OnePlus announces it will launch a foldable phone this year

OnePlus is the latest phone maker to get into the foldable business.

As reported by The Verge, at a panel discussion at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the company says that it will be launching a foldable phone in the second half of this year. It wouldn’t provide any more details than that, however, and said that more information would be coming “soon.”

At a panel discussion today, the company announced its intentions to launch a foldable phone in the second half of 2023. That’s about the extent of the details we have for now, though it seems like a safe assumption that the device will look a lot like one of the existing foldables on the market from Oppo — OnePlus’ parent company.

When OnePlus does unveil and eventually launch this foldable later this year, the company will be joining a growing market. Other Android phone makers like Samsung, Motorola, Oppo, and arguably Microsoft. The debate rages on if the company’s Surface Duo is truly a foldable since it consists of two separate screens connected by a hinge rather than a bendable display, but we’ll let the forums handle that.

Two companies that are still notably missing from the foldable game are Apple and Google. Rumors of a foldable iPhone and Pixel have been growing for years, but neither company has confirmed those rumors, and despite some indications, there hasn’t been a ton in the way of leaks regarding either.

Google’s foldable is definitely more of a possibility, given that recent updates to Android provide greater support for foldable devices, indicating that a so-called “Pixel Fold” could be closer on the horizon.

While we wait for the OnePlus foldable, feel free to check out our reviews of the recently released OnePlus 11 and OnePlus Buds Pro 2. The announcement comes on the same day that Carl Pei, who left OnePlus to start Nothing, teased the company’s second smartphone.