Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold vs OnePlus Open: Which one should you get?

Intro

However, is it a better device than one of our favorite foldables of last year, the OnePlus Open? We were quite impressed with OnePlus’ first try on the competitive foldable phone, but is a bit older now, so does it stand a chance against the fresher Google foldable phone?

Well, the new phone has quite many advantages straight from the get-go: a larger screen, a promising camera system, and a much more capable suite of AI features on board. 

Should you upgrade from the OnePlus Open… or not?

Design and Size

Foldables have never looked better (Image by PhoneArena)

The new Pixel 9 Pro Fold is a large foldable, one wider than the OnePlus Open, and also heavier as well.  The new device has a slightly more rectangular shape and is wider when folded. Google hasn’t used titanium here, but standard aluminum. 

There’s a big visual change at the rear, thanks to a vastly redesigned rear camera island. It’s a pop-out camera island once again, meaning that it sticks out of the glass back imposingly, with two rows of cameras. 

We like the Pixel 9 Pro Fold design: it’s a phone that feels pretty decent in the hand, a welcome improvement over the previous Pixel Fold. 

Meanwhile, the OnePlus Open is a very lightweight foldable phone, with an overall weight of just 239gr (or 245gr depending on which color version you go for). The foldable is also employing a mostly square aspect ratio on the inside, but the cover screen also strikes the perfect balance between size and single-hand usability. 

Display Differences

A brighter and larger screen is what you get with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold (Image by PhoneArena)

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold has 8-inch internal and 6.3-inch external screens. Both displays are OLED ones, with dynamic refresh rate ranging between 1 and 120Hz on the inner screen, but between 60 and 120Hz on the outer one. The peak brightness is also the same on both displays––a staggering 2,700 nits, boosting the potential legibility. 

The OnePlus Open boasts an ever-so-slightly smaller inner OLED display, a 7.83-inch one, while the external one is also a 6.3-inch one. Both displays are LTPO 3.0 ones, which means that we have super-smooth dynamic refresh rate jumping between 1 and 120Hz (10-120Hz for the cover screen), depending on the context. 

The outer screen is slightly better on the OnePlus phone (Image by PhoneArena)

You will find a hardware capacitive fingerprint scanner embedded right into the OnePlus Open‘s power button on the side, so no in-display fingerprint scanner here. The same applies to the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, too. You get fast and accurate readings, so we’re happy campers here.

How do these two compare in terms of screen properties? We put either of these two devices through the paces of our in-house display benchmarks and the results are clear.

The main screen of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is a better one in most areas that matter: it simultaneously has a higher maximum and lower minimum brightness than the OnePlus Open. It’s also more color accurate right out of the box, whereas the OnePlus Open delivers slightly more vibrant colors, which are a bit off from the ideal goal.

Performance and Software

Which one comes on top?

Performance-wise, the OnePlus Open is ahead (Image by PhoneArena)

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold boasts the Tensor G4 chipset, based on a 4nm manufacturing process and focused around on-device AI and ML. The Tensor G4 is a pretty big jump in performance and efficiency in comparison with the Pixel Fold, which came along with the Tensor G2. 

The OnePlus Open, on the other hand, came with the older Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, which is no longer the best one available in Qualcomm’s arsenal. However, it’s still a pretty potent chipset that surely delivers outstanding performance for most tasks. 

According to the benchmark tests that we conducted, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold beats the OnePlus Open in a single performance test, the single-core Geekbench 6 one. The OnePlus Open is triumphant in the multicore test, and also has better graphics performance, as evident in the 3DMark tests. So, overall, it’s the OnePlus Open that has the slight upper hand in terms of raw performance.

However, when it comes to AI, it’s the Pixel 9 Pro Fold that has the upper hand, as the whole user experience with this phone is simply built around AI in mind. 

Both phones score 16GB of RAM, a pretty decent amount of memory for any standard flagship these days. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold delivers more variety in terms of storage: it’s available with 256GB and 512GB variants, while the OnePlus Open is only available in a 512GB version. 

Google’s foldable will also be supported until 2031, including major Android updates, security patches, and feature drops; the OnePlus Open will get four years of software support––until 2027.

Camera

Foldables are not really about that camera performance, but these two are not pulling their punches

Both foldable phones boast pretty capable cameras! (Image by PhoneArena)

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold comes along with a 48MP main camera, a 10.5MP telephoto with a pretty decent 5X optical zoom, and a 10.5MP ultra-wide, along with dual 10MP selfie cameras on the inside and the outside of the phone. A pretty decent layout in terms of hardware. After all, it’s a foldable phone, and those never have the very best cameras around. 

