This week the world welcomed the OnePlus Open, so we have a look at its pre-order offers and how it compares with other horizontal foldables. There are flip foldables too, some of them at tempting prices, and no shortage of bar phones in the flagship and mid-range categories.
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The OnePlus Open was announced this week and there is a short pre-order period before the company’s first foldable becomes available next week. You can put down a $100 deposit now to secure a $200 discount when sales start. You will also score a free pair of...
I really like the Huawei Watch GT 4. It’s an impressive-looking device with a wide variety of materials and colorways available, and every one of these iterations looks fantastic. The big AMOLED screen’s refresh rate is nice and smooth, colors pop, and the speaker is loud – embarrassingly loud, if you leave workout notifications on during a class.
It’s functional too, with highly accurate metrics. TruSleep tracking was accurate and the metrics in the Huawei Health app were pleasantly detailed, although I was missing some actionable advice on that front. Huawei’s TruSeen 5.5+ algorithm offers great heart rate tracking that extends to workout tracking, too, and the GPS was comparable to the best smartwatches (we tested it against an Apple Watch Ultra 2), so you’ll get great results on runs and rides.
Having said all that, I won’t be using it again. Under normal circumstances, I’d be giving such a watch a glowing review, perhaps even full marks, but it’s languishing on 80% here. The watch itself is fantastic, but it’s impossible to ignore the frustrations that come with it being saddled with Huawei’s baggage.
The limits imposed by the US and every smartphone manufacturer, and Huawei’s refusal to abandon its AppGallery store, which most phones will only support in-browser, means you have a watch that can’t interface with lots of popular apps. Apple Pay, Google Wallet, Spotify, and more are on the no-go list, although others like Strava were fine.
However, if you can get over these flaws, you’ll find a gorgeous watch waiting to be loved. If you already have a Huawei phone and are used to a few workarounds, it’s probably the best smartwatch for you.
Huawei Watch GT 4: Specifications
Huawei Watch GT 4: Price and availability
(Image credit: Future)
From £229.99 in the UK
From €249.90 euros in the EU
Unavailable in the US and AU
For starters, let’s address the elephant in the room: Huawei technology is unavailable in the US or Australia, due to ongoing disputes with the Chinese telecoms manufacturer (and the Chinese government) over security concerns.
The UK has removed Huawei devices from its 5G network but hasn’t banned the sale of these devices entirely. The EU still allows Huawei devices to be sold. While UK and European fans can access Huawei tech, some functionality, such as NFC contactless payments, is limited.
It’s a shame because the Watch is terrific value. Both the 46mm with silicone black strap and the 41mm with silicone white strap cost just £229.99 in the UK and €249.90 in the EU, which is a great price for a chunky fitness watch with a stainless steel case. Prices rise with a variety of different options, including a rose gold version with Milanese straps or leather straps on the 46mm.
The most expensive is the 41mm steel-and-gold edition watch, which costs £349.99 / €399.90 euros, followed by the stainless steel 46mm with stainless steel strap, which costs £299.99 / €369.90 euros. It’s a very well-priced watch that looks gorgeous and could be an absolute powerhouse with the right support; it’s just a shame about the lack of availability. Unless you’re an existing Huawei user, there’s almost always a better option.
Value score: 3/5
Huawei Watch GT 4: Design
(Image credit: Future)
Seven different looks
Beautiful, premium designs belying price
OS is simple enough to use
From an external style standpoint, Huawei watches as a whole have virtually no consistency. When comparing the Watch GT 4 models to the thick, boxy, plastic cases on the gimmicky Huawei Watch Buds and Huawei Watch D, it’s like night and day. Whereas the Watch D and Watch Buds were quirky at best and unsightly at worst, Huawei Watch GT 4 models look fantastic, with in-built microphones and speakers allowing you to take and receive calls on-wrist.
These watches evoke different styles of traditional watches, from delicate circular fashion and dress watches to field and diving units. The unit I tested, the 46mm with stainless steel strap, looked very much like an analog dive watch when I picked the right face. Like all the GT 4 models, it has a circular digital crown on the top right and a secondary button on the bottom right, which combined with the very responsive touch-screen, made it easy to navigate around the watch. It was a pleasure to use.
The screen gets a lot of real estate, and it’s a fantastic screen on both sizes of the watch. The full-color AMOLED screen offers a fantastic refresh rate, ensuring a smooth swiping action, and pops with color. The AMOLED screen was better than many Garmins (although not quite up to Apple’s Retina Display) and output around 600 nits of brightness. This is enough for most people, though it’s a far cry from the Apple Watch Series 9, which can output an impressive 2,000 nits.
Some watch faces (the free ones, at least) are pretty dross, but I found one I liked that echoed an analog watch face and carried several on-face complications, including step count, the moon’s current phase, and a calendar. It echoed a classic chronograph and complemented the stainless steel aesthetic.
Speaking of the stainless steel, I have to share a grievance about changing the band. It might be because of my short nails, but after removing the silicone band, applying the stainless steel band to the watch took 15 minutes of effort, accompanied by lots of grunting and profanity. It was not a painless experience, but the watch looks ace with it on.
Design score: 5/5
Huawei Watch GT 4: Features
(Image credit: Future)
Lots of workout profiles
Lacking payments in many regions
Forced to sideload apps
The Huawei Watch GT 4 is entirely dependent on the Huawei Health app, which isn’t available on the iOS or Google Play store, but can be easily downloaded via your browser and the QR code provided. From there, you can customize your watch faces, toggle various notifications streams on and off, and view all your health data in greater detail. The Huawei Health app is excellent at what it does, showing you comprehensive information and offering actionable advice on your workout and sleep.
For example, I am a light sleeper, so Huawei Health recommended I cut out caffeine in the evening before bedtime – not groundbreaking advice, but nice to have. The Watch GT 4 has a load of workout profiles, from outdoor and indoor cycles to pool and open-water swims that count your strokes and lengths as you go.
The workout profiles interact with Huawei Health nicely and offer bonus features like AI-generated plans to help you train for specific goals in common exercises such as running, which you can follow along on your watch. TruSleep and TruSeen 5.5+ sensors offer advanced heart rate monitoring and ECG functionalities. A temperature sensor, blood oxygen measurement, and a stress metric round up the useful suite of health features on offer here.
All the Huawei-native stuff is great: it’s the lack of compatibility with other phones and operating systems that’s the problem. You can get WhatsApp and email notifications, but not respond to them, and good luck trying to use apps like Gmail without considerable sideloading jiggery pokery. Want Google or Apple Maps on your watch? Tough, you’re stuck with Huawei’s own Petal Maps. Unless you live in a country that supports Huawei NFC payments, you won’t be able to use contactless cards on your watch either. As I used the watch, I noticed more and more features either missing or not gelling, and while getting a Huawei phone would go some way towards solving this (if you don’t live in the US or Australia), in the UK you can’t use Huawei telecoms devices on a 5G network, so the phone won’t live up to its potential.
Features score: 3/5
Huawei Watch GT 4: Performance
(Image credit: Future)
Great battery life
Excellent sleep/workout metrics
GPS matched an Apple Watch Ultra 2 for accuracy
During my time testing the Huawei Watch GT 4, the battery life performed as expected. I tested it over five days, and each day the watch depleted between five and 10 percent, depending on GPS usage. I’m very satisfied the watch lives up to its bold claims of up to 14 days, and I can see the average user getting 10 days out of the watch with a few GPS workouts thrown in.
