New OnePlus Folding Phone Exclusive First Look!

So this is an exclusive, guys. This is exciting

Inside this package right here is the OnePlus folding phone. This is an incredibly early copy of the device, but it's getting close to finished

And here on this channel, we're going to get our closest look yet at OnePlus's first folding phone

and then we're actually going to hear the inspiration behind it. Pete, it's great to see you again

I understand that you've now taken on a new role or sort of a combination of roles

You've transitioned into overseeing product for both Oppo and OnePlus now. How has that been for you

And what are the challenges of overseeing both brands? Yeah, Lu. Now I'm overseeing both the product from Oppo and OnePlus

and the business is getting more complicated. But however the business will evolve, we always focus on creating great products

And I'm the top product manager in the company. So we always start from the user needs and we want to create a burdenless design

and create a fast and smooth experience that is intuitive. Now after the merging, the R&D capability of the company is getting stronger

We have launched many industry-leading technologies and we are bringing products that have created good reputation among the consumers

For example, we have launched two generations of foldables under the OPPO brand

and we have also launched OnePlus 11, which has also received wide acclaims

I've been a user of foldables for a while now. I'm noticing now that you're seeing more refinement

as far as the sort of mechanical components of these foldable devices

Now in front of me, obviously, I've got an early look at the new OnePlus foldable

And I'm curious about what's different about this particular hinge design. Actually, you mentioned one key thing

Compared to the traditional slap style form factor, foldables is changing in terms of the form factor and the key thing behind this form factor is the hinge Now we hold over 600 patterns related to the hinge design of the foldable

And if you've tried the first generation wide-end foldable two years ago

you might recall that when you close the phone, there is no gap in between

It is a gapless state. And behind that is the hinge. And actually when you close the phone, it's not only just gapless, you can even put a piece of paper in between and still hold the phone

The phone won't drop. The hinge is a key component behind the experience of the foldable phone

Because not only does the hinge occupy a lot of room in terms of the components stacking, it will also affect the health or the life cycle of the phone

Now, on the hinge that we use for the OnePlus foldable, we hold 35 patterns related to the hinge

We have improved the materials and tried to reduce the size and the weight and increase the strength of the hinge

Now, compared to the hinge that we use on the O-Pofine N2, the hinge on the OnePlus foldable has 31 components fewer in the hinge

This helps with the reduction of the weight We have also improved the material design

So that the strength is better But we still managed to reduce the size of the hinge

Actually, this hinge is 37% smaller Compared to the hinge of the Find N2

Yeah, this is my first time actually inspecting the device This is an early sample that I'm looking at here

So we can't show you absolutely everything You can see there's some elements that are covered

but this has to be the tightest hinge that I've looked at as far as the gap or lack of a gap and

it creates something that's quite slim when it's in its closed position here. So Pete how do you

think that this product is going to compete against other flagship devices in the market

How do you think that this new OnePlus folding device will stack up? OnePlus is not the first

to the race. But once we decided to enter this race, we must be bringing the best phone to this race And I would say that the OnePlus Foldable phone is the best folding phone you can get right now It your dream phone

Wow. Now, Lu, if you think of the user need for a foldable

they want a display that's as big as possible. But when they hold the phone in your hand

they hope that it's as small and convenient as possible. That is the user need

A foldable phone should not just offer a large screen experience. It should also have a light and slim design

It should have a powerful camera. And it should deliver a fast and smooth experience

It is only when we achieve a right balance in all these areas

can we call it a flagship foldable phone. OnePlus has gained strong reputation in the fast and smooth experience

So rest assured that this experience will also be replicated to our folding firm

In order to deliver a better large screen experience for the users

we are also working closely with Google to improve the app adaptation

so that users can really feel that the app experience is different on a large screen

One more thing, the alert slider, which has gained good reputation among the OnePlus users

is also available on this folding firm. Yeah, I noticed that actually, it's got that nice textured feel to it

So you don't even have to look at the device to recognize. And it's in a nice location here, easily reachable

The question that people are going to have is, is this product going to be identical to an OPPO folding device

How do you see the difference between those two brands? And how unique will this OnePlus folding phone be compared to products offered under the OPPO brand

This folding phone is jointly developed by the Oppo team and the OnePlus team

because we want to create a synergy and bring the best of the two teams together

because both teams have accumulated strong experience. This folding phone will have a different go-to-market strategy in different regions

because there is only one the best folding phone now. And the OPPO team has accumulated strong experience in the foldable design and in the camera technologies

While OnePlus is famous for the fast and smooth experience the burdenless design and the peak performance of the hardware so we decided to bring the best of these two teams together and create this folding firm

And we will use a different go-to-market strategy in different regions so that more users will be able to have their hands on this device

All right, now the last thing I'm wondering, there is a customer who's also interested in a flip style device in a clamshell that's going to actually unfold the other way and create an even more portable folding device

So does OnePlus have any plans to add a device like that

Target users of the first generation folding phone of OnePlus are more like the business elites and technology elites

They are people who work in finance, they are engineers, doctors, etc

They are more or less the users of the OnePlus Slab-style flagships

But the target users of the flip phones, they are not quite matched

So that is why at this stage, we don't have the plan to launch a flip phone

Listen, Pete, it's been great to have access to this conversation to get a little bit more insight into the development process

and also to sort of get a slightly better idea of how this strategy is working

There's some serious engineering that's gone into this and you have like the tightest seal that I've seen

Because what we are after is actually delivering the best foldable phone for the users

It should not be something that settles. I mean, obviously we have the recent launch, Samsung Z Fold 5

And I mean, I think to the average person, they're going to see some similarities here

Where do you see the difference here? And what do you think the advantages are for the OnePlus folding phone

Fushy is open. So there you have it. That is our best look yet at the OnePlus folding phone

Another option in the folding phone space and a slightly different take

I'm very excited to see the retail version of this, the final version of this

And of course, I'll be showing it to you here on the channel very soon