Update: Follow our Samsung Unpacked live blog now for the official Galaxy Z Fold 5 launch news, and check our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 news hub and hands-on for the latest on Samsung's foldable.
The Galaxy Z Fold 5 vs. OnePlus Open match-up is a collision of the known and the unknown, and could be one of the biggest things to happen to foldable phones in what's already been a busy year.
We've had four generations of big Samsung foldables already, and having refined its formula over the years, the Galaxy Z Fold line has become a reliable source of practical and powerful foldable phones. But it's looking like the Galaxy Z Fold 5 has not changed much from the outgoing Galaxy Z Fold 4, perhaps motivating some users to look for something more interesting and innovative elsewhere.
OnePlus is a newcomer to the world of foldables, and so far all we know for sure is that a OnePlus folding phone is coming this year. The rumors so far have told us the phone’s like name of Open, and that it could be one of the biggest and best-specced folding phones on the market when it arrives. That could make it another big challenger to Samsung's dominance alongside the Google Pixel Fold. However, as a first-gen product, there’s no telling what weird bugs or hardware issues it could face.
While we count down to the arrival of the OnePlus Open, and the retail launch of the Galaxy Z Fold 5, we’ve been considering how these phones may compare. Read on to find our analysis of the rumors for these two devices.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 vs OnePlus Open: Rumored specs
| Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 (rumored) | OnePlus Open (rumored) | |
| Inner display | 7.6 inches | 7.8 inches |
| Outer display | 6.2 inches | 6.3 inches |
| Rear cameras | 50MP main, 12MP ultrawide, 10MP 3x telephoto | 50MP main, 48MP ultrawide, 64MP telephoto |
| Front cameras | 10MP front selfie, 4MP under-display inner selfie | 20MP front selfie, 32MP inner selfie |
| Chipset | Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy | Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 |
| RAM | 12GB | TBC |
| Storage | 256GB/512GB/1TB | TBC |
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 vs OnePlus Open: Possible release dates and prices
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 launched at the company's Galaxy Unpacked event on July 26th, with the retail launch coming on August 11. The OnePlus foldable could be coming in August instead, (possibly on the 29th specifically) so in theory it's not a long wait until we can try out both.
As for the cost of these phones, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 is going for $1,799 just like previous Z Folds. There are no murmurings of what the OnePlus Open may cost, though we'd have to assume it'll be a similar $1,800 price as other leading foldables. Hopefully less.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 vs OnePlus Open: Design and displays
There's a lot of the Galaxy Z Fold 4 in the Galaxy Z Fold 5. Once again we have a foldable with 7.6 inch inner and 6.2-inch outer displays, both with 120Hz refresh rates. That means no change to the height or width of the outer display, which is rather annoying considering the narrow, tall shape of the screen makes the Z Fold a bit impractical to use when closed up.
Samsung is using a new hinge in both the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 that has reduced the gap between the two halves of the display when it's folded. There's still a crease in the display, but it's a little less severe than before.
Annoyingly, rumors of full water/dust resistance for the Galaxy Z Fold 5 proved not be true . There's still IPX8 water resistance like we've seen on previous generations of Samsung foldables though, but dust resistance would have been a unique selling point for the Galaxy Z Fold 5 that would have given users more assurance that their expensive folding phone wouldn't become unusable just because of a bit of debris in the hinge.
Finally, we come to the Galaxy Z Fold 5 color options. These are black, light blue and beige.
The OnePlus foldable is much more mysterious. So much so that we're not even sure of the name yet. Currently it looks like it'll be the OnePlus Open, but we had been calling it the OnePlus V Fold before that, and other name options have apparently been discussed internally too.
One thing that seems to be established among leaks is that the OnePlus foldable will be quite large, with a 7.8-inch main screen and a 6.3-inch cover screen. That's not only bigger than the Galaxy Z Fold 5 should be, but also any other foldable you can currently buy in the U.S. or U.K.
Design-wise, renders of the OnePlus foldable suggest it'll look a lot like a doubled-up OnePlus 11, with the OnePlus 11's circular camera bump featuring prominently.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 vs OnePlus Open: Cameras
Photography on the Galaxy Z Fold 5 should feel basically the same as it did on the Galaxy Z Fold 4. That's because it uses the same 50MP main, 12MP ultrawide and 10MP 3x telephoto cameras on the back, plus a 10MP camera on the front and a 4MP under-display camera inside. Samsung has introduced some upgrades beyond the resolution of the camera sensors, but it's all software-side changes.
The OnePlus Open's photo kit allegedly comprises of a 50MP main camera (or possibly a 48MP one), alongside a 48MP ultrawide camera, 32MP (or 64MP) telephoto camera, with 32MP and 20MP selfie cameras on the inside and outside respectively. This certainly has Samsung beaten on total megapixels, so perhaps with some careful tuning with OnePlus' established photography collaborator Hasselblad, it could be the superior photography phone.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 vs OnePlus Open: Performance
Inside the Galaxy Z Fold 5, we find the speedy Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, paired again with 12GB RAM and either 256GB, 512GB or 1TB RAM. While many other phones use this Snapdragon chip, the Samsung version has a higher clock speed and therefore extra power.
OnePlus is likely to use a standard Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip for the Open, or perhaps the new Leading Version of that chip that squeezes more power out. We'd imagine OnePlus will go for similar memory sizes too, with at least 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 vs OnePlus Open: Battery and charging
The Galaxy Z Fold 5 features a 4,400 mAh total battery capacity, with 25W charging and wireless charging available to fill it up. That's just what the Galaxy Z Fold 4 had too.
There haven't been any rumors about what battery or charging the OnePlus Open will offer. But knowing OnePlus' focus on speedy charging, we'd have to imagine whatever system they do use will be higher than 25W.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 vs OnePlus Open: Outlook
Once we've given the Galaxy Z Fold 5 a full test, we expect to find a refined product, and a safe bet to buy. But the problem with safe bets is that they're not exciting, and with no big spec upgrades beyond a new chipset, you're unlikely to get much from the Z Fold 5 that you couldn't get from the existing Galaxy Z Fold 4.
However, the OnePlus Open could be an exciting, super-sized foldable that could offer improved photography, charging and performance. But as a brand-new foldable phone, you run the risk of rough edges and problems you wouldn't see on a standard phone. So we would wait until our OnePlus Open review goes live before buying.
