Best foldable smartphones you can buy so far in 2023

UPDATE: 07/31/2023 08:30 EST BY ROLAND UDVARLAKI

We regularly update older posts to ensure they’re updated and contain the latest and most up-to-date information. We updated this post to include the new OnePlus Open.

Foldable smartphones are more popular than ever, and while they won’t take over traditional, flat smartphones anytime soon, they’re gaining traction. Foldables are turning into a new category that isn’t considered niche anymore due to the benefit of enabling users to consume more content and get work done more efficiently. Many more companies are joining the race to get a slice of the foldable market. Some companies, such as Samsung, have dominated the market for several years, and we’re seeing increased competition from brands such as Google, HONOR, Samsung, Motorola, OPPO, and soon OnePlus.

In this guide, we collected some of the best horizontal and vertically foldable smartphones that money can buy. We included our favorite phones, and the ones that you can are most likely to buy or at least consider purchasing. We included phones from Samsung, Google, HONOR, Motorola, OPPO, and a few more. We also encourage you to visit our best smartphones in 2023, and the best smartphones with stylus guides.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is the latest foldable in the company’s lineup, and it offers an excellent value if you’re thinking about buying your first foldable. When the Galaxy Z Fold 5 is compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 4, it might not look like much of an upgrade. Still, there are enough quality-of-life updates to make the Fold 5 an easy recommendation for those looking to upgrade from the Galaxy Fold 3 or older, or pick up their first foldable.

The Fold 5 is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, coupled with up to 12GB of RAM and up to 1TB of USF 4.0 storage. It’s fast, powerful, and efficient. The phone has a 6.2-inch cover, and a 7.6-inch main display. Both panels are bright, colorful, and offers high-refresh rates to provide a more enjoyable and premium experience, and the main screen also supports the S Pen stylus input to let users draw, make notes, and do sketches.

The device comes with the same camera setup as the Fold 4, consisting of a 50MP primary, a 12MP ultrawide, and a 10MP telephoto sensor with 3x optical zoom. There’s a 4MP under-display camera on the main screen, and a 10MP selfie shooter on the cover screen. Luckily, users can just unfold the phone and take selfies using the rear cameras, offering high-quality self-portraits with ease. As for the battery, the phone has a 4,400 mAh cell inside with support for 25W charging and 15W wireless charging. It’s not the fastest around, but Samsung says it’ll be able to go from 0-50% in 30 minutes.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 is one of the best flip phones in 2023, and it’s the best Samsung has to offer. The Galaxy Z Flip 5 is a great upgrade over the Galaxy Z Flip 4, and its highlighted upgrade is the new 3.4-inch cover display that lets you interact with the phone in a more meaningful and easier way. Taking selfies will be easier, glancing at the time, and notifications will be more manageable without needing to open the phone as much.

The Flip 5 is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, coupled with 8GB of RAM and up to 512GB of storage. It’s thin and light, and offers beautiful looks and up to eight color options. The device has a large 6.7-inch main display with 120hz refresh rate. The cover screen is 3.4-inches, and while it offers only 60Hz, it’s a Super AMOLED panel, and it’ll be bright and colorful.

The phone packs a dual camera setup, including a 12MP primary and a 12MP ultrawide camera. It also has a 10MP snapper on the front, and we expect great photos in most lighting conditions. The downside is that it lacks a telephoto camera, and you won’t be able to zoom in without losing some of the quality, but at least we still get ultrawide shots. Regarding the battery, it’s the same 3,700 mAh cell that was in the Flip 4 with support for 25W wired and 15W wireless charging.

The Google Pixel Fold is the latest and the first foldable smartphone from the software giant. It costs a whopping $1,800 in the US, which might seem like a lot, but it’s on par with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and the Fold 4 – the latter can be found for much less now that it has been available for over a year.

The Pixel Fold boasts a 5.8-inch OLED, 120Hz, cover display, and a 7.6-inch OLED, 120Hz main screen. It’s large and wide, and it’s excellent for using two apps side-by-side, simultaneously. It’s great for gaming, multitasking, and just about anything you can think of. The phone is powered by the Google Tensor G2 chip, the same SoC that powers the Pixel 7 series, including the Pixel 7a. It’s also IPX8 water resistant, offering peace of mind while using the phone next to pools and on a table.

It has a triple camera setup on the back, a 48MP primary, a 10MP telephoto with 5x optical zoom, and another 10MP ultrawide. There’s also an 8MP selfie camera on the main screen, and a 9.5MP sensor on the cover display to help you take selfies. When it comes to the battery, the Pixel Fold houses a 4,821 mAh cell inside that can last about a full day of mixed usage between the cover and the main display. It has wired and wireless charging options, and the phone support the Pixel Stand and other Google accessories made for the Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 series of phones. The Pixel Fold is worth considering if you’re after the true Pixel experience.

