Just like LG, OnePlus doesn't have plans to launch a foldable phone yet.
This confirmation from the Chinese brand comes at a time when the whole folding display craze is starting to take off, with the likes of Samsung and Huawei paving the way for what could be the future of smartphones.
'Costs Are High'
In an interview with CNET at the 2019 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau said that the company isn't going to release a foldable phone anytime soon, and it's because of the high costs of such devices.
"With this technology, costs are high. But the value to the end user doesn't seem to correlate," he told the news outlet with the aid of an interpreter.
As evidence to that, Samsung's Galaxy Fold, which is expected to be available on April 26, is going to cost $1,980. On top of that, there's Huawei's Mate X with a whopping €2,299 price tag, which equals to roughly $2,609.
According to CNET, Lau sees foldable phones as interesting but "very much a different product," and at the end of the day, the company considers the cost to be too high.
At any rate, this route falls in line with what OnePlus is known for: flagship-level phones at lower prices compared with the current brood. For instance, its latest handset the OnePlus 6T starts from $549, while most high-end devices can cost nearly $1,000.
MWC's Atmosphere
Foldable phones and 5G are the talk of the town at MWC 2019. There's the 5G variants of the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Fold in Samsung's camp, the Mate X in Huawei's, and the LG V50 ThinQ 5G, which is interestingly taking the dual screen route instead of folding displays.
While OnePlus isn't getting into the foldable phone trend, it's diving into 5G. As Android Police reports, the company is showing off a prototype at the event in the form of a soap bar.
The Chinese manufacturer has been working on implementing the new mobile network in its phones with Qualcomm since 2017, but a OnePlus 5G handset isn't expected until 2019.
