This is my real problem with the OnePlus Open 2 delay

On the way into 2025, OnePlus Open 2 was one of my most awaited new phones. The first OnePlus Open was a massive hit, and the rumors of the successor painted a promising picture. If OnePlus first folding phone was so good, you can imagine what the company could do with the sequel.

Well, it looks like we’re waiting for a while to figure it out. February 13, OnePlus confirmed that it will not release a new foldable in 2025To say that it is “carefully considered the timing” and “the next step in folding units.” In this way, the company decided not to launch Open 2 this year.

As a supporter of the first OnePlus Open, this is obviously disappointing. But it is particularly confusing considering what OnePlus Open 2 could have been and the big hole it is likely to leave in the American folding market.

The OnePlus Open was launched in October 2023 to fantastic reviews. Android Authority gave the phone a 4/5 and a recommended price in our OnePlus Open ReviewAnd said it had “the best hardware on a folding” and was a “entrance to book style folding phones.”

I didn’t get my hands on the phone until August, and even almost a year after the release, Open immediately separated me as a phone I wanted to continue using – even over the newer Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6. Why? There are a few reasons.

Among all the folding phones I’ve used are the OnePlus Open machine my favorite. The ratio of cover screen is perfect and it feels like a “normal” phone. The hinge is excellent, the inner display looks amazing, and I love the leather back side of the black and red colors. I also think the giant camera hump on the back is perfect. It gives the phone a feeling of character and it is perfectly placed to rest on the index finger when I hold it open.

But it’s not just the hardware that OnePlus got it right. Almost everything about the OnePlus Open works for me. The cameras? Big. Battery life? Reliable. Price? It is still one of the most competitive for a folding in the United States. The OnePlus Open had deficiencies, but it set such an incredible precedent for OnePlus folding as the expectation of the open 2 started almost immediately.

As it turns out, the expectation was well deserved. Like how the OnePlus Open was the American version of Oppo Find N3, we were expecting OnePlus Open 2 to be the American version of Oppo Find N5. It was exciting because the found N5 looks phenomenal.

We went recently Hands-on with upfo Find N5And simply, it’s fantastic. Found N5 is officially the thinnest book style folding phone ever. Put side by side with Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold and HONOR MAGIC V3It’s almost amazing how thin it is. You can see a comparison in the picture below. Finned N5 (in the middle) makes the Pixel 9 Pro board (right) look like a chonker.

Oppo did an incredible job with the screen crab as well, as it is the least noticeable I have seen on a folding to date. Combine it with a Snapdragon 8 elite chip and fast 50w wired charging, and there is a lot to look forward to. Probably all this would have come to OnePlus Open 2, but with the release plans in 2025 squeezed, it is no longer on the table.

If the finding that the N5 had proven to be a minor specification, missing Open 2 would have stabbed a little less. But from where I sit, the Find N5 can be one of 2025’s most interesting assemblies. If that is the case, the absence of OnePlus Open 2 will be so more difficult to cope with.

If you live in a market where Oppo finds N5 will be released, none of this really means to you. But for us in the United States it is a bomb shell. The American folding market is not dead, but the 2025 forecast looks gloomy.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 will almost certainly be released this summer, but early rumors paint a mixed picture. The cover and inner screens are rumored to be larger, and the phone should also be thinner. Big! However, in the process, Samsung can also remove the digitalizer At the moment found in Fold 6, which means Fold 7 may lose S PEN compatibility. There is also not much hope for a redesign, considering how Samsung started the year with the Galaxy S25 series.

Google is the other big player in us foldable, and in 2025 we should see Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold. We haven’t heard much about this yet, but I expect a modest view from Google this year. The multi-generational leap between the first Pixel-Folden and Pixel 9 Pro-Folden was astonishing and impressive work from Google’s side. But now that the company has such a strong basis to work from, it does not make sense for walking quite two years in a row.

And … that’s it. With OnePlus that delays Open 2, Samsung and Google will be the only two serious book style choices folding phones in the United States this year. Z Fold 7 and Pixel 10 Pro Fold will almost certainly be great, but having the third choice from OnePlus in 2023 and 2024 added to much needed variety and competition. The original OnePlus Open is still available for purchasesAnd OnePlus says it will continue to support the phone, but it will also be two years old in August. As good as it remains, a successor is overdue.

When I look ahead, I am also worried about what the future has for OnePlus folding in 2026 and beyond. OnePlus says that this “is not a step back”, which suggests that the company does not bend out of folding things for good. I hope it is true because without an open 2 this year, the American folding landscape for 2025 will be much less exciting than it could have been.