Sleep and workout metrics held up very well, and I was happy with the results I got. Running Ability index, Training Load and Training index metrics take a lot of your stats (if you’re a runner, of course) and boil them down into simple numbers. Running Ability will tell you if you’re running, for example, 44% better than users of a similar age, gender, height, and weight. Huawei is good at condensing complex statistics into easily accessible nuggets of information – it’s reminiscent of the best Fitbit watches in this way.
When I tested the GPS tracking against an Apple Watch Ultra 2, the main noticeable difference was that the Huawei Watch GT 4 took far, far longer to connect to a network. The Apple Watch Ultra 2 was almost instantaneous, while the GT 4 took at least two and a half minutes, during which it encouraged me to be in an open area, probably at the place the workout is starting. It doesn’t sound like much to ask, but you either stand stationary for around 150 seconds in front of your house before you start running, or you just run and the watch starts tracking you halfway through your first kilometer.
Other than that, the Watch GT 4 matched the Ultra 2 closely in terms of both heart rate and distance covered when I wore them simultaneously, so I’m satisfied with the watch’s accuracy.
The OnePlus Open is the first tablet foldable phone that feels right. All the ‘Folds’ that came before, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and the Pixel Fold most recently, feel wrong. They’re shaped funny when closed: the Galaxy is too narrow; the Pixel too squat. The OnePlus Open gets the shape right, and it's the most important improvement OnePlus could have made to the form factor. If you’re paying twice as much for a phone, you shouldn’t feel like it’s the wrong size half the time.
Open the OnePlus Open and you’re greeted with a display that is the biggest, brightest, and most satisfying of all the big foldable phones'. You need to look hard to see the crease, and it’s not even noticeable when you touch it.
Best of all, this phone is easy and inviting to open. The Galaxy can be very stiff at first, and the Pixel Fold never wants to open flat – it requires an awkward second push, and I always felt like I would break my Pixel Fold. The OnePlus Open snaps to attention when I open the hinge.
Compared to other foldable tablets, the OnePlus Open is just better. It's a better size when it's closed. It’s easier to open. In every way, the Open is a better experience, but OnePlus didn’t stop at the folding hinge. It also added something that no other foldable phone maker has dared: really good cameras.
On every other foldable phone, the size limitations of the fold-in-half design has resulted in cameras that range from inferior to downright awful. The OnePlus Open has the best cameras of the bunch, and comes close to being as good as the best flat camera phones, closer than any foldable I've used so far.
(Image credit: Future / Philip Berne)
Of course, this requires a gigantic camera hump around back, and it is a mighty bubble, twice as thick as the biggest camera bump you’ve seen. It’s a worthwhile trade off, though, even if it did make the phone feel awkward in my pocket on occasion.
Foldable phones can be so versatile when it comes to camera angles, and it’s a shame that the best foldable phones so far haven’t had cameras to match the capabilities. The OnePlus Open mostly fixes that.
The OnePlus Open is the thinnest foldable phone I’ve seen when it’s closed, and it’s just as thin as the Pixel Fold when open. The OnePlus Open somehow manages to offer larger displays and more battery while remaining lighter than all the rest.
In fact, it’s much lighter than the Pixel, and that makes a huge difference when you're carrying it around. The OnePlus Open is about the same weight as last year’s iPhone 14 Pro Max. Fitting two displays, a larger battery, and the premium camera bump into a package that's the same weight as last year's best iPhone is an impressive achievement. Titanium makes this year’s iPhone 15 Pro Max lighter, but only slightly.
Using the OnePlus Open is a joy, thanks to OnePlus’s simple and elegant software design. This phone isn’t as feature-packed as a Galaxy Z Fold 5, and we’re the better for it. OnePlus has made it easy to create a useful home screen, navigate settings and tools, and open multiple windows simultaneously, without needing lengthy tutorials and pop-up reminders to help you discover hidden features.
Pixel Fold (left); OnePlus Open (center); Galaxy Z Fold (right) (Image credit: Future / Philip Berne)
It isn’t all good news. OnePlus doesn’t prioritize water resistance and durability on its phones, and that gives me serious pause in recommending them. The OnePlus Open is only IPX4 rated, which means that dust and lint could be a problem in the future, and the Open can only handle splashes of water; you can’t let it take a real dip in the pool. It can survive 10 straight minutes in light rain, so the news isn’t dire, but I wish OnePlus would offer nothing less than IP67 resistance against all dust and the occasional dunking.
The OnePlus Open comes with a simple bumper-frame case in the box. Our OnePlus reps told me to put the case on the phone, and that isn’t a request that I usually get from most phone makers during a review. I used it occasionally because it was light and unobtrusive, but the phone is much prettier without the case. I mostly took the risk without the bumper, but it's always better to be safe than sorry.
I’m not going back to my flat phone ... after this review is over. I won't stop using this Open
The OnePlus Open costs $1,699 / £1,599, and in the US OnePlus has a trade-in deal that will effectively drop the price by at least $200 for everyone, no matter what phone you trade. This deal will be available throughout the phone's lifespan, according to OnePlus, and that makes the OnePlus Open the most affordable big foldable phone to hit the US market, at least.
It’s still admittedly expensive. OnePlus isn’t selling the OnePlus Open through wireless carriers, which means you won’t be able to sign your life away for a sweet deal on a multi-year contract to get this phone for free.
The phone is certified for all the major carrier networks, it just won't be sold at those stores. You can buy it from OnePlus directly or from a major online retailer in your area, like Amazon and BestBuy in the US.
The OnePlus Open is also the first big foldable that’s really worth it. If you were set on a foldable before, I could recommend the best, but I never wanted to use one myself because of all the compromises. The Open doesn’t just fix the mistakes of every big foldable phone that came before, it also breaks new ground with a larger display and much better cameras. I’m not going back to my flat phone, a Galaxy S23 Ultra, after this review is over. I won't stop using this Open.
OnePlus Open review: Price and availability
(Image credit: Future / Philip Berne)
$1,699 / £1,599 at launch for 512GB / 16GB model
At least $200 trade-in offer for any phone in any condition in US
Available from OnePlus, BestBuy and Amazon, but no carriers are selling it
While waiting for OnePlus to tell us the price of this phone, I played a game with fellow tech journalists to guess what it would cost. I guessed $1,499, while my colleagues guessed far too low.
OnePlus is known for shocking the market with bargain pricing on almost-flagship-quality devices, and everybody wants a big foldable phone that costs under $1,000 / £1,000, but these phones still haven’t achieved the volume that will make their fancy folding components affordable. I'm amazed that OnePlus can offer a phone with these features at such a low price, including the trade-in offer.
The price is $1,699 / £1,599 – OnePlus has yet to tell us if or when the Open will be released in Australia – but my guess was still right on the money, because OnePlus says it will offer a deal for the full life of this phone that gives you at least $200 off if you trade in any phone.
That’s any phone in any condition, and I take OnePlus at its word, because it really just wants to hand you a coupon, but offering a discount for a trade feels more high-end. You can get up to $1,000 off with a top trade, although nobody will be trading an iPhone 14 Pro Max for this phone, even if it is the same weight.
In the UK, customers who pre-order the OnePlus One will get a free pair of OnePlus Buds Pro 2, and when it goes on sale buyers will receive discounts on various other OnePlus devices.
(Image credit: Future / Philip Berne)
It’s still expensive. You can get two or more OnePlus 11 phones for the same price. Is it worth twice what a normal phone costs? The external display on the OnePlus Open is larger than an iPhone 15's, and the internal display is nearly as big as an iPad mini. It truly delivers on giving you a two-in-one experience, and if you bought both of those Apple devices separately, with the same amount of storage on board, you’d be paying more than you’ll pay for a OnePlus Open.
