Economies of scale mean that once a product becomes popular, it also costs less. But this creates a problem: it is difficult for an expensive product to become popular. This is the problem facing foldables right now, especially the horizontal variety.
Last week’s survey shows that OnePlus Open is a very promising phone. It may even be the best-in-class yet seen in markets outside of China. Yet… well, the pie chart speaks for itself, 40% of voters are interested in the Open, but find it too expensive.
To be honest, it costs less than Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold5 (unless you sign up for one of Samsung’s deals, which are quite frequent, but OnePlus has a deal too). In any case, $100/€100 less seems trivial when considering a price of $1,700/€1,800. Unfortunately, this is not a problem that will be solved overnight: even several years after the first leaflets arrived on the market, prices are still quite high.
On top of that, there was the usual contingent of “I don’t want the leaflet” voters. For some this means Anyone foldable, although we don’t think people looking for a large horizontal foldable will buy a small foldable as an alternative.
That aside, few think there is a better landscape foldable in their market right now. OnePlus (and, let’s be honest, Oppo) deserve kudos for the impressive hardware they’ve built. And OxygenOS 13.2 with the new foldable-focused features managed to impress, even coming from the foldable version of One UI that Samsung has been perfecting for years.
In case you missed it, check out our OnePlus Open review, we also have a video review.
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