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There are two main types of foldable phones available, and we’ve concluded that the best foldable phones for most people are of the book-style, tablet-hybrid design rather than the clamshell-style flip phone.
Tablet-hybrid foldable phones are significantly more expensive but offer greater functionality, performance, and battery life in exchange. Clamshell foldables are, in effect, fashionable statement pieces with a secondary benefit of becoming compact when folded, and they’re expensive for what they are; that said, there are worthwhile options for those who value the clamshell design.
In our testing, the OnePlus Open is the best foldable phone overall thanks to its performance, premium design and build quality, large cover and tablet displays, solid battery life, and excellent cameras. If you want to spend as little as possible on a foldable phone, Motorola’s Razr is your best option for a valuable and affordable foldable.
Our top picks for the best foldable phones
Best overall: OnePlus Open – See at Amazon
Best overall alternative: Google Pixel Fold – See at Amazon
Best foldable flip phone: Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 – See at Samsung
Best budget foldable: Motorola Razr – See at Amazon
Best overall
OnePlus Open
The OnePlus Open is our favorite foldable phone thanks to its comfortably familiar cover display, large tablet display, performance, superior build quality, and excellent cameras.
The OnePlus Open provides the best overall experience of any foldable phone I’ve used and tested, including the Google Pixel Fold, Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5, and Motorola’s Razr Plus.
In terms of performance, display, and camera quality, the $1,700 OnePlus Open excels as much as any other foldable phone in the $1,800 range. It runs on 2023’s top Android processor, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which provides an ultra-smooth, fast, premium experience. Its displays are also high-resolution OLEDs that run at high 120Hz refresh rates, and it takes gorgeous photos with its triple-lens camera system.
What sets the OnePlus Open apart is its incredibly high build quality. It’s also one of the most satisfying and smooth foldable phones to unfold and fold, and it’s among the flattest foldables in tablet mode when some foldables don’t appear or feel quite flat.
We also love the OnePlus Open’s 7.8-inch OLED 120Hz tablet display, which is larger than the 7.6-inch tablet displays on other book-style foldables available in the US. The apps we used during testing, including several Google apps, Reddit, Instagram, Apple Music, and LastPass, also display beautifully in tablet mode, whether they’re optimized or not.
The OnePlus Open isn’t perfect, however. It doesn’t include wireless charging, a glaring omission on a $1,700 phone. And, while its cameras are excellent, they can deliver softer details on moving subjects, like pets or toddlers, than other top Android devices. It’s rather reliant on sufficient lighting to capture tack-sharp photos.
When it comes to AI features, OnePlus is currently a lightweight compared to competition from Google and Samsung. However, we don’t feel the Open is a lesser phone, as AI features are still somewhat novel at the moment. OnePlus is also rolling out its own AI Eraser tool, which uses AI to remove objects (or subjects) from a photo and replace them with contextually aware details. It’s basically OnePlus’ version of Google’s Magic Eraser on Pixel phones.
For its first attempt at foldable phones, OnePlus truly knocked it out of the park and created one of the best Android phones on the market. The phone looks and feels like the company has been designing and manufacturing foldable phones for years.
Best overall alternative
Google Pixel Fold
The Pixel Fold is one of our favorite foldable phones, as it delivers an equally excellent experience as a traditional phone as it does a small tablet, which not all foldable phones can boast.
We can’t make a recommendation for the top foldable phone without including the Google Pixel Fold. It’s only the “alternative” to the OnePlus Open based on a purely subjective trait: It doesn’t quite look or feel as well-built and sleek thanks to the larger borders around the tablet display and a mushy sensation when unfolding the phone.
Otherwise, the Pixel Fold comes every bit as recommended as the OnePlus Open. The Pixel Fold is also a smaller foldable phone with its 5.8-inch exterior display and 7.6-inch tablet display, which may better fit your preference.
In every other way, the Pixel Fold offers a premium experience. Both its displays are high-end OLED panels with a silky smooth 120Hz refresh rate, and the tablet display has razor-sharp 1840p resolution. Paired with Google’s Tensor G2 processor from 2023’s flagship Pixel 7 generation, the Pixel Fold runs apps, games, and the Android operating system quickly, smoothly, and without a hitch.
Its assortment of five cameras is among the best you can find on a foldable phone and only slightly behind other high-end Pixel cameras. And thanks to the Tensor G2 processor, the Pixel Fold includes Google’s suite of AI photo editing features, like Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur, and Portrait Blur.
Our Google Pixel Fold review found that battery life is excellent in both phone and tablet modes and will easily last you through the day. In fact, battery life is so good that you could use the Pixel Fold in tablet mode exclusively all day and still have leftover battery life.
(You might be surprised that Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 5 didn’t make our list of the best foldable phones you can buy. That’s almost entirely because of its narrow cover display, which delivers an awkward and uncomfortable experience when you’re not using the tablet display. Otherwise, it’s a very good book-style foldable phone.)