There's only one storage option for the OnePlus Open: 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM, making it the top-spec foldable for memory and the best buy for storage. It comes in Emerald Dusk green and Voyager Black, and oddly the two colors result in phones with different weights, because the Voyager Black uses vegan leather on the back (nicely textured plastic) instead of heavier glass.
I like that black finish quite a bit, but I’ve built a collection of green OnePlus products this year, with my OnePlus Pad and OnePlus Buds Pro 2, so I'm glad that my review model is matchy-matchy. In fact, it’s nice to see OnePlus offer consistent colors for fans to collect, especially in this great green hue; even Samsung, with its product synergy, hasn't offered one unique color across all device categories.
Value score: 4 / 5
OnePlus Open review: Specs
Here are the specs for the OnePlus Open, including the internal and external displays, and all of the cameras:
OnePlus Open review: Design
(Image credit: Future / Philip Berne)
Thinnest and lightest foldable you can buy (in most markets)
Larger displays compared to Samsung and Google
Crease is nearly invisible and barely tactile
What is the ideal size for a tablet foldable? It would be exactly the same size as a normal smartphone when it’s closed, and the same size as a mini tablet when it’s open – and of all the foldable phones I’ve seen, the OnePlus Open comes closest to achieving this ideal.
Most importantly, the aspect ratio of the cover display is almost identical to those of the best phones on the market. An iPhone has a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The OnePlus Open has a 20:9 aspect ratio. It doesn’t look too thin, like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, and every other 'Galaxy Fold' Samsung has made, and it doesn’t look too squat and wide like the Pixel Fold. No one would know you were holding a foldable phone if they didn’t see it from the side.
The OnePlus Open is admittedly thick when closed, and I tried to recall the last time I’ve owned a flat phone that was this thick. The iPhone 3GS from 2009 was just as thick as the OnePlus Open, at about 12mm when closed. The iPhone 4 shrank considerably, and that phone sparked the revolution of thin phones with metal frames and glass on the front and back.
The camera bump on the OnePlus 11 (top) compared to the mound on the OnePlus Open (bottom) (Image credit: Future / Philip Berne)
Will foldable phones get thinner than this? The Honor Magic Vs2 is already 1mm thinner than the OnePlus Open, so yes, of course they will. The thickness of the OnePlus Open, especially at its big camera bump, is the foldable’s biggest shortcoming against the best flat phones. But, if you're going to make good use the big internal screen (and you definitely will), the thickness is a fair trade.
That bump, though. If you think you’ve seen a big camera bump before, get ready. The camera circle on the OnePlus 11 is prominent, though not unattractive. The camera mound on the OnePlus Open is more of a hillock, with no sweeping, k-shaped metal to round out the design. It floats near the top of the back like a giant, glaring eye.
Also, I could definitely feel it in my pocket, and I preferred to wear the phone lens-side out from my butt. It’s not a huge problem; it’s just a huge camera bump. To get premium cameras on a foldable phone, especially compared to the sub-par cameras we’ve seen on past foldables that cost a lot more than the Open, I’ll accept the bump.
When you open the Open you see a fantastic internal display. There is a crease, but it's barely visible – I often had to tilt the phone for the light to catch the crease properly to show it to onlookers. If you run your finger back and forth over the crease slowly, you can’t feel it, but if you flick quickly you can perceive the slight dip.
If you can't see the crease, is it really there? (Image credit: Future / Philip Berne)
The hinge on the OnePlus Open is satisfying and eager. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 is a bit stiff and takes some effort to open, while the Pixel Fold is a total disaster: the hinge opens most of the way, but you need to give an extra push to force the phone flat. It’s very off-putting.
The OnePlus Open, on the other hand, feels like it wants to be open just as much as it wants to be closed. There's no barrier keeping you from using the phone however you’d like, unlike those other large foldable phones.
The fingerprint scanner on the OnePlus Open is on the power button, and OnePlus uses great fingerprint tech, so it worked well every time I used it. The phone also has a good face unlock, and that’s usually how I unlocked the phone.
There's also a three-stop mute switch on the OnePlus Open, a standard on almost all OnePlus flagship phones (and a now-abandoned feature on the iPhone Pro models). You can go from full mute to vibrate to sound-on with a quick flick. If you’re someone who finds themselves in theaters and meetings often, a mute switch is a great feature to have.
The two color options are both worth considering. The black ‘vegan’ leather (aka plastic) is actually very nicely textured and looks classy. My review unit in green fits in splendidly with all the other green OnePlus gear I’ve been happily collecting this year. The company has had a banner year, and every flagship product it’s launched is worth a look.
Design score: 5 / 5
OnePlus Open review: Display
(Image credit: Future / Philip Berne)
6.3-inch cover display is larger than the iPhone 15's
7.82-inch inner display is a half-inch smaller than an iPad mini
Both screens are super-bright, with variable refresh to 120Hz
The two displays on the OnePlus Open are a marvel to behold, and both of them are just as good as the flagship phone or tablet they’ll replace in your collection. The cover display is 6.3 inches, with LTPO 3.0 technology that can slow down to 10Hz for a low-power, always-on mode. The inner display is a huge 7.82-inch screen that has almost the same screen area as an iPad Mini (2021). It can slow down to 1Hz, and both screens can refresh up to 120Hz.
Just as it did with the OnePlus Pad, the company continues to find the best displays for its devices, with superior brightness levels that trounce the competition. The Pixel Fold can reach peak brightness levels of 1,450 nits, for when the sun is shining directly on it. The OnePlus Open, on the other hand, can easily hit the same brightness in normal use, and peaks at a brilliant 2,800 nits. Even Google’s impressively bright new Pixel 8 Pro can only peak at 2,400 nits.
In terms of screen area, you really are getting more with the OnePlus Open than you would with the Pixel Fold or Galaxy Z Fold 5. The competitor phones may advertise a 7.6-inch screen, which doesn’t sound like it’s much smaller, but that’s a diagonal measurement, and the diagonal doesn’t tell us anything useful about screen size.
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Here is the OnePlus Open, folded shut, next to an iPhone 15 Pro Max.
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Here is the OnePlus Open with the inner display unfolded next to an iPhone 15 Pro Max.
The Pixel Fold and Galaxy Z Fold 5 actually give you around 28.4 square inches of screen real estate inside. The OnePlus Open gives you 30.4 square inches. That’s two square inches more, not just 0.22-inches measuring the diagonal. Does it feel like a lot? Not really; those other phones already felt big. Combined with the much better external display, though, the extra space on the OnePlus Open's inner screen feels like a nice bonus.
The external display on the OnePlus Open is the biggest difference, even though the diagonal measurement tells a misleading story. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 5 has a 6.2-inch external display, but it’s very tall and narrow, and it’s not much fun to use. The OnePlus Open has a 6.31-inch external display, so is it really much bigger? Oh yeah, it’s much bigger.
The iPhone 15 display gives you around 14.15 inches of screen space in square inches. The OnePlus Open’s external display is even bigger, giving you 14.9 square inches. The Galaxy Z Fold 5? That's almost two square inches smaller than the OnePlus, and more than an inch less space than the iPhone 15. Samsung’s most expensive phone doesn’t even give you as much external screen space as Apple’s base model iPhone, unless you unfold the Galaxy.
Display score: 5 / 5
OnePlus Open review: Software
(Image credit: Future / Philip Berne)
Elegant interface doesn’t get in the way
Not feature-packed like Samsung, for better and for worse
Nice synergy with OnePlus Pad
The OnePlus Oxygen OS interface on the OnePlus Open is clean and elegant, closer to Google’s Pixel version of Android than Samsung’s One UI interface. If that doesn’t mean much to you, just know that it’s easy to set up and use the Open, and there are no unexpected glitches or unforced errors.
