Galaxy Z Fold 6 vs OnePlus Open: Power struggle at the top

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 is the next installment in the company's lengthy foldable phone roster, with potentially tons of features and design upgrades that can make it one of the more exciting foldable phone releases of 2024. Then again, there's always the chance that the Galaxy Z Fold 6 would be another iterative minor step in the grand scheme of foldable phones' evolution. 

Meanwhile, the OnePlus Open is easily the best foldable phone we've seen so far, with a spectacular build and design. It also has a very capable camera, superb performance and battery life, lovely displays, and a very attractive price tag. It's a phone that got many things right from the get-go, leaving us really intrigued as to how a potential second-gen OnePlus Open could work. 

According to the rumors, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 could score a thinner and lighter build in comparison with its predecessor, possibly comprised of titanium. Rumor has it that Samsung has been reverse-engineering the foldables of its competitors (Huawei Mate X3, Xiaomi Mix Fold 3, Honor Magic V2) to find out ways to save space. We are talking about a potential thickness of just 11mm, which is a superb result, on par with the OnePlus Open that stands at 11.7mm in its folded state. 

With the Galaxy Z Fold 6's predecessors, Samsung finally introduced a no-gap design but didn't fix the atrocious display crease that run across the display like a canyon. We are hopeful the Galaxy Z Fold 6 will not feature a display crease, but that would require a major hinge redesign, which we are hopefully getting. 

Meanwhile, the OnePlus Open is an extremely lightweight and well-built foldable phone with no wedge between the bottom and top panels, as well as virtually no display crease, which makes for a very pleasing user experience. We expect that the OnePlus Open will remain the larger, and most importantly, wider foldable.

Each of these will have a unique feature of sorts. For the OnePlus Open, that's the wildly useful ring switch, a signature OnePlus quirk. At the same time, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 will certainly support Samsung's useful S Pen, and if rumors are to be taken seriously, the phone might finally boast a silo to hold the accessory in place. 

Resistance-wise, the OnePlus Open is merely rated as an IPX4 device, which means it's only splash resistant and any serious contact with water might damage it. Meanwhile, we expect the Galaxy Z Fold 6 to be an IP68 water- and dust-resistant phone, allowing you to even dunk the foldable underwater for up to 30 minutes.

As mentioned, the OnePlus Open will likely be the phone with the larger display. It has a 7.8-inch internal display, which has a nearly perfect square aspect ratio, while the external screen measures 6.3 inches in diagonal. Both screens are AMOLED ones, with HDR support, dynamic refresh rate that goes as up to 120Hz for a super-smooth experience, and high maximum brightness on both displays. Furthermore, no display crease, which is a massive plus on foldables.

At the same time, we don't have much intel on the Galaxy Z Fold 6's specific display properties. However, there are a few things that will be certain. Of course, there will be two displays, both of which will be Dynamic AMOLED ones, with up to 120Hz refresh rate for a smooth scrolling experience.  

There's a pretty high chance that the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 6 will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, which is currently the best one available for Android phones. This is the same chip that ticks inside the Galaxy S24 Ultra as well as the Galaxy S24 Plus and Galaxy S24 in the US. Chances are that Samsung will completely rely on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and not rely on its Exynos chips at all. That has been the case with previous Galaxy Z Fold phones, so it is logical for this trend to go on. 

Meanwhile, the OnePlus Open comes along with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. It was the best chipset available at the time of the OnePlus Open's arrival, and it truly helped the foldable to simply fly. 

Memory-wise, we suspect the Galaxy Z Fold 6 will arrive with at least 12GB of RAM, as well as 256GB of storage, but there will likely be 512GB and possibly a 1TB version of the phone. Meanwhile, the OnePlus Open can be yours in only a single version, with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

The OnePlus Open comes along with a pretty decent camera setup. It has a 48MP main aided by a 48MP ultra-wde and a 64MP telephoto with 3X optical zoom. The main camera uses a large 1/1.43" Sony LYTIA-T808 stacked sensor. An innovative pixel layout makes this sensor capable of capturing more light and delivering far superior dynamics than the more conventional camera sensors. As far as foldable cameras come and go, the OnePlus Open is pretty capable, all things considered. 

Elsewhere, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 will come along with the following setup:

If that one seems familiar, that's because it is––Samsung has been reusing the same general camera setup since the Galaxy Z Fold 4. We suspect that the brunt of the possible improvements will come from the software side. 

The OnePlus Open delivers spectacular sound, with a triple-speaker spatial setup that also supports Dolby Atmos. The phone delivers a punchy and rich sound that's a joy to listen to. Samsung has never been a slouch when it comes to audio, so we generally expect the Galaxy Z Fold 6 to impress, too. 

Haptics-wise, the OnePlus Open delivered excellent haptics thanks to its new X-axis motor. Remains to be seen if the Galaxy Z Fold 6 will be significantly better than its predecessor. 

We don't know what the Galaxy Z Fold 6 battery capacity could be just yet, but rumors say we might see a 4,600mAh total battery capacity on the Galaxy Z Fold 6. 

Meanwhile, the OnePlus Open fits a large 4,805mAh battery on the inside, which delivers a surprisingly decent battery life in comparison with both foldables and candybar phones. In comparison with the Galaxy Z Fold 5, the OnePlus Open fared much, much better as far as battery life goes, so the Galaxy Z Fold 6 has a lot of ground to cover. 

Charging-wise, it will also be rather challenging to one-up OnePlus. The latter supports super-fast 67W wired charging, which fully charges the phone in just 43 minutes. Rumors have it the Galaxy Z Fold 6 might reiterate the 25W wired charging of its predecessor, so a potential 80-minute full charge is on the horizon. There will likely be wireless charging on board, though. 

The OnePlus Open is certainly one of the best foldable phones to beat right now. With a superb design, excellent cameras, top-notch performance and battery life, the OnePlus Open got so many things right from the very first try. And there's likely a second generation coming this year as well. Samsung finally has a worthy opponent in the face of OnePlus' foldable lineup.

The Galaxy Z Fold 6 is shaping up to be a phone that's a not-so-drastic step over the previous generation. Frankly said, to beat the OnePlus Open, Samsung has to be a lot more bold in its whole philosophy when it comes to foldable phones. It's objectively true that Galaxy Z Fold phones have stagnated over the past few years, despite being the first to hit the global market with their unique foldable feature.