The OnePlus Open launched last week. That marked the first entry into the foldable phone space for the brand, and looks set to be a monstrous handset.
In fact, based on the specs alone, it looks like it could be a true Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 killer. The handset packs in a host of top tech, like a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, a killer Hasselblad camera system and a pair of AMOLED displays.
All of that is good anyway, but the device becomes even more appealing when you consider the price. At just £1,599, it's substantially less expensive than the Z Fold 5 and other competitors like the Google Pixel Fold.
But none of that is what really gets me about the Open. No, the feature which really gets me is one which might have flown under your radar. It's called Open Canvas, and it's a really brilliant take on multi-tasking on a larger display.
It basically works by assuming a larger canvas size than the physical display. Then, rather than squishing multiple windows onto the screen with different aspect ratios which don't quite work, the windows are appropriately sized and simply overhang. Users can swipe back and forth to bring the overhanging windows back into view.
That sounds like a really genius solution. Instead of faffing around with less than ideal window sizes or content which doesn't quite fit the page, users can enjoy optimal aspect ratios, even when the screen size doesn't allow for it. That's a much better system.
Of course, we'll have to wait until we get hands on with the device to see how it really performs. While it sounds good in practice, we wont know for certain until we can test it out.
But I, for one, am excited by the prospect. With the foldable space still in its relative infancy, innovations like this have the potential to really shape the future of the industry as a whole.
While it's currently something which is exclusive to the OnePlus, it could easily be mimicked on other handsets in the future. Still, for now, it's something which the OnePlus can champion – and that is fine by me.
