OnePlus Open teardown reveals where all the titanium is – just the screws [Video]

OnePlus is touting the Open as a huge step in foldable construction. A recent teardown video gives a more in-depth look at the weight-saving OnePlus Open hinge design with titanium and crease-resistant display.

In the foldable market, there have been a couple of reliable truths, one of which was that Samsung held the title of best foldable manufacturer year in and out. That title came into question recently with the introduction of rivaling Android foldable designs, like the Pixel Fold and, most recently, the OnePlus Open.

The Galaxy Z Fold 5 – Samsung’s newest book-style foldable – held its ground as a top-tier device in competition with the Pixel Fold, as Google’s first-generation device had a few design flaws that were hard to overlook. The OnePlus Open, however, has proven to be a much more competitive device.

Our review of the OnePlus Open lays our feelings out rather well, and it’s easy to see why the Chinese manufacturer’s first foldable attempt is being hailed as one of the best foldables currently on the market, if not the best.

A recent teardown done by Zach from Jerry Rig Everything showed the true inner workings of the Open, noting a few key aspects that the company used to hype the device. One such aspect was the hinge design, which OnePlus pulled from Oppo and improved on to develop into a lighter, less packed spine for the foldable. The new hinge design features a carbon fiber weave and titanium components to shed weight, though the OnePlus Open teardown gives a little more clarity to that almost-truth.

Once the UTG display is painfully removed from the folding phone, the carbon fiber screen backing is fully visible. The fibers are joined in a formation that looks a lot like expanded metal sheeting, with diamond shapes apparent when stretched out. The sheet adds structural support and does well to trim weight.

Once the carbon sheet is removed, the hinge becomes visible. The interesting part about this teardown is that it exposes where the titanium actually lies.

In this case, OnePlus utilizes titanium in the Open’s hinge screws, not in the wider hinge construction itself. Even still, the new design does shave on weight with other material choices and has proven to work very well with other weight-saving choices like cobalt molybdenum and zirconium.

Even though it isn’t a new material or particularly fancy, Apple has been able to develop a following for the buzzword with the iPhone 15 Pro, which is enough for users to pay more for, again, a long-existing lightweight metal found rather commonly.

The OnePlus Open proves true in a few aspects. As far as weight goes, it’s incredibly light, even for a slab-style phone. In durability, it’s proven the dreaded foldable screen crease can be mitigated. The OnePlus Open is solid internally, and the teardown proves that – even if OnePlus is a little heavy-handed in marketing a titanium hinge in the Open.