OnePlus Open 2 could arrive next year with these 3 huge upgrades

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Boosted performance, waterproofing and the biggest battery we’ve ever seen in a foldable — but leakers disagree on when we’ll get it.

OnePlus Open held in the hand
(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

If you consult our list of the best foldable phones, you’ll see our current favorite isn’t Google’s Pixel Fold 2 or Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 6, but a first-generation model: the OnePlus Open.

While that’s not quite the impressive instant success that it sounds (the phone is the first OnePlus-branded foldable, but it’s actually a rebranded Oppo Find N3), the handset raised the bar with its outstanding thin and light design, long-lasting battery and — most importantly — competitive pricing. With the trade-in of any phone, the handset would come in at under $1,500 — over $400 cheaper than its rivals.

So we already had high hopes for the OnePlus Open 2, and those hopes have only been raised with recent rumors about what upgrades may be planned for the handset. On X, the leaker @chunvn8888 revealed a host of tantalizing details that point to some encouraging refinements.

The first of these will be on speed: While the original packed the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, it looks like the sequel will skip a generation and jump straight to the Snapdragon 8 Elite. As we’ve seen from early benchmarks, that’s a whole lot of performance.

But the newest processor is always expected from a flagship smartphone, and what’s more impressive is that OnePlus will apparently be packing its next foldable with a massive 5,900mAh battery — a whole 22.8% bigger than the 4,805mAh cell in the current version, and the largest yet seen in a foldable.

Battery life was the Achilles Heel on early foldables, but nobody could accuse the OnePlus Open of being deficient here. Not only did it manage a solid 11 hours and 45 minutes in our tests, but with the bundled 67W charger, it could go from empty to 50% full in just 15 minutes.

So if OnePlus can provide that much extra battery capacity without too much extra weight, that’ll be quite the upgrade. And it will also be a little more protected from the elements too, with @chunvn8888 claiming that IPX9 waterproofing is incoming — a solid step up from the IPX4 "splash resistance" offered by its predecessor.

The post is somewhat light on camera details, but the triple array will apparently be repeated, led by a 50MP main sensor (up from 48MP before) and a 3x telephoto lens. The original had a 64MP sensor with this capability, and it’s not clear if it will be the same again or somewhat improved.

But there’s some debate about when in 2025 it’ll be released. While @chunvn8888 claims we’re looking at a Q1 release (January to March), Sanju Choudhary is more pessimistic, posting on X that it’ll arrive in the second half of 2025.

That would mean a launch between July and December, which would be a risky move by OnePlus. While the Snapdragon 8 Elite is new and shiny now, the longer the company leaves it, the less cutting edge it will seem, as we expect Qualcomm will have the chip’s successor ready to debut around October.

But whenever the OnePlus Open 2 arrives, we’re pleased to see it coming back. There was a time when it was rumored to have been canceled and, thankfully, that no longer seems to be the case.

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Alan Martin
Alan Martin

Freelance contributor Alan has been writing about tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are found all over the web and in the occasional magazine too. When not weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably find him tackling his ever-growing games backlog. Or, more likely, playing Spelunky for the millionth time.