There are several companies getting into the foldable smartphone market; Samsung and Huawei recently introduced new devices, Motorola has confirmed that it's got a foldable in the works, and TCL has expressed interest in releasing a foldable as well. However, one notable phone maker is staying out of the foldables game for now.
OnePlus won't be launching a foldable phone in the near future, CEO Pete Lau has said. "With this technology, costs are high," Lau told CNET. "But the value to the end user doesn't seem to correlate."
That doesn't mean that OnePlus is straight-up ignoring the foldable phone concept completely. Lau explained that OnePlus has been looking at what foldable phones can do, calling the devices "very much a different product" and "very interesting". The CEO reiterated that foldable very expensive right now, though.
There's a lot of excitement and interest around foldables right now following the official reveal of the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X. Both phones are pretty pricey, though with Samsung saying that it'll ask $1,980 for the Galaxy Fold and Huawei pricing the Mate X at around $2,600. Those prices make it unlikely that most consumers will buy one of these first gen foldables, and so it makes sense that a company like OnePlus that's always placed a focus on aggressive pricing would skip out on foldables for now.