OnePlus teases a dual-screen folding phone, but don’t get your hopes up

Just a day before Samsung’s folding phone event, OnePlus appears to be teasing a dual-screen device of its own.

Or maybe it’s just some marketing gimmick — in which case I will hate myself for writing this article.

The company tweeted this short clip from its USA Twitter account, highlighting an August 11 reveal:

8.11 10am EThttps://t.co/mmPi4jlrhx pic.twitter.com/U6lPdrFnjf

— OnePlus➕ (@OnePlus_USA) August 10, 2021

At first glance, it seems like OnePlus is about to unveil a folding phone right as Samsung announces the Galaxy Fold and Flip 3.

At second glance, I smell shenanigans.

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The video clearly shows two separate screens, for one. So maybe the company is taking an approach like the Surface Duo, opting for two durable screens rather than one flexible one. Or maybe it’s something like LG’s second screen case — an add-on for existing devices. But neither of those really explain the teaser.

The curvature where the screens meet would be really weird for a Duo-like device. It’s also weird that both displays show earpieces and both have a cutout for the camera in the upper left corner (you can see the stars disappear as they pass by where the camera would be).

Meanwhile, there doesn’t seem to be any kind of case around the phones either. I think I can just barely make out the USB-C ports in the reflections beneath the screens.

In other words, the clip basically just seems to show two phones stuck together, and that does not make for a folding phone. Besides, if this were a major reveal, I’d expect OnePlus to show it off on its primary Twitter account, not just its American one with a fifth the number of followers.

So it’s anyone’s guess what OnePlus is actually planning to show off. Maybe it’s some kind of 2-for-1 deal, or maybe there really is a folding phone on the way. Either way, it’s clearly just building off of Samsung’s hype — we’ll find out more soon.