5G and foldable smartphones were all the rage at the Mobile World Congress 2019 in Barcelona this week. Many companies showed of their devices. Huawei had the Mate X on display while Samsung had the Galaxy Fold. Oppo took to Weibo to unveil a prototype of its foldable phone on the same day. OnePlus was missing from the pack and the company says that it’s in no rush to jump on this bandwagon.
OnePlus CEO Pete Lau told CNET that the company won’t be making a foldable smartphone soon. “With this technology, costs are high,” Lau said, adding that the “value to the end user doesn’t seem to correlate.”
These first-generation foldable smartphones will certainly be priced higher than what you’d expect to pay for a flagship smartphone. Samsung has already confirmed that the Galaxy Fold is going to start at $1980 while Huawei’s Mate X will come in at $2,600.
Lau did mention that OnePlus has been looking at the possibilities for foldable phones and views the form factor as “very interesting,” however the high costs prevent them from currently throwing their hat in the ring as well.
OnePlus has built itself up by offering devices with impressive specifications at affordable prices. That’s not something it can do with foldable smartphones at this point in time. So while it’s not completely saying no to the idea, it may be a while before we see a foldable phone from OnePlus.
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