Is OnePlus Open Good for multitasking productivity?

The OnePlus Open is OnePlus's first foldable smartphone, launched in late 2023 as a direct competitor to Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold series. It uses a book-style folding design with a 6.31-inch cover screen (120Hz) and a 7.82-inch internal display when unfolded. The frame is built from aerospace-grade aluminum and holds a 4,805mAh battery split across two cells. What makes the Open stand out is its Open Canvas multitasking system. Instead of simply splitting the screen in two, Open Canvas treats the inner display as a canvas where apps can be dragged, resized, and arranged in a group of up to three. Move apps to the background and bring them back with a tap; drag files between apps. Combined with 16GB of RAM, the OnePlus Open keeps many productivity apps resident in memory. It's a premium phone with a price to match. At launch, it was $1,699.99, and it's frequently discounted. If you're searching for it on Amazon, you'll often find official cases and accessories under the OnePlus store, with the phone itself available through OnePlus or authorized retailers.

Multitasking productivity is not just about having many apps open—it's about moving information between tasks and maintaining context. For example, a professional might keep a Google Doc open while pulling numbers from a spreadsheet and pasting them into an email, all while responding to Slack messages. It's a workflow that traditionally requires a laptop or desktop. On a smartphone, multitasking productivity typically looks like split-screen browsing, floating calculators, copying text from one app to another, and taking calls while referencing documents. The hardware needed includes a large display (at least 7 inches), at least 12GB of RAM, a fast processor, and robust software support for app pairs and resizable windows. For mobile professionals, the ability to sustain this workflow for a full workday is also crucial—battery life and charging speed matter as much as screen size. The OnePlus Open checks many of these boxes on paper, but real implementation determines whether it actually makes the grade.

The OnePlus Open's 7.82-inch inner display is the star of the show for productivity. With a 4032 x 2264 resolution, it has enough room to show a full spreadsheet or split two documents side-by-side with readable text. User reviews consistently praise the display's brightness, crease minimalism, and desk-like feel when unfolded. It's also 239g, remarkably close to a hefty traditional smartphone, so it doesn't feel like carrying a mini tablet. Open Canvas is the firmware differentiator. In split-screen mode, you can hold two apps in the main view while a third hides at the edge of the canvas—like a background window you swipe in when needed. Drag-and-drop works with text, images, and files between apps. This is noticeably better than typical half-half split-screen on regular phones. A Galaxy Z Fold 6 offers more floating windows and a customizable taskbar, but many users find OnePlus's approach faster for specific work sequences. The 16GB of RAM and Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 handle heavy workloads without reloads. Keep Slack, Chrome with 20 tabs, a PDF viewer, and Gmail all cached. Benchmark results put it in the same class as other flagships, and the 4,805mAh battery lasts a full workday for most users—often ending at 15-20% after 10 hours of mixed use. Charging is extremely fast with the included 67W adapter (0 to 100% in about 42 minutes), meaning even if battery dips after lunch, a 15-minute charge adds nearly 40%, which is huge during a long meeting marathon. But there are genuine productivity gaps. The OnePlus Open has no desktop mode like Samsung Dex, so you can't plug into a monitor for a Chromebook-like experience. It lacks official active stylus support, meaning handwritten notes and image annotation are limited to capacitive styluses (which are crude for precision work). Some Android apps are not optimized for the square-ish inner display; social media apps can show excessive white space. The cover screen, at 20:9, is too narrow to be truly useful for typing long responses. Compared with alternatives, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 offers a more mature multitasking suite, including a taskbar with up to 12 recent apps, drag-and-drop to screen corners for floating windows, and S Pen support. But the Fold is heavier, much more expensive, and its outer screen is slightly smaller. The Google Pixel Fold has a wider cover display and intuitive feel but fewer multi-tool features. For many users, the OnePlus Open is the better balance between price and capable multitasking. Overall, the OnePlus Open is excellent at what it claims: mobile multitasking with multiple app windows. It won't replace a full desktop workstation, but it can replace a tablet and many laptop tasks, especially when paired with accessories like a Bluetooth keyboard or a portable monitor.