Best foldable flip phone
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5
The Galaxy Z Flip 5 offers big upgrades over its predecessors, and we mean that literally. There’s now a 3.4-inch cover screen that gives you more room for apps, info, and camera previews. It also has a powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset and a stronger, redesigned hinge.
Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 5 is the most polished, feature-rich, and powerful clamshell foldable you can buy. It’s safe to say that if you’re looking for the best clamshell foldable, you should buy the Galaxy Z Flip 5.
First and foremost, the Galaxy Z Flip 5’s large cover screen, or “Flex Window,” is significantly more useful than the tiny cover displays that were common on clamshell foldables before.
The larger cover screen lets you see more information at a glance and access basic settings like airplane mode or the flashlight. You can even write a text using a full-size keyboard without unfolding the phone. Some apps are supported to run on the cover screen without unfolding the phone, but Samsung could do better to get more apps to support it.
The Galaxy Z Flip 5 runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, a “previous-generation” processor now that phones are coming out with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor in 2024. It’s still a supremely powerful and capable processor that proves it’s more than enough to run anything you throw at is smoothly and quickly.
Combine its stellar performance with a 6.7-inch foldable OLED panel running at 120Hz and supporting 1080p resolution, and you have an ultra-premium fluid experience while swiping around apps and the Android operating system.
Our Galaxy Z Flip 5 review noted that photos taken with the 12MP main and ultrawide cameras are on par with Samsung’s high-end phones in well-lit scenarios, but they’re lacking in low-light situations.
Samsung also updated the Galaxy Z Flip 5 in March with the Galaxy AI features it introduced in the Galaxy S24 series, including the most impressive and useful Circle to Search function, which lets you circle specific details in an image to perform a Google search. Among the better AI features are photo editing tools, like Photo Assist for manipulating images.
Best budget foldable
Motorola Razr (2023)
The Motorola Razr (2023) is the most affordable foldable phone released to date. It runs on a mid-range-yet-powerful processor, but we’d fully expect its OLED 144Hz display on a more expensive model. The biggest compromise for its affordable price is the small cover display, which is fine for showing notifications but doesn’t show as much information as the large cover displays on more expensive foldables.
Motorola’s base Razr wins the accolade for the best “budget” foldable phone, but it’s also the only affordable foldable that’s well under $1,000.
As you can imagine, the Razr’s comparatively lower price means the phone isn’t quite as fully kitted as more expensive clamshell foldables, like the Razr Plus or Galaxy Z Flip 5, and its camera quality is not on par with high-end foldable devices.
The Razr runs on the mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 processor rather than a flagship processor, like the Snapdragon 8 series. Despite this, the Razr is surprisingly snappy and runs apps with no trouble at all.
You’ll also find the Razr’s small external display is less useful than the larger external displays on flagship foldables. It’s only good for showing you notifications and the time and doesn’t let you do much else, which forces you to unfold the Razr to do anything meaningful or menial, like writing a quick response to a text.
Still, the tiny external display can be used as a viewfinder for taking selfies with the main camera, which is a marquee feature of foldable phones. Once unfolded, the Razr offers a premium display experience with its 6.9-inch OLED folding panel that runs at a 144Hz refresh rate and a 1080p resolution.
Starting at $700 (and occasionally discounted to around $500), the Motorola Razr is a solid entry-level foldable phone that’s a good option if you couldn’t previously justify the $1,000-plus price tags of most foldables or if you want to experiment with the foldable clamshell design.
Best foldable phones compared
FAQs
Are foldable phones worth it?
Spec for spec, foldable phones are currently more expensive than their traditional flat counterparts. With that in mind, foldable phones need to offer a benefit to make up for their higher prices. If the benefit makes sense to you, a foldable phone is worth it.
Book-style foldables are a hybrid of a traditional phone and a tablet. If you’ve ever wished you had both simultaneously, but it’s not practical to carry around a separate tablet, especially one that needs a separate data plan, a book-style foldable could certainly be worth it.
Clamshell foldables offer compact portability when not in use, or they can be fashionable statement pieces. If you ask us, we find their benefits less worthy than those of a book-style foldable. Yet, if you like the idea of a sleek, stylish, compact clamshell that can be flipped open and folded shut, who are we to say it’s not worth it?
Will Apple make a foldable phone?
Apple is undoubtedly exploring the foldable phone concept, but at the time of writing, a foldable iPhone is comfortably stuck in the rumorsphere, so far. There are only analyst predictions, mostly based on patents, to indicate that a foldable iPhone is in the works.
There’s no telling when a foldable iPhone could be released, with projected release dates varying from last year (2023) to 2027. With that in mind, we wouldn’t recommend waiting for one if you’re putting off an upgrade, especially if your current phone is in dire straits.
