Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold vs OnePlus Open: The foldable market is becoming crowded – Ultra-Sim

Intro

Could the Pixel 9 Pro Fold use that as grounds for an assault?

Design and Size

As we mentioned, the second-gen Google foldable phone will be scoring a serious redesign. 

The new Pixel 9 Pro Fold will be taller and slightly narrower in contrast with the Pixel Fold, which employs a more rectangular shape and is wider when folded. That made the Pixel Fold quite the different foldable phone, a joy to use folded with a single hand thanks to the extremely usable cover screen.

We also expect the Pixel 9 Pro Fold to be thinner and lighter, though we don’t expect use of titanium on that one. 

A big visual change could be the vastly redesigned rear camera island. It’s a pop-out camera island once again, meaning that it sticks out of the glass back in an imposing way, but it’s also a dual-floored one now: we have two rows of cameras. 

Meanwhile, the OnePlus Open is a very lightweight foldable phone, with an overall weight of just 239gr (or 245gr depending on which color version you go for). The foldable is also employing a mostly square aspect ratio on the inside, but the cover screen also strikes the perfect balance between size and single-hand usability. 

Display Differences

The OnePlus Open boasts an ever-so-slightly smaller inner OLED display, a 7.83-inch one, while the external one is also a 6.3-inch one. Both displays are LTPO 3.0 ones, which means that we have super-smooth dynamic refresh rate jumping between 1 and 120Hz (10-120Hz for the cover screen), depending on the context. 

You will find a hardware capacitive fingerprint scanner embedded right into the OnePlus Open‘s power button on the side, so no in-display fingerprint scanner here. The same applied to the Pixel Fold, so there’s a high chance Google will use such a capacitive fingerprint scanner with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, too. 

Performance and Software

Which one will come on top?

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold will come along with the Tensor G4 chipset, which is based on a 4nm manufacturing process. Actually, all Pixel 9 devices will come with this chip. The Tensor G4 will be a pretty big jump in performance and efficiency in comparison with the Pixel Fold, which came along with the Tensor G2. 

The OnePlus Open, on the other hand, came with the older Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, which is no longer the best one available in Qualcomm’s arsenal. However, it’s still a pretty potent chipset that surely delivers outstanding performance for most tasks. 

That said, the OnePlus Open beat the Pixel Fold in our synthetic benchmark tests; the difference was quite stark in the graphics processing 3DMark Extreme test. Here’s to hoping that the Tensor G4 in the Pixel 9 Pro Fold will improve on that.

The OnePlus Open has 16GB of RAM, and we expect the same for the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, as the device will have some pretty demanding needs for on-device AI processing. The OnePlus Open doesn’t have that many AI features, while we expect the Pixel 9 Pro Fold to be overflowing with such. 

Google’s foldable will also be supported until 2031, including major Android updates, security patches, and feature drops; the OnePlus Open will get four years of software support––until 2027.

Camera

Foldables are not really about that camera performance, but these two are not pulling their punches

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is likely to feature the same three-camera setup as the Pixel Fold, so no major hardware changes. However, some leaked renders suggest that there could be a fourth camera on the back of the foldable, but it’s more likely a ToF depth sensor and NOT another telephoto. 

Last year’s Pixel Fold came with a 48MP main camera, an 8.8MP ultra-wide, a 10.8MP telephoto camera with 5X optical zoom, and two selfie cameras, a 9.5MP external and an 8MP internal one.

Meanwhile, the OnePlus Open was also very well-equipped in the camera department. The phone came with a 48MP main + 48MP ultra-wide + 64MP 3X telephoto (6X in-sensor zoom, 120X max zoom). What’s interesting is the stacked sensor for the main camera: it was one of Sony’s new LYTIA sensors, the LYTIA-T808 in particular, and delivered very decent low-light image quality and dynamics.

Battery Life and Charging

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold better deliver

We’ve heard that Google’s next foldable phone will likely come with a battery in the ballpark of 4,560mAh, which doesn’t sound particularly reassuring when compared to the Pixel Fold‘s 4,821mAh battery. Even though the Tensor G4 will surely be more efficient, it might not be able to cover for the major difference in battery life. Here’s to hoping the new foldable will arrive with a larger battery. 

Charging-wise, there will probably be no competition: the OnePlus Open comes along with superfast 67W wired charging, which fully tops it up in just 43 minutes. And although the OnePlus Open has no wireless charging, it had a 67W charger in the box, which is great!

It’s unclear if Google will throw much faster charging in the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, and we honestly doubt it. We are likely getting the same 33W wired and 23W wireless charging support on the upcoming phone, which will fully charge it in north of an hour and a half. 

Specs Comparison

Here’s how the Pixel 9 Pro Fold and the OnePlus Open specs will compare:

*-anticipated specs

Summary

So, Google and OnePlus have already broken ground on the foldable market, but both of their first-gen phones have room for improvement in many areas (although it may be argued that the OnePlus device was superior). 

From the looks of it, Google will be turning things all the way up to 11 and will be improving many weaknesses of the first Pixel Fold.

Meanwhile, we don’t expect OnePlus to be sitting idly. Yet, the OnePlus Open is still a very capable phone that doesn’t feel stale at all. In fact, it’s still one of the best foldables you might consider. 

Which one should you get? We will have to wait for the Pixel 9 Pro Fold to break ground in August, but currently, the clash between these two titans seems inevitable.