Tantalizing OnePlus V foldable phone images marry thin body with periscope zoom
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Pictures of the first foldable phone from OnePlus have appeared and it looks every bit as svelte as it is rumored to be and a prime candidate for out list of best 2023 foldable phones. The OnePlus V Fold, or whatever it gets named finally, seems to be an elegant device that takes its design cues from the company's "rigid" phones, complete with the camera island circle on the back, rather than simply be a carbon copy of foldables by Oppo and Vivo, as some rumors suggested.
OnePlus V Fold camera
The distinctive design uncovered by Steve Hemmerstoffer from OnLeaks (via Smartprix) brings with it some welcome details, too, such as the rectangular lens opening of one of the rear cameras, indicating that the OnePlus V Fold may be one of the very few foldables with periscope zoom lenses.
As for other OnePlus V Fold camera specs, it is said to come with a 50MP main camera, though we doubt it will be the 1-incher present on flagship phones of the BBK conglomerate like the Oppo Find X6 Pro as might simply be no space for a giant sensor and optical zoom at the same time on a thin foldable phone half.
Still, OnePlus might surprise us when it announces its V Fold phone specs, plus that ultrawide camera sensor seems to be of a similar caliber, leveraging the Find X6 Pro mantra for providing equally good sensors for all photography tasks at hand. The selfie camera is tipped to be a generous 32MP unit with a powerful OmniVision sensor, too.
OnePlus V Fold design and display
The OnePlus V Fold display sizes are anyone's guess at this point, but looking at the renders here, it is definitely not going to be a compact foldable munchkin like the Oppo Find N2, for instance, but rather in the realm of foldable phones with 6+ inches cover screen and main displays closing in on the 8-inch diagonal mark. The main screen is allegedly going to be a 2K AMOLED display of the frugal LTPO variety that also allows for high dynamic refresh rates to save on battery.
The OnePlus V Fold looks extremely thin on these renders, with uniform thickness of each half, and only the camera circle sticking out to house the top-shelf photography paraphernalia. The power button on the side seems to house a fingerprint scanner for biometric identification, while a triple speaker set completes the stellar multimedia chops of the next OnePlus personal entertainment machine with a large main display.
The internal screen also seemingly folds over one of those miniature hinges that allows for near invisible crease in the middle of the phone's display when unfurled.
Last but not least, the OnePlus V Fold is clad in a sort of black vegan leather, but we would probably witness the announcement of a version with a glass housing as well. The Find X6 Pro marked the return of the leather-y design for the holding, and OnePlus now follows suit, as the leather-clad X6 Pro proved a veritable hit with users tired of the sea of glass phones around them.
OnePlus V Fold specs, pricing, and release date
The first foldable phone from OnePlus will reportedly be released in the US and UK as well and last suggestions pegged the beginning of August as the release date. This will be shortly after the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is launched, leaving little doubt who OnePlus is targeting with the V Fold directly.
As a direct Z Fold 5 competitor, however, the OnePlus V Fold is unlikely to be cheap, even though we expect it to cost much less than Samsung's foldable flagship in the US. It will, however, likely have better specs, complete with a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 2 processor, periscope optical zoom camera, and ultrafast 100W charging that will fill the 4,800 mAh battery in no time. Those specs are likely to lure many buyers away from the Z Fold 5, provided that the V Fold is launched in the US around the $1500 mark for the 512GB version, and with a good reason.
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