The OnePlus Open (review) and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 (review) look the same and almost feel the same, but some key factors differentiate both of these ultra-flagship foldables. The most obvious is the price. The former costs Rs 1,39,999 (512GB storage) in India, while the latter starts at Rs 1,54,999 (256GB storage). Technically, that’s a Rs 25,000 difference compared to Galaxy Z Fold5’s more expensive 512GB storage option (Rs 1,64,999).
The second is the build. A closer look would reveal that the Galaxy Z Fold5 is taller and narrower, and the OnePlus boasts a comparatively shorter and wider body. Mind you, size can make a difference. The OnePlus Open, in its unfolded form (and broader build), appears similar to a regular smartphone. It’s also lighter than most of its peers, both foldables and non-foldables.
However, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 performed better in our benchmarks despite carrying the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC as the OnePlus phone. The Samsung phone also has the advantage of a more comprehensive smart ecosystem. The pertinent question remains: which one is better? Let’s find out.
Table of Contents
Design
Before we move to the displays, let’s look at their dimensions.
| OnePlus Open | Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 |
| 153.4mm (height) | 154.9mm (height) |
| 73.3mm (width, folded) | 67.1mm (width, folded) |
| 11.9mm (thickness, folded) | 13.4mm (thickness, folded) |
| 239 grams | 253 grams |
The OnePlus Open boasts a lighter design, thanks to its innovative “Flexion” hinge. This hinge mechanism utilises the same waterdrop design that is common among many of its peers, including the Galaxy Z Fold5. OnePlus states the Flexion hinge uses 69 components compared to 100+ components in other foldables. It primarily helps with reducing the overall weight of the smartphone.
Fewer hinge components do not mean reduced durability. The OnePlus Open claims to withstand at least one million folds for at least five years. That’s roughly 547 folds per day. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 promises 200,000 folds for the same period.
However, OnePlus has also made sacrifices to cap the weight. Firstly, there’s no wireless charging. On paper, Samsung offers better dust and water protection with an IPX8 rating instead of an IPX4 rating on the OnePlus Open.
In summary, I still look at the OnePlus Open as a more portable folding device. The Galaxy Z Fold5 might be slightly ahead in durability.
Displays
The OnePlus Open offers a more practical cover display with a familiar 20:9 aspect ratio. It means you run apps like Instagram, WhatsApp, and YoutTube, without hiccups. This 6.31-inch cover display is also more suitable for Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. On the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy ZFold5 is slightly easy to hold, but it may take some time to get used to its 6.2-inch cover display with the 23.1:9 ratio. Some apps may also need optimisation for the narrow cover screen.
However, many apps are yet to be optimised for the OnePlus Open’s 7.82-inch and Galaxy Z Fold5’s 7.6-inch main displays, respectively. For reading purposes, the OnePlus Open is ideal, as the crease from the hinge is barely visible. Movies and shows on YouTube or other OTT platforms look good without any quality compromises, as long as you find it in the right aspect ratio.
Speaking of quality, the OnePlus Open offers a 2K resolution on both screens with support for variable refresh rates, thanks to the LTPO 3 panel. The Galaxy Z Fold5 offers a similar screen resolution and refresh rate. There’s also top-class Gorilla Glass protection for the cover screens on both phones. The main displays on the OnePlus Open and Galaxy Z Fold5 leverage flexible AMOLED panels. You may find the colours more vibrant on Samsung phones by default. The contrast and black spots are top-notch on both phones.
Overall, there’s not much to differentiate in terms of resolution, but the OnePlus Open does it better by offering a more practical size (outside and inside).
Performance
The OnePlus Open and Galaxy Z Fold5 are powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC and utilise UFS 4.0 storage. There’s also 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM on the OnePlus Open, while the Galaxy Z Fol5 offers 12GB of RAM. Interestingly, the Samsung foldable performs better in our benchmarks (Geekbench, Antutu, and throttle test).
In real-life cases, both phones perform without any stutters. You may notice some heating issues on both, perhaps more prominently on the OnePlus Open. Since foldable phones aren’t centred towards gaming, don’t get your hopes high. But you can run titles like BGMI and Pokemon Unite with some heating problems.
For what it’s worth, the OnePlus Open also offers an IR sensor to manage AC, TVs, and so on.
Software
OnePlus is following Samsung’s path by promising four years of Android OS updates on the OnePlus Open. There’s also an additional year of security updates, making the phone potentially useable for five years. The OnePlus Open reminds me of the old OnePlus days of phones with fewer pre-installed apps. Samsung offers some very useful native apps to manage Samsung smart devices, but some pre-installed apps from Microsoft can be unnecessary to some customers.
The OnePlus Open and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 offer slightly different flavours for running multiple apps simultaneously, thanks to their custom Android skins. You can drag and drop apps on the Samsung phone for multi-window viewing, which is pretty self-explanatory. The OnePlus Open supports some finger gestures (like swipe down with two fingers for a split view), which can be equally useful. In the end, it all depends on what you like.
I prefer Samsung’s ecosystem because you can manage and sync data between phones, laptops, earbuds, tablets, and watches. There are also nifty features like DeX. OnePlus is also slowly building its ecosystem with new hardware, but that might take some more time.
Both phones ship with Android 13-based custom skin, though Samsung has started rolling out Android 14-based One UI.
Battery
The OnePlus Open houses a bigger 4,805Ah battery with 65W charging. There’s no wireless charging support here. The Galaxy Z Fold5 packs a 4,400mAh battery with 25W wired charging support and 15W wireless charging. Needless to say, the OnePlus Open attains full charge much faster (in under 50 minutes). The Galaxy Z Fold5 may take around an hour to attain 100 percent charge with a compatible charger. OnePlus also offers an 80W charger in the box, while Samsung neither provides the charger nor a protective case.
Performance-wise, both phones offer a similar all-day battery life with high settings enabled. In the PC Mark battery test, both phones lasted over 13 hours, but the Galaxy Z Fold5 survived a couple of additional minutes.
Overall, the battle between the two flagships is tight based on specifications, but the price can influence customers’ decisions by a huge margin.
We haven’t spoken about the cameras in this comparison, which is a separate article on its own. For a quick reference, the OnePlus Open houses two 48MP cameras (wide and ultra-wide) and a 64MP telephoto camera on the back. For selfies, there are 32MP (cover display) and 20MP (main display) cameras. The Galaxy Z Fold5 also offers three cameras on the back; 50MP wide, 12MP ultra-wide, and 10MP telephoto. Selfies are handled by the 10MP camera on the cover screen and a 4MP in-display camera on the main screen. For camera analysis, you can also refer to our reviews of the OnePlus Open and Galaxy Z Fold5 and 91Mobiles YouTube videos.