For instance, you can start an app with the phone closed and then open the phone, and it's no problem for the OnePlus Open. On the Pixel Fold, this often causes problems, but on the Open it just works; in fact, apps look great on both the smaller and larger displays, unlike the Pixel, which has trouble displaying apps properly.
On the other hand, Samsung fans hold a shotgun of features ready to blast at any competitor, and a few of these can be undeniably useful. You can’t turn the OnePlus Open into a desktop computer like you can with Samsung’s DeX software. You won’t have a second virtual assistant like Bixby ready to manage all of your phone settings. You can’t use a precise pen on the Open’s display. I could go on and on.
(Image credit: Future / Philip Berne)
That said, there’s nothing missing here. Everything you’d expect to find on a good tablet foldable is here. You can run apps side-by-side easily by swiping at the edges of the screen. You can have apps in smaller pop-up windows on top of larger apps.
It’s very unfussy and easy to manage. The OnePlus Open isn’t quite as feature-packed as the Galaxy Z Fold 5, but you also don’t get endless layers of menus and options accompanying each feature.
OnePlus also deserves credit for building out its own product ecosystem, and since the OnePlus Pad is actually an excellent tablet, I should mention that it has special features that work with other OnePlus phones like the OnePlus Open. The devices will automatically connect and start sharing things like photos or anything you copy or cut into the clipboard. Copy an image on one device and it immediately appears on the other. Samsung and Apple have similar features, more advanced even, and it’s always nice to see a mobile maker reward its fans.
Software score: 4 / 5
Google Pixel 8 Pro review: Cameras
(Image credit: Future / Philip Berne)
Excellent cameras beat all other foldable phones
Not quite as good as the iPhone 15 Pro Max, but close
Image quality is good, but the camera software needs help
It’s hard to stick a good camera into a foldable phone. A foldable phone has less depth to accommodate the camera, and cameras need depth in their design in order to take great photos. OnePlus is using a new type of stacked sensor from Sony, and on paper it looks set to match or beat the OnePlus 11, which is a very good camera phone for taking cool and artsy photos.
Have I mentioned that the camera bump is big? I have? I'll move on, then. There are a lot of shooting modes on the OnePlus Open, maybe too many. I’m not sure that most folks will understand all the different options offered by Long Exposure, Slo-Mo, and Time-Lapse, let alone the more enigmatic XPAN and Movie modes, which are separate from basic Video.
(Image credit: Future / Philip Berne)
There’s also an Action mode that's separated from the other camera modes, and I’m not sure what it does, because I don’t see enough action to use it. Sometimes, a small circular button like a waning crescent moon would pop up on screen, and I could activate or deactivate some feature by tapping it, but I was never sure what effect it actually had.
A dive into the settings doesn’t help much. There aren’t tutorials for all of the features, and you don’t get all the settings you might expect. I couldn’t manually adjust the resolution of my photos, for instance, aside from choosing to use a 10-bit color mode that stores photos in a different format to save space. Does that count? I’m not really sure.
A long exposure sample from the OnePlus Open camera (Image credit: Future / Philip Berne)
I also wish the OnePlus Open did a lot more to take advantage of its foldable design, photography-wise. You can swap the viewfinder to the smaller display while the phone is unfolded, and this way you can see yourself on the display while you take a selfie with the higher-quality main camera, instead of the 20MP selfie camera.
On a clamshell foldable like the Motorola Razr Ultra, you’ll find a lot more tricks to make this experience fun when you use the camera with crowds. You’ll find funny faces on the external display that make kids smile, or cool angles you can set up with the camera. That isn’t the case on the OnePlus Open. You get a much better camera than on other foldables, but it doesn’t benefit from being a foldable camera phone as much as I’d like.
OnePlus Open camera samples
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In this sample, the iPhone 15 Pro Max gave me disappointing color results compared to the OnePlus Open. The flag is supposed to be red, white, and blue, not orange.
Here is the 5X zoom on the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the enhanced 6X digital zoom on the OnePlus Open. The iPhone gives you more details, but also more noise. The OnePlus effect is pleasant, but it can cause problems, as you'll see.
Here's an extreme close-up at the edge of zoom range for the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the OnePlus Open. As you can see, both photos are terrible in their own way. The iPhone looks like a grainy photo, though, while the OnePlus made a pretty painting.
Camera score: 4 / 5
Google Pixel 8 Pro review: Performance
(Image credit: Future / Philip Berne)
Speedy performance matches the best Androids
Still can’t beat the iPhone 15
Phone ran smoothly but games stuttered
The OnePlus Open uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, making it the last major phone this year to launch with Qualcomm’s best Snapdragon. There’s equilibrium to that, as the OnePlus 11 was the first phone to launch with this chipset, even before the Galaxy S23 series earlier this year. OnePlus has bookended its year with the same Snapdragon.
Of course, that means its performance won’t reign as champ for long, and Qualcomm has its Snapdragon summit coming up, at which a new chip is expected. The OnePlus Open is certainly fast, but it isn’t the fastest phone around, and faster phones are coming.
Running the interface was nice and smooth, even on the transitions between the internal and external display. Whether I was switching screens while using an app to get a better view, or changing viewfinders on the camera so I could take a better selfie, there was never a hitch swapping views on the OnePlus Open.
(Image credit: Future / Philip Berne)
When I tried playing the most graphically intensive titles, the phone did stumble a bit compared to the best-performing Android phones on the market, like the Galaxy S23 Ultra. I never lost because of bad performance, but I saw some jumps and starts, especially on load screens. I have no complaints, but it’s fair to expect more.
The iPhone 15 gives you more performance, because Apple’s chips are much more powerful than the current Snapdragon generation. That means even the iPad mini, with its older A15 Bionic chip, is as fast as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. If you’re thinking of buying the OnePlus Open to replace an iPhone plus an iPad mini, you’re getting better performance from Apple’s devices.
Performance impact aside, I still reached for the OnePlus Open to play games over any other phone I had on hand. Playing on the big internal display is delightful, and adds a new level of immersion to mobile games. The most graphically intensive games, like Genshin Impact, could run without much trouble on the OnePlus Open, and having the much larger display made it easier to control my character and read the tiny text on screen.
Performance score: 4 / 5
OnePlus Open review: Battery life
This protective bumper comes with the OnePlus Open in the box (Image credit: Future / Philip Berne)
Battery life is better than most foldables, still not the best
Fast charging speeds are great if you need them
This is the only compromise left
The OnePlus Open could last through a full day if I was judicious with my usage. If I opened the big screen and played a lot of battery-hogging mobile games, then of course I drained the battery faster. OnePlus has some innovative ways to add more power, but there’s only so much it can do without making the device much larger.
Normally, a flagship smartphone this size would come with a battery around 5,000mAh, but the OnePlus Open uses two cells that add up to 4,805mAh, so a bit smaller. Having two batteries doesn’t just help with the foldable design; it also allows the phone to use OnePlus’s faster SUPERVOOC charging, with speeds up to 67 watts.
(Image credit: Future / Philip Berne)
The iPhone 15 Pro can only charge at under 30W, and more power definitely means faster charge times. You can easily charge the OnePlus Open to full in around 30 minutes.
Sadly, there are no wireless charging features on the OnePlus Open. For some buyers this isn’t a big deal, but for other folks this is a total dealbreaker. I get it – you’ve grown accustomed to your wireless lifestyle. You charge your phone in your car and on the many expensive charging pads you’ve purchased. Sorry, we told OnePlus this was important, but they wanted to save space (and probably some money, too).
Battery score: 3 / 5
Should you buy the OnePlus Open?
Buy it if...
