OnePlus confirms it will launch its foldable phone this year

OnePlus has confirmed it will join sister company Oppo in the foldable phone game. And what’s more, it’ll be with us this year. We already had a teaser of an undisclosed future folding product take place at last month’s OnePlus 11 launch event and that appears to have been the upcoming foldable device. That teaser pegged the launch as “Q3” so that probably puts it into the August-September timeframe.

At a OnePlus panel discussion during Mobile World Congress, OnePlus chief Kinder Liu said: “Our first foldable phone will have the signature OnePlus fast and smooth experience. It must be a flagship phone that doesn’t settle because of its folding form, in terms of industrial design, mechanical technology, and other aspects. We want to launch a device that aims to be at the pinnacle experience of today’s foldable market.”

We don’t know what the phone will be called but we do know that OnePlus has trademarked OnePlus V Flip and V Fold previously.

Liu also spoke to TechCrunch about the news, saying: “We will release our foldable phone in the second half of this year. It will also be a flagship phone, as with the other top-positioned products in our portfolio. That is the reason why we haven’t released any foldable phones in the past several years. Because we really wanted to release the best one.”

He also confirmed through a motion with his hands that the device would have a book-type form factor, so will be a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold competitor rather than being a flip phone like Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip or Oppo’s Find N2 Flip. Could the OnePlus be a more modestly-priced foldable than we’ve seen so far?

Oppo already has a book-type foldable, the Find N2, which appears to be staying China-only unlike the N2 Flip. It’s tempting to think that the OnePlus entry will be along the same lines as the Find N2. That might not be such a bad thing as we did really like it. Check out our Oppo Find N2 hands-on review: a fine second-gen foldable