HONOR recently unveiled the Magic V2 in China, and while we await for the company to unveil the device internationally, the HONOR Magic Vs remains a viable alternative for the majority of users in Europe. The HONOR Magic Vs became available not long ago, for a low-enough price to make UK buyers consider it over the Galaxy Z Fold 4. The Magic Vs is available for £1,400 while the Fold 4 remains at £1,650 in the UK. The recently unveiled Galaxy Z Fold 5 will retail for £1,750 in the UK, making the HONOR Magic Vs an even better option.

The HONOR Magic Vs sports a lot of great features, and a powerful hardware. It has a 6.45-inch OLED cover display with 120Hz refresh rate, and a 7.9-inch OLED main display with 90Hz. The cover screen is larger than the Fold 4, and it makes the typing experience more user-friendly, giving you more space to message, browse, and use your favorite apps.

The device is powered by the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip, and it has 12GB of memory and 512GB of storage. It supports the Magic Pen stylus (sold separately) and runs MagicOS 7.1 based on the latest Android 13. The company also promises multiple years of OS and security updates.

The Magic Vs has a 54MP primary, 50MP ultrawide, 8MP telephoto sensor, and a 16MP front camera. It takes beautiful photos in all lighting conditions. While the HONOR Magic5 Pro still takes better images, the Magic Vs receives a worthy mention due to HONOR’s great optimizations and built-in features. When it comes to the battery, the phone has a large 5,000 mAh cell inside. It supports 66W fast wired charging. However, it lacks wireless charging and is not IP-rated against water or dust.

The OnePlus Open is an excellent foldable flagship, and it’s OnePlus’ first premium foldable device. It does a lot of things well, and it has two beautiful large displays, a competitive camera setup, IPX4 water resistance, and fast wired charging. The Open comes with a 6.3-inch AMOLED cover display with a 120Hz refresh rate and an insanely bright 2800 nits of peak brightness. The main screen measures 7.8-inches, and it uses the LTPO3, OLED panel with 120Hz refresh rate.

The phone is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 premium chipset, coupled with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, plenty to store all of your favorite photos, videos, music, and graphics-intensive games. The phone supports 5G, LTE, and comes with Wi-Fi 7. It has a fairly slim form factor, and it’s only 5.8mm thin when it’s unfolded, and 11.7mm when folded.

It has a 48MP primary camera, a 48MP ultrawide, and a 64MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom, offering a versatile and excellent setup for all of your needs. The cover screen contains a 32MP camera, while the main display houses a 20MP sensor, capable of capturing beautiful selfies day or night.

Now, onto the price. The OnePlus Open retails for a whopping $1,700 in the US, which puts it alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and the Google Pixel Fold. While the phone offers a lot of great features, the price is a bit uncompetitive. Therefore, we’d recommend you buy it when it’s on sale or discounted. The phone lacks support for wireless charging, and while it does have 80W fast wired charging, it’s hard to look past this missing feature for a device that’s trying to compete with other devices that have it.

The Motorola Razr+ (also known as the Motorola Razr 40 Ultra in some regions) is the latest foldable flip phone from Motorola, and it goes head-to-head against the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Razr+ vs Galaxy Z Flip 5. The Razr+ comes with a large 6.9-inch main display with up to 165Hz refresh rate, and a 3.6-inch pOLED 144Hz refresh rate cover screen. It’s one of the largest cover screen’s we’ve ever seen, and Motorola even lets you use and control any apps that you want. It’s not limited to only widgets, like the Galaxy Z Flip 4.

Hardware-wise, the Razr+ is equipped with the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC with 8GB of memory and 256GB of storage. It has a 12MP primary, a 13MP ultrawide sensor, and a 32MP front-facing camera. Motorola has reportedly made a lot of improvements in the camera department, and we look forward to testing them out in a future review.

When it comes to power, the Motorola Razr+ comes with a 3,800 mAh battery cell, which is 100 mAh more than the Flip 4. It supports 30W wired charging, and 5W wireless charging. It’s also IP52 rated, meaning it can withstand water splashes, and dust shouldn’t be an issue. The Moto Razr+ looks like a solid alternative to the Galaxy Z Flip 4, and it will be available in many more regions than the previous foldable phones from the company

The OPPO Find N2 Flip was announced back in February, 2023, and it quickly gained a lot of traction due to its low price tag, and impressive hardware and software features. The smartphone is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ chipset, and it has up to 16GB of memory and up to 512GB of storage.

It’s a powerful chipset, capable of playing graphics-intensive games, multitasking, and just about anything you can imagine. The OPPO Find N2 Flip has a 6.8-inch LTPO AMOLED, 120Hz main display, and a large 3.26-inch AMOLED cover screen. The cover screen lets you add multiple widgets and the ability to preview selfies, among other things.