As a refresher, last year’s Pixel Fold came with a 48MP main camera, an 8.8MP ultra-wide, a 10.8MP telephoto camera with 5X optical zoom, and two selfie cameras, a 9.5MP external and an 8MP internal one.

Meanwhile, the OnePlus Open was also very well-equipped in the camera department. The phone came with a 48MP main + 48MP ultra-wide + 64MP 3X telephoto (6X in-sensor zoom, 120X max zoom). 

What’s interesting is the stacked sensor for the main camera: it was one of Sony’s new LYTIA sensors, the LYTIA-T808 in particular, and delivered very decent low-light image quality and dynamics.

How does it all translate when it comes to raw image quality?

Main Camera

The main cameras are both very decent. The main differences stem to the dynamics and the color rendition of the photos. With the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, we get slightly more magenta in the colors, while the OnePlus is slightly colder and more vibrant. The details are great on both, but the OnePlus Open has some slight oversharpening, which isn’t that bad, but is noticeable. 

Now, when the lights go down, the two phones have different ideas as to how such low-light shots should be resolved. The OnePlus Open gives you the proper low-light experience, as the phone doesn’t try to make the dusk scene look like daylight. 

That’s precisely what the Pixel 9 Pro Fold does: the image is better exposed, with more detail visible in the dark areas of the scene, but the feel of a low-light photo is not there. 

Zoom Quality

The zoom quality is pretty decent on both phones, but the Pixel 9 Pro Fold does a better job at 5X, which is its native telephoto length, while the OnePlus Open is better at its 3X native zoom. Interestingly, the photo taken with the OnePlus Open at 10X is more vibrant, detailed, and well-exposed, whereas the Pixel 9 Pro Fold one’s just okay. 

Ultra-wide Camera

With the ultra-wide cameras, it’s all the OnePlus Open. It doesn’t deliver dynamics as good as the Pixel device (a little less information in the shadows), but it simply makes colors pop and stand-out, which sometimes is just the thing necessary to make an otherwise boring scene look captivating. 

At low-light, it’s once again difficult to NOT like the camera processing philosophy that OnePlus has employed. Sure, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold will deliver a photo with higher exposure and arguably better dynamics, but the OnePlus Open has successfully captured the essence of a nighttime shot, the whole vibe and nine yards of it. 

Selfies

With selfies, it’s the Pixel 9 Pro Fold that takes better photos, with more detail, better exposure, and more pleasant colors. 

Battery Life and Charging

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold mostly delivers

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold rectifies its predecessor’s battery life (Image by PhoneArena)

The OnePlus Open comes with a 4,806mAh battery on board with pretty decent endurance on board. Interestingly, the OnePlus Open and the original Pixel Fold were mostly tied in our custom battery tests, except for our 3D gaming test in which the OnePlus Open pulled a serious lead. The situation is slightly different this time around.

On the other hand, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold comes with a large 4,650mAh battery, which doesn’t really inspire confidence when considering that the previous Pixel Fold had a larger 4,821mAh battery and had mostly okay battery life. Fortunately, those fears are quickly put to rest thanks to the newer device’s significantly better battery life. Here’s how it stacks up against the OnePlus Open.

In the PhoneArena custom web browsing test, which aims to simulate a web browsing workflow, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold decidedly beats the OnePlus Open by a couple of hours, which is reassuring to see. 

However, in the custom PhoneArena video streaming test, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold delivers a pretty low result, decidedly bested by its opponent. Finally, in the PhoneArena 3D gaming test ran at 60Hz, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold ekes out a slight victory. 

Overall, we’re mostly satisfied with how Google’s new foldable has fared in our battery tests, just have one in mind if you watch a lot of video on your phone. 

Charging-wise, there is no competition: the OnePlus Open comes along with superfast 67W wired charging, which fully tops it up in just 43 minutes. And although the OnePlus Open has no wireless charging, it had a 67W charger in the box, which is great!

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold, on the other hand, comes with 21W wired and 7.5W wireless charging. It charges fully in 100 minutes, nearly twice as slow as the Pixel.

Specs Comparison

Summary

Which one should you get (Image by PhoneArena)

So, Google and OnePlus have already broken ground on the foldable market, but both of their first-gen phones have room for improvement in many areas (although it may be argued that the OnePlus device was superior). 

From the looks of it, Google has delivered in terms of improvements and has actually made the whole idea behind its foldable that much more stomachable. It’s one of the decent foldables you can get right now, but it isn’t one you should upgrade to if you’re rocking a OnePlus Open. 

Sure, there’s a slightly larger and brighter screen, a bit of an improvement in battery life, and more AI tools to play around with, but the OnePlus really did a great job with its first foldable, the repercussions from which still echo to this day.