OnePlus CEO Pete Lau doesn’t think foldable phone technology – specifically the display tech – is at an advanced enough stage for the Chinese company to make one.
By Jay McGregor
The issue revolves around the lack of scratch protection a plastic display has, which may be exacerbated by the fact that the screen constantly folds and creases. Speaking to The Verge he also appeared to be unconvinced by Samsung’s foldable effort.
“If you look at the fold and the current foldable technology devices, it’s very large and not very clean or a very crisp fold. That also currently results in a lot of screen creasing or issues with where the fold is in the screen. This isn’t something that I can accept in products that are built.”
In Lau’s eyes the current state of the technology isn’t up to OnePlus’ exacting standards. But if it was, what would a OnePlus foldable phone look like?
OnePlus’ phones stand out for two reasons: performance and price. Whether it’s the 7T’s 90Hz refresh rate (the OnePlus 8’s 120Hz display also looks insane) or the huge 8GB of RAM also in the 7T – OnePlus’ recent phones are wildly overpowered for what most smartphone users need on a day-to-day level.
Except, of course, if you want to do some serious gaming. At the 7T’s launch the company talked up the phone’s gaming credentials and even its partnership with PUBG. Up against near-impossible to beat cameras in Google, Samsung and Apple devices – clearly the Chinese company thinks it can carve out a niche in high-end mobile gaming.
Then there’s the price: the company has steadfastly priced itself below the bigger players in the smartphone world since its very first phone. Affordability is core to the OnePlus brand identity.
A high-performance, gaming-focused, low-cost foldable phone would dramatically shake up the foldable market. It would also solve two big issues foldable phones have to overcome: a reason to exist and their high cost. More
By
Jay McGregor Senior Contributor Consumer Tech FORBES
