foldable phone, but it certainly is going to be better than mainstream rivals from Samsung or Chinese brands such as Oppo.
For selfies, OnePlus has armed its first foldable phone with a fairly large 32-megapixel front camera. There is also a triple-speaker system to ensure a stereo audio experience, which is another neat convenience to savor on a foldable phone.
The OnePlus Fold looks like it means business
The OnePlus Fold – assuming the brand ends up calling it that – will reportedly rely on Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 8+ Gen 2 chip. In a nutshell, this device is going to offer the same kind of firepower as you would expect from any top-tier Android phone.
OnePlus might also arm its maiden foldable phone with a 2K OLED panel boasting a 120Hz screen refresh rate. And there’s another area where the OnePlus folding phone might race ahead of the best Android phones out there.
The OnePlus Fold is rumored to arrive with a 4,800mAh battery, which is decent, considering it has to power two screens and beefy silicon underneath that thin shell. But the most promising aspect is support for fast charging that hits the 100-watt ceiling.
Right now, the only phone sold on the U.S. soil that can touch the 80W charging mark is the OnePlus 11; the variant sold in Asian markets actually charges at 100W. Looking over at the competition, Samsung has yet to cross the 50W charging speed mark, while Apple’s pricey iPhones haven’t even touched the 30W level.
Getting the convenience of 100W wired fast charging on a foldable phone is unprecedented and a great convenience. Let’s just hope that the phone doesn’t get worryingly hot while charging, which is often the case with phones that juice up at such a mad pace. Let’s also hope OnePlus slaps a price tag on the OnePlus Fold that can undercut Google and Samsung’s $1,800 foldable phones.