The Find N2 Flip comes with a 50MP primary and an 8MP ultrawide camera on the back, and while the phone isn’t as powerful as the flagship phone from OPPO, it’s perfectly capable of shooting images in any lighting conditions with impressive results. It also has a 32MP front-facing camera.

The phone has a 4,300 mAh battery with support for 44W fast wired charging. OPPO says it can go from 0 to 50% in just 23 minutes, and the phone can last about a day on a single charge. It costs £50 to £100 less than the Galaxy Z Flip 4 in the UK. However, it’s unavailable in places like North America.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 remains a solid option in 2023, despite the Galaxy Z Fold 5 bringing small quality of life improvements to the lineup. The Fold 4 is powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset, coupled with 12GB of RAM and 256/512GB and 1TB storage sizes.

The device features a 6.2-inch 23.1:9 Dynamic AMOLED 2X 120Hz cover display and a 7.6-inch 21.6:18 Dynamic AMOLED 2X 1-120Hz main display. It’s shorter and wider than the Galaxy Z Fold 3, making it easier to hold and more user-friendly. The crease is still visible but less prominent, and the new hinge mechanism appears to have held up.

The Fold 4’s camera setup received many upgrades, and it has a similar camera array to the Galaxy S22 Plus. It’s perfectly capable for day-to-day shoots, and while it won’t take photos as amazing as the Galaxy S23 Ultra, it’ll be more than capable with its 50MP primary, 12MP ultrawide, and 10MP telephoto sensor. The selfie camera on the cover display is a 10MP unit, and the main screen boasts a 4MP under-display sensor that we’d only recommend using for conference and video calls.

Most of the other specifications are similar to the Fold 3, and the latest SoC brings Bluetooth 5.2, 5G, Wi-Fi 6E, and more. It still features the IPX8 water resistance certificate, and while it has the same 4,400 mAh battery and 25W fast wired charging, Samsung claims that the phone can go from 0-50% in just 30 minutes.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 remains a solid option when it comes to clamshell foldables, but Motorola and many other brands are quickly gaining traction with their own foldable devices that offer similar and even more functionality at similar prices.

The main reason we picked the Galaxy Z Flip 4 comes down to great software and hardware support, and Samsung’s excellent track record in recent years. The company has made some of the best foldable devices, and although it was unchallenged, it deserves the first position. We have equally high hopes for the upcoming Galaxy Z Flip 5, expected to arrive in July, 2023.

The Galaxy Z Flip 4 features a 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 120Hz display It has a 1.9-inch Super AMOLED cover display, that lets users place widgets, see notifications and other incoming alerts such as phones calls, messages, and more. The phone is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 SoC, like the Galaxy Z Fold 4, and it has 8GB of RAM and 128/256/512GB of storage options.

The Flip 4 houses a 12MP primary and a 12MP ultrawide camera, and there’s also a 10MP selfie shooter in a punch hole in the center top of the display. When the phone is folded, the outer display can be used to preview selfies taken on the primary cameras, resulting in higher-quality photos.

The device is powered by a 3,700 mAh battery, slightly larger than the one found in the Flip 3. The Flip 4 also supports 25W fast wired charging, and Samsung claims it can go from 0-50% in just 30 minutes. The phone also supports 15W fast wireless charging and 4.5W reverse wireless charging.

The HUAWEI Mate X3 is the latest foldable flagship from the Chinese giant. It comes with most of the features you expect from HUAWEI, and it’s an excellent piece of hardware. It looks stunning, and it’s powered by the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip. While it’s not the latest chip, it’s still adequate and powerful enough to do most tasks, including multitasking, playing games, and more.

We included the Mate X3 on this list due to its excellent set of features. We also know that many HUAWEI fans continue to support the company, and HUAWEI is continuously improving on offering a more comprehensive software solution for its devices to make them more appealing.

The Mate X3 comes with a 6.4-inch OLED, 120Hz cover display, and a 7.85-inch OLED, 120Hz main screen. It runs HarmonyOS 3.1 in China, and EMUI 13.1 in Europe. Sadly, the phone doesn’t support 5G and lacks support for Google Play Services.

HUAWEI was always known for its stunning camera quality, and the Mate X3 is excellent. It comes with a 50MP primary, a 12MP periscope telephoto sensor with 5x optical zoom, and a 13MP ultrawide camera. There’s an 8MP selfie camera on the main screen and another on the cover screen.

Regarding the battery, the Mate X3 has a 4,800 mAh cell. It’ll reportedly last a full day on a single charge, and it supports 66W fast wired, and 50W fast wireless charging. The phone also supports 7.5W reverse wireless charging, and it’s available in a single color in the UK.