You want a phone and a tablet in one
That’s it – that’s the pitch, and no other tablet foldable has truly delivered on the phone part of that bargain as well as the OnePlus Open.
You were considering a foldable, but the cameras… Whenever we review a foldable phone we lament the terrible cameras. Not this time. If bad cameras were holding you back, cut loose and buy the OnePlus Open.
You really like the color green
There are better reasons to buy the OnePlus Open, but I have to give OnePlus credit for a matching lineup of products this year that all work nicely together. Showing unified thinking across categories gives me more confidence recommending the brand.
Don't buy it if...
You don’t really want a phone and a tablet If you just want the absolute-best phone, you can find faster, better cameras, better battery, and more features. You just can’t find a better two-in-one.
Cameras are the most important things The OnePlus Open has better cameras than any foldable we’ve seen before, but you can find more versatile cameras on the Galaxy S23 Ultra, and a much easier camera experience on the iPhone 15.
All your stuff is Apple or Samsung:
While the OnePlus Open works well with a OnePlus Pad, both Samsung and Apple have better cross-device features for sharing and more – you can even move a mouse pointer straight from your Galaxy tablet to your Galaxy phone screen.
OnePlus Open review: Also consider
If you’re not convinced that the OnePlus Open is the right tablet foldable for you, or you want to check out a phone that does a little more, here are some options:
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 The Galaxy Z Fold 5 gives you so many more features it’s impossible to count. Most importantly, it’s water-resistant and dust-proof. It can run like a desktop computer. It uses the S Pen. The list is endless.
Google Pixel Fold While the Pixel Fold doesn’t have the best performance or design, it has what no other foldable has: Google power. The Fold is the best device for taking advantage of the Tensor G2 chip’s exclusive machine learning features, including the new dual-screen translator that Google rolled out recently.
How I tested the OnePlus Open
OnePlus invited me to a day-long summit to learn about the OnePlus Open, and I left with a review unit. We had an opportunity to take photos around New York City, but in the weeks since I received the device OnePlus has updated the software multiple times, especially the image processing.
Photos have definitely improved since I received my review phone, but OnePlus told me to expect another software update before this review was published which didn't materialize. It’s therefore possible that image quality may change and improve, in which case I will revisit this review (and remove this paragraph).
I used the OnePlus Open as my primary work phone during my review period, so I used it for all of my work communications, scheduling, and calls, especially video calls on the go. I listened to music and played games with the phone as well.
I tested the camera using mostly the primary photo and video modes, with some venturing into the other camera modes. I used the camera during the day and at night, at home and while traveling, and for sharing as well as scanning documents.
I used benchmarking software to compare the OnePlus Open to other phones I've tested, but I report my experience in real-world usage terms and not benchmark results. For battery testing, I drained the phone as much as possible and recorded my battery percentage at the end of the day, as well as my screen time and other usage notes.
I tested the OnePlus Open with a variety of accessories, as well as with the Android Auto system on my Honda. I used it with many of this year’s OnePlus devices, including the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 and the OnePlus Pad, as well as Google Pixel Buds Pro, an Xbox game controller, and other audio accessories. Read more about how we test
Based on the latest Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) report, iOS had a 39% share of all US smartphone customers for the past year. The latest figure represents a slight increase from the 2022 values when iOS accounted for 37% of all US smartphone users and a sizeable drop compared to 2021 (44%) and 2020 (46%).
iOS share of US mobile phone customers
Data for this survey was sourced from CIRP’s quarterly survey of US mobile phone customers with the last quarter ending in September. The new data shows a clear sign that Android is still the preferred mobile OS for US...
Garmin announced its ECG App is now compatible with its Epix Pro series, Fenix 7 Pro series, Venu 3 series and Tactix 7 smartwatches in the US. Users will be able to take electrocardiogram readings from their supported watches with records for heart rhythm data and check for signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib) and sinus rhythm. The ECG readings will be available directly on the supported Garmin watches as well as on the Garmin Connect smartphone app and can be exported as PDF files.
Users will need to update their Garmin Connect app to the latest version before setting up the ECG...
The Garmin Venu 3 is the third in a trilogy of watches which – unlike most movie trilogies – as the third is actually the best of the bunch. In fact, this is one of the best Garmin watches outright.
Like the rest of the Venu series, this is a pretty balanced blend of smartwatch and health tracker. Primarily, that means the Garmin Venu 3 looks great with a rich and colorful AMOLED screen, that gives some of the best Apple watches a run for their money. Unlike Apple Watches, which can only go a scant 18 or 36 hours without a recharge, this watch can last for up to two weeks.
What you don't get here is some of the more premium running features like the Training Readiness score, or Race Predictor, like you would get on the Garmin Forerunner 265 for example. But you do get advanced sleep tracking and suggestions, an evening report, unique wheelchair user-specific training metrics, and more health insights.
This watch also features a speaker and microphone meaning you can take calls from a connected phone, right there on your wrist. It also means the meditation training is more immersive with audio guidance, music, and more.
So while this is on the expensive side for a Garmin watch without premium training features, this does manage to offer lots of smartwatch-style capabilities – like GPS tracking, offline Spotify, and contactless pay – while also focusing on lifestyle tracking, all day and all night.
Garmin Venu 3: Specifications
Garmin Venu 3: Price and Availability
(Image credit: Future)
£450 in the UK
$450 in the US
AU$749 in Australia
The Garmin Venu 3 is a relatively high price compared to other Garmin watches and contemporaries like the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6, but it costs only slightly more than an Apple Watch and does a bit of everything (and it does it very well) while looking premium to boot. So you're looking at a price of US$450 / £450 / AU$749, slightly higher than most smartwatches, but still quite representative of what you're getting at this stage.
Of course, these are the launch prices, so you can expect these to drop over time. You can often find great deals on Garmins, and we're betting the Garmin Venu 3 is no exception. Check out our Black Friday Garmin deals page for more information.
Value score: 4/5
Garmin Venu 3: Design and screen
(Image credit: Future)
1.4-inch AMOLED display
Stainless steel bezel
Comfy silicone strap, 22mm QuickFit compatible
The Garmin Venu 3 is undeniably an attractive smartwatch that can be used as a fitness tracker and as a fashionable day-to-day wearable. The silicone strap is comfy, waterproof, and minimal in its design. That stainless steel bezel also gives it a premium finish, which other curved-screen wearables like Apple Watches and the Google Pixel Watch 2 are missing.
But it's only when that screen lights up you really see the quality. This watch boasts a gorgeous 1.4-inch AMOLED display with a high 454 x 454 pixel resolution. This super-bright and colorful screen makes all your metrics show up clearly and attractively, no matter the lighting conditions.
The Venu 3 works well with a touchscreen that not only makes menu scrolling easy but features lovely graphical transitions that create an intuitive way to explore the menus. It's all encased in Corning Gorilla Glass 3 to make sure it stays scratch-free – which was the case throughout our frankly harsh testing. 50-meter waterproofing does set your mind at ease: you can use it anywhere, including underwater, and it's dustproof to boot.
You also have three buttons to help menu interactions which are utilized well. For example, if you want to discard a workout you hit the red cross on the screen but then have to confirm using one of the buttons.
The Venu 3 comes in two sizes: 41mm (known as the Venu 3S) and the larger 45mm, just known as the Venu 3. Colorways for the Venu 3 include white, black, or black with a leather strap. Go for the Venu 3S and there are even more choices including soft gold, rose pink, sage gray, and others.
Design score: 5/5
Garmin Venu 3: Features
(Image credit: Future)
Pre-loaded guided meditation content
Wheelchair user specific tracking
Smarter sleep tracking
The Garmin Venu 3 is packed full of health, lifestyle, and fitness tracking features while offering some genuinely useful smartwatch apps from the Connect IQ store. One standout feature was the fact this AMOLED screen is taken advantage of when linked to the Ring doorbell app, showing a screenshot of who's there when you get an alert on your wrist.
