OnePlus has been doing a lot of great things lately. The company released its first tablet, the OnePlus Pad, earlier this year, and it launched its first folding phone, the OnePlus Open.
Although folding phones remain a small niche in the overall smartphone market, their popularity has been increasing recently. And there are a few reasons why someone would want a foldable: a convenient large screen when you need it and a smaller screen when you don’t, easy multitasking, and more.
Plus, with the foldable, you can enjoy hands-free watching as it can stand on its own without the need for accessories. Which leads me to a flaw I noticed with the OnePlus Open and its new “flexion hinge.” Compared to the competition, it is not stable enough.
What is flexion hinge?
The most important part of every folding phone is the hinge. After all, without it, it won’t turn. This is a requirement for this type of smartphone.
For the OnePlus Open, OnePlus created a flexion hinge. It’s built on a foundation of single-spine architecture, which OnePlus claims allows for better integration between all the components inside (there are about 69 parts compared to more than 100 in other foldables). Less parts also means less weight, which is why the OnePlus Open is one of the more lightweight foldables available at 239 grams.
OnePlus also says it makes the hinge more “sturdy” compared to competitors, which typically use a three-part spine. In my time with the OnePlus Open, I found that the flexion hinge makes it easier to fully open the foldable, which is something I struggled with a bit on the Google Pixel Fold. When you open a foldable, you want it to be 180-degrees flat, not 177-degrees (give or take). This is a big advantage in favor of OnePlus Open.
Why is this hinge a double-edged sword?
While opening the foldable completely flat is great, I noticed something else about the OnePlus Open Flexion Hinge that’s a little more annoying.
If you have it open at an obtuse angle (about 135 degrees or more), the hinge is not strong enough to hold it open. I had it open like this while I was sitting on my bed propped up by a blanket to stream some Disney+ (part of my regular routine), and instead the hinge went into fully open mode. To say the least, it was annoying.
When you have the OnePlus Open in clamshell mode past a certain point (about 135 degrees), it doesn’t really require much force to pop it flat. Compared to other devices like the Google Pixel Fold, the OnePlus Open Hinge feels a bit loose, and not strong and stable enough to stay open at a comfortable viewing angle.
An alternative option would be to use the OnePlus Open in tent mode to reference content while watching videos or doing anything else, which would only use the cover screen. But if you want to use Split View with three apps while keeping it partially open, you’ll have to fiddle with it or save yourself the headache and use it fully open instead.
OnePlus got (almost) everything right
For the most part, I’ve really enjoyed the OnePlus Open. It’s a great foldable that offers a usefully sized cover display, an anti-glare internal screen that’s beautiful, powerful performance, impressive cameras, and seamless multitasking.
OnePlus has certainly made some interesting choices with the flexion hinge design. I like that this makes it much easier to unfold the device vertically, which is a drawback of the Pixel Fold. But on the other hand, not being able to keep it open after a certain point is not something I would expect from a foldable that sells for $1,700. It doesn’t completely ruin the OnePlus Open experience, but it’s absolutely something that OnePlus should address when we get the OnePlus Open 2.
