It’s August 11th, 2021, which means two significant things happen today. Marvel is releasing What If…? on Disney+, the most exciting MCU show to watch after Loki. And Samsung is set to launch a couple of exciting foldable smartphones. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 will be more exciting than anything Samsung has ever done so far when it comes to foldable phones. They’re also more exciting than the foldable we’ve seen from any other smartphone maker. But Chinese vendor OnePlus would like everyone to know that it also has a big announcement scheduled for this morning. From the looks of its teasers, the “foldable” OnePlus device is a terrible idea. But even still, OnePlus thinks it can launch this thing at the same time as the Fold 3 and Flip 3 event.
Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Flip 3 will be unveiled during the press event that streams online at 10:00 a.m. EST on Wednesday. They’re going to be more durable than ever. That includes a new “armor” for the hinge, water resistance, and a second-gen UTG panel. The new foldable glass is supposedly 80% more durable than the first-gen UTG. This will allow Samsung to bring S Pen support to the Fold 3. Finally, the Fold 3 will feature an under-screen camera, a first for Samsung phones — and for foldables in general.
The OnePlus foldable
With all that in mind, it’s surprising to see OnePlus come out with a massive troll campaign aimed at Samsung. The Oppo subsidiary could always come up with its own foldable handset, there’s no question about that. It has the resources to pull it off, with Oppo having proven time and again that it wants to be at the forefront of mobile innovation. Both companies have been quick to adapt to new trends, so foldables could be the next thing they do.
Not to mention that it might be even easier to make foldable devices in 2021 than ever before if some rumors pan out. Samsung will sell its foldable panels and UTG screen covers to other handset vendors.
But OnePlus isn’t unveiling a foldable handset. That would be exciting since the “Never Settle” company might come up with an even cheaper foldable handset than Xiaomi. Instead, OnePlus has come up with a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad idea. It wants to announce a dual-screen device at the same time as the Fold 3 and Flip 3 event.
Dual-screen phones are dead on arrival
The teaser that OnePlus posted on Instagram says its event also takes place at 10:00 a.m. on August 11th. The video shows what’s clearly a dual-screen phone. Notice the big gap in the middle? That proves the screen isn’t continuous.
We saw this idea before and it didn’t work out. LG tried not just one hideous dual-screen phone, but two of them. Granted, the second-gen model looked better than the first model, but neither sold well. LG abandoned the smartphone business entirely earlier this year after failing to turn a profit. The dual-screen phone design wasn’t the final nail in LG’s coffin. It was one of them, however.
The Microsoft Surface Duo featured a much better dual-screen design than the LG handsets. But that phone was dead on arrival as well. Microsoft made other mistakes with it too, like using dated hardware and compromising on the camera experience. Not to mention the fact that the Surface Duo was quite expensive.
OnePlus might settle on a dual-screen phone of its own. Or is it a dual-screen accessory that can be used with current OnePlus phones? Either way, it’s the kind of device that you should avoid, especially now that foldable phones like the Fold 3 and Flip 3 are significantly better than their predecessors. And cheaper to buy.