The return of Venu 2's speaker and microphone means you can get audio alerts and even take calls natively on the watch. It's not quite well refined enough to let you talk back using the Ring app, for example, but it's no surprise the mainly third-party apps aren't going to be as good as on other platforms – Garmin has never pushed too hard in that area, largely because it focuses on fitness training, and it's done that well here.
You can expect a plethora of tracking and training options including all-day heart rate tracking, deep sleep tracking with guidance, stress scores, HRV measurements, respiration tracking, and plenty more. All that equates to a clear overall picture of your health. As we've come to expect from a good Garmin watch, you can also track nearly any exercise you can think of too, including swimming and golf. Garmin has a dedicated Garmin Golf app available on your phone, which you can sync to the Venu 3. Garmin consistently makes some of its best golf watches around, and it's nice to see some of those features available here, such as downloadable courses and shot analysis.
The meditation content is worth mentioning as this is specifically tailored to this watch, offering audio and visual guidance without the need to connect headphones. That means guided meditations that track your respiration rate and heart rate so you can see the effects directly.
The wheelchair user-specific tracking is a fantastic option that lets you setup in that mode, right from the outset. This will then be able to track pushes as well as offer a selection of wheelchair-specific sports tracking.
You also have a selection of useful features day-to-day like contactless payments, Bluetooth headphone connectivity, offline Spotify playlists, and a handy flashlight mode that you genuinely do use when pottering about in the dark.
Features score: 5/5
Garmin Venu 3: Performance
(Image credit: Future)
Accurate heart rate data
Superb sleep support
Still Garmin setup issues
The Garmin Venu 3, like most Garmins these days, performed very well in practice. That means it had near faultless GPS acquisition, was fast, and offered accurate measurements. It also meant heart rate data was accurate when compared with a chest strap test.
How all that data is used is what makes the Venu 3 special. Sleep tracking, for example, is far more advanced here than in many of the more sports-specific Garmin watches. This watch not only offers you a Morning Report of how you've slept and recovered, but also an Evening Report, helping you consider ways to make that night's sleep the best it can be. All that equates to checking in more with your habits and adjusting accordingly – part of what makes this watch supportive of change. This even has nap detection for the first time, allowing you to pop this on to get a power nap where your recommended sleep duration that night is taken into account.
It was a surprise to find the speaker and mic weren't just a fad but proved genuinely useful. There was enough clarity to follow guided meditations, take phone calls, and even appreciate music. The microphone worked well too; if you think this feature might be appealing, perhaps as a busy parent in the kitchen who still needs to be connected while hearing what's going on in the room, this is a top solution.
So why bother going for a sports-specific watch over this? Well, you'll find the Venu 3 can track a lot of sports – over 30 – but it might not do so in quite as much depth as some sports-specific wearables. Running, for example, tracks speed, pace, HR and even has maps, but you won't get more complex metrics from running dynamics like ground contact time or race predictors, which are available for the best running watches.
This would be a five-star section, but phone connection and setup was a nightmare. Having reviewed Garmins for over a decade, using various Android phones, this has always been an issue. A recent Forerunner 965 review was so faultless in the setup that it seemed Garmin had fixed it, then this Venu 3 connection was plagued with issues involving restarting the phone, the watch, the app, factory resets, and more. It might not be an issue on your phone but it's an unfixed Garmin trend, and cannot go unmarked.
Performance score: 4/5
Garmin Venu 3: Scorecard
Garmin Venu 3: Should I buy?
Buy it if...
Don't buy it if...
Garmin Venu 3: How we tested
We wore the Garmin Venu 3 on one wrist, connected to an Android device, for months. This came on runs, bike rides, swims, walks, yoga classes, weights sessions, paddle boarding and more.
The contactless payment features and wireless offline Spotify were both used as was sleep tracking, heart rate monitoring in cold water baths, notifications from the phone and more.
In short this was lived with 24/7 to truly test how you would use the watch, and all its features.
Huawei made big headlines with the launch of its Mate 60 series phones, namely for the Kirin 9000s chip powering the new devices. Despite the US sanctions, Huawei managed to equip its latest Mate phones with 5G capable chipsets manufactured in China which raised plenty of concerns. Several teardowns revealed even more components that Huawei had no business accessing under the current sanctions like SK Hynix RAM. A new report from Reuters claims that the Biden administration is now looking to implement a new round of sanctions to avert chip exports to China that were not previously...
The Breville InFizz Fusion – which would be the Sage InFizz Fusion when it makes its way to the UK – is a SodaStream alternative that can do more than just make sparkling water. It one-ups its popular competitor by allowing you to carbonate any drinkable liquid… as long as it’s not a hot beverage. Whether it’s a juice you want to add some fizz to or prepare a big batch of sparkling sangria, the InFizz Fusion can handle it.
There is a risk of overflow when you’ve mistakenly over-carbonated a particular beverage and are about to open the bottle, but the InFizz Fusion has an unique solution for that. Breville calls it the FusionCap and it’s essentially the gas delivery system as well as the cap that holds the carbonation inside the bottle till you’re ready to serve. It’s a solidly built screw cap that features a tube that’s just about long enough to dip into a minimum of 600ml of liquid and a locking mechanism on the top.
(Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
The FusionCap fits into the InFizz Fusion via a simple tilt-and-twist action – you just align the two arrowheads (one on the cap, the other on the machine) and twist a little. When you’re done fizzing your beverage, move the tilt head up and twist the bottle to release it.
If you’re worried about over-carbonating a drink, listen carefully for a slight popping sound when you press the lever – that’s an indication that ideal fizz levels have been reached. Anything more and you’ll see froth build up inside the bottle.
To serve your drink, simply move the red switch on top of the cap to the center position before opening – this releases any extra pressure from within the bottle and prevents overflows by reducing the foam inside. When the hissing has stopped, move it all the way to the right to unlock the FusionCap. There’s a failsafe here if the foam rises too quickly to the top when you’re releasing the pressure – you just move the red switch back to the left position to lock the FusionCap in place again to prevent mishaps.
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The FusionCap – as good as it is – takes a little getting used to. It’s not always clear whether you’ve locked the cap in place correctly when screwing onto the bottle, and occasionally the fit into the machine may not be accurate either. The bottle doesn’t fall when it’s not locked into the machine, so there’s no visual indication you’ve done it correctly. I learnt this the hard way when I was re-fizzing some flat Coke and half the bottle overflowed the moment I pressed the carbonation lever.
There is a pictorial user guide in the box but, like a lot of manuals, it doesn’t always make things clear. Once you get your head around using the FusionCap – which for me was largely experimentation than help from the user manual – you’ll be fizzing up drinks in no time at all!
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During my testing, I fizzed up orange juice (which isn’t very nice I have to say), some apple, pear and watermelon juice (all three of which I would highly recommend), coconut water (the jury is still out on whether this is good or not) and some wine. I carbonated bottles (700ml) of rosé and an Italian Lambrusco.
The former was a light carbonation to make sparkling wine and I was able to save the remaining in the Breville’s bottle with the FusionCap on to save some of that carbonation after serving myself a glass. It stayed in the fridge for a couple of days. The Lambrusco, on the other hand, was already lightly carbonated, and adding more fizz brought out the flavours and made it a little sweeter.
There aren't specific fizz levels on the InFizz Fusion – you can repeatedly press the carbonating lever till you hear the pop sound and go beyond too, but watch out for the foam getting too much inside the bottle. For light carbonation, a single push on the lever can suffice, but it's all up to you.
Carbonating a drink – alcoholic or non-alcoholic – drops the overall pH of the beverage and makes them sweeter. It’s exactly why sodas are so sweet and addictive.
Breville has opted to use any standard screw-type 60L gas canister for the InFizz Fusion (and the InFizz Aqua, its sparkling water maker; see the price section for more information). While the machine itself doesn’t ship with a gas cylinder when you purchase it, you can get a 60L screw-type SodaStream canister to use with the Breville. These are easy to refill or exchange for a new one at several stores in most markets.
(Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
As well as being a good beverage maker, the InFizz Fusion is also a good-looking appliance. It’s available in three finishes – I was sent this Brushed Stainless Steel version for this review – and, at first glance, you’d be forgiven for wondering why a kitchen faucet handle is on top of a beverage maker. But that’s the carbonation lever and, honestly, it’s a design aesthetic that easily grows on you. There’s a drip tray carved into the base and is hidden under a filigreed magnetic cover. It’s not boxy, like a lot of SodaStream models, and would look good on any kitchen countertop or home bar.
As with any Breville or Sage kitchen appliance, the InFizz Fusion isn’t cheap. It’s a lot more expensive than a SodaStream alternative, but I think it’s worth the extra cost considering it’s more versatile than being just a sparkling water maker.
Breville the InFizz Fusion review: price and availability
Announced October 2023, first in Australia
US and UK availability and pricing TBA
Australian RRP of AU$299
The Breville InFizz Fusion was first released in Australia on October 15, 2023, just in time for summer Down Under. It hasn't yet been launched in the US or the UK, but it’s possible that it might be available to purchase in other markets by June or July next year when summer comes calling in the Northern Hemisphere. We'll update this review when we know more about global availability.
There are two models in Breville’s InFizz range – the InFizz Aqua that makes only sparkling water like a SodaStream, and the InFizz Fusion that has been reviewed here. The former is cheaper at AU$249 (US and UK price TBA, but that converts to about $160 / £130), while the InFizz Fusion will set you back AU$299 (around $190 / £155).
The InFizz Fusion ships with a 1L plastic bottle that is not dishwasher safe, plus a long-handled bottle cleaning brush, a strainer (or sieve) and a funnel.
Additional bottles can also be purchased – a 2-pack of 600ml bottles is priced at $39.95 (about $25 / £20) and a 2-pack of 1L bottles is $49.95 (about $32 / £26).
It’s important to note that the Breville InFizz machines do not come with a gas cylinder. This will need to be purchased separately and will cost $14.99 / £12.99 / AU$35. The good news is these can easily be refilled at several stores or petrol/gas stations and you just pay for the gas.
(Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
Should I buy the Breville InFizz Fusion?
Buy it if...
Don't buy it if...
Also consider
There aren’t too many big brands making sparkling beverage makers, but SodaStream is the closest and most popular competitor. There are quite a few SodaStream models to choose from, and they’re all priced quite reasonably. We have done the SodaStream Spirit One Touch review here at TechRadar but are yet to try other options, but considering we gave it four stars, we think most SodaStreams are a good purchase.
Another alternative would be the Twenty39 Qarbo, that’s available from Amazon US, Amazon UK and Amazon Australia. We haven’t tested this brand for ourselves, but we have seen it in action and tasted a beverage at an Amazon event in Sydney in July 2023.
Note that both brands are specifically only sparkling water makers, so you will need to purchase flavourings to get creative.
How I tested the Breville InFizz Fusion
(Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
Used it for a few days each week for three weeks
Carbonated different types of cold beverages
Purchased flavourings to make my own beverages
When I heard that the Breville InFizz Fusion could be used to fizz up any kind of drinkable liquid, I decided to put that to the test as much as I could. While I did make sparkling water for highball cocktails quite often, I also carbonated different store-bought fruit juices. These were specifically orange, apple, pear and watermelon. I also fizzed coconut water once.
I also carbonated a bottle of rosé wine lightly, then was able to store it in the fridge for a couple of days with the FusionCap to seal in the fizz. I did the same for an already-sparkling Italian Lambrusco wine. I think a lot of non-dry whites and moscatos would be great with a touch of carbonation for summer, while some chilled reds can be fizzed up to make refreshing sangrias.
I usually have a batch of homemade cold-brew iced tea at home when it gets hot, and I fizzed about 600ml of this as well.
While I had to handwash the bottle each time I made a drink, it was good to know that the smell from the previous drink does not get absorbed by the plastic as it is wont to do on some food storage containers.
Anyone who enjoys a bit of kitchen craft knows just how useful a food processor can be for boosting your culinary skills. However, if you don't get into the kitchen often, it’s the kind of thing that's not necessarily top of mind, something that takes up a lot of space. If that describes you, you're probably better off with a more lightweight solution like the Breville All in One stick mixer.
Sure, the motor isn’t as powerful as what you’ll get on top-shelf food processors or blenders, but this one device performs a much wider range of tasks and occupies a smaller overall footprint in your kitchen. The Breville All in One can be a food processor, a masher, an immersion blender or a whisk thanks to a quick-release motor handle that attaches to various tool heads.
Obviously any tool’s usefulness will depend on the types of food you gravitate towards when cooking, and kitchen appliances that try to do too many things can often end up doing them all poorly, but the All in One strikes an excellent balance between versatility and usefulness that makes it an exceptionally helpful tool in a wide array of circumstances. This makes it an excellent base accessory for any home cook – I think it’s unlikely to sit in the cupboard unused for long periods of time.
This diversity can mean it gets overlooked since there really isn't one specific task you absolutely need it for… but it’s such a versatile tool that it’s helpful for the average cook and it’ll remain useful even if they do invest further in more capable appliances for tasks requiring more powerful and dedicated devices.
There really is value here for most home cooks and its starting price isn't too bad either.
(Image credit: Future - Joel Burgess)
Breville the All in One review: Price and availability
Available in the US and Australia
List price: $159.95 / AU$269
The All in One Stick Mixer is available in both the US and Australia Breville online stores for $159.95 / AU$269, but isn't listed in the UK's Sage online store at the time of writing.
It might be worth checking out TechRadar’s jug vs immersion blender explainer page to see if you’re more likely to need a dedicated blender than what is on offer here, but for anyone who frequently mashes, grates, slices, chops, whisks and blends food, it’s hard to imagine that this device won’t come in handy for a multitude of applications.
While you can get basic food processors for less than this price point, they’re unlikely to offer any more power and will usually come with just the one dicing blade. The All in One has grating and slicing capabilities included alongside the standard food processing capabilities that practically justifies the price tag on its own.
You will only have basic blending capabilities, so I wouldn’t really consider this to be a blender replacement, but throw in the mashing and whisking tools and you have a tool with a heap of perks bundled in for an entry-level price.
(Image credit: Future - Joel Burgess)
Breville the All in One: specifications
Breville the All in One review: Design and features
Great entry-level food processor
Grating and slicing blades included
Also beats, blends and mashes
The 6-cup (1.6L) food processor bowl comes with a textured base to ensure chopped food doesn’t stick to the sides when using the S-blade attachment, and the reversible grating/ shredding disk saves you the hassle of having to manually grate vegetables for example.
The variable slicing blade for the food processor isn’t as refined as what you’ll be able to achieve on a mandolin, but it does have 18 adjustable thickness settings – from 0.5mm to 6mm – so you can cut perfectly uniform slices in seconds.
In addition to the food processing tools you also get a masher, a whisker and immersion blender heads. Each of these are pretty self-explanatory, and both the masher and whisker simply take some of the leg work out of processes you’d usually do by hand. While it doesn't always occur to the average home cook, but the stick nature of this appliance means it can be useful in several situations, meaning it will likely get used frequently.
There isn’t a jug accessory that comes bundled with the All in One like with some other stick blender kits, but it is an omission that most home cooks will be able to find a workaround solution for. This makes it a little less appealing as a proper blender solution, but when you consider its limitations with crushing ice you really do want something more dedicated if you’re going to be making a lot of smoothies. Blenders are also likely to be the most common device overlap here for products that people will already have, so it seems like a sensible omission.
(Image credit: Future - Joel Burgess)
Breville the All in One review: Performance
Decent food processing capabilities
Excellent mashing and whisking
Reasonable immersion blending
During my testing, I used the Breville All in One to dice ingredients for a batch of peanut butter protein balls, a job that killed the motor on a Smeg Hand Blender that I used previously. The Breville device offered less power than its similarly priced Smeg competitor, but it was able to fully process all the raw ingredients as well as mix the dense combination of highly viscose date, peanut butter and maple syrup concoction.
This task was definitely at the upper limits of what you’d want to use a handheld motor for, but the All in One proved perfectly capable of performing this task on this occasion. For those planning on regularly mixing batches of protein balls you might be better served by one of TechRadar’s best food processor, for a more powerful device.
(Image credit: Future - Joel Burgess)
I also used the grater/shredder to process a few hundred grams of Grana Padano and Parmigiano Reggiano for a cacio e pepe dish, a really simple task that would have been a lot more work using a hand grater. But just about every grating task is made infinitely simpler by the electric blade’s speed and consistency – once you have this tool in the kitchen it’s hard to imagine having to go back to manual grating.
The immersion blender works well enough as a traditional blender. You might want something a little more serious if you’re regularly trying to crush ice, but the All in One is more than capable of blending the vast majority of soups or smoothies.
Where the immersion blender shines is when you need to refine a sauce into a smoother consistency – you can simply plunge it into hot liquids rather than waiting for sauces to cool enough to put in a food processor.
The masher is great for anyone who likes a good potato mash (or anyone that makes their own baby food) and the whisk comes in handy a lot for baking and other egg-based recipes.
(Image credit: Future - Joel Burgess)
Should you buy the All in One from Breville?
Buy it if...
Don't buy it if...
Also consider
How I tested: Breville the All in One
I used the All in One for a month
I used it as my primary food processor
I tested all the other features and functionalities
I tested the Breville All in One by using it over a month with general kitchen tasks like grating cheeses and vegetables, and other food processing tasks like dicing nuts and combining date and peanut butter protein balls. I also used the device on multiple occasions to mash potato, plus whisked eggs and other ingredients for baked goods.
The immersion blender capabilities came in handy when I refining a beef brisket sauce in a pot while on the stove and I used the All in One to blend a light banana smoothie without ice in a jug. I benchmarked this against the Smeg '50s-style Hand Blender, which offers a similar array of attachments and features.
Anyone who enjoys a bit of kitchen craft knows just how useful a food processor can be for boosting your culinary skills. However, if you don't get into the kitchen often, it’s the kind of thing that's not necessarily top of mind, something that takes up a lot of space. If that describes you, you're probably better off with a more lightweight solution like the Breville All in One stick mixer.
Sure, the motor isn’t as powerful as what you’ll get on top-shelf food processors or blenders, but this one device performs a much wider range of tasks and occupies a smaller overall footprint in your kitchen. The Breville All in One can be a food processor, a masher, an immersion blender or a whisk thanks to a quick-release motor handle that attaches to various tool heads.
Obviously any tool’s usefulness will depend on the types of food you gravitate towards when cooking, and kitchen appliances that try to do too many things can often end up doing them all poorly, but the All in One strikes an excellent balance between versatility and usefulness that makes it an exceptionally helpful tool in a wide array of circumstances. This makes it an excellent base accessory for any home cook – I think it’s unlikely to sit in the cupboard unused for long periods of time.
This diversity can mean it gets overlooked since there really isn't one specific task you absolutely need it for… but it’s such a versatile tool that it’s helpful for the average cook and it’ll remain useful even if they do invest further in more capable appliances for tasks requiring more powerful and dedicated devices.
There really is value here for most home cooks and its starting price isn't too bad either.
(Image credit: Future - Joel Burgess)
Breville the All in One review: Price and availability
Available in the US and Australia
List price: $159.95 / AU$269
The All in One Stick Mixer is available in both the US and Australia Breville online stores for $159.95 / AU$269, but isn't listed in the UK's Sage online store at the time of writing.
It might be worth checking out TechRadar’s jug vs immersion blender explainer page to see if you’re more likely to need a dedicated blender than what is on offer here, but for anyone who frequently mashes, grates, slices, chops, whisks and blends food, it’s hard to imagine that this device won’t come in handy for a multitude of applications.
While you can get basic food processors for less than this price point, they’re unlikely to offer any more power and will usually come with just the one dicing blade. The All in One has grating and slicing capabilities included alongside the standard food processing capabilities that practically justifies the price tag on its own.
You will only have basic blending capabilities, so I wouldn’t really consider this to be a blender replacement, but throw in the mashing and whisking tools and you have a tool with a heap of perks bundled in for an entry-level price.
(Image credit: Future - Joel Burgess)
Breville the All in One: specifications
Breville the All in One review: Design and features
Great entry-level food processor
Grating and slicing blades included
Also beats, blends and mashes
The 6-cup (1.6L) food processor bowl comes with a textured base to ensure chopped food doesn’t stick to the sides when using the S-blade attachment, and the reversible grating/ shredding disk saves you the hassle of having to manually grate vegetables for example.
The variable slicing blade for the food processor isn’t as refined as what you’ll be able to achieve on a mandolin, but it does have 18 adjustable thickness settings – from 0.5mm to 6mm – so you can cut perfectly uniform slices in seconds.
In addition to the food processing tools you also get a masher, a whisker and immersion blender heads. Each of these are pretty self-explanatory, and both the masher and whisker simply take some of the leg work out of processes you’d usually do by hand. While it doesn't always occur to the average home cook, but the stick nature of this appliance means it can be useful in several situations, meaning it will likely get used frequently.
There isn’t a jug accessory that comes bundled with the All in One like with some other stick blender kits, but it is an omission that most home cooks will be able to find a workaround solution for. This makes it a little less appealing as a proper blender solution, but when you consider its limitations with crushing ice you really do want something more dedicated if you’re going to be making a lot of smoothies. Blenders are also likely to be the most common device overlap here for products that people will already have, so it seems like a sensible omission.
(Image credit: Future - Joel Burgess)
Breville the All in One review: Performance
Decent food processing capabilities
Excellent mashing and whisking
Reasonable immersion blending
During my testing, I used the Breville All in One to dice ingredients for a batch of peanut butter protein balls, a job that killed the motor on a Smeg Hand Blender that I used previously. The Breville device offered less power than its similarly priced Smeg competitor, but it was able to fully process all the raw ingredients as well as mix the dense combination of highly viscose date, peanut butter and maple syrup concoction.
This task was definitely at the upper limits of what you’d want to use a handheld motor for, but the All in One proved perfectly capable of performing this task on this occasion. For those planning on regularly mixing batches of protein balls you might be better served by one of TechRadar’s best food processor, for a more powerful device.
(Image credit: Future - Joel Burgess)
I also used the grater/shredder to process a few hundred grams of Grana Padano and Parmigiano Reggiano for a cacio e pepe dish, a really simple task that would have been a lot more work using a hand grater. But just about every grating task is made infinitely simpler by the electric blade’s speed and consistency – once you have this tool in the kitchen it’s hard to imagine having to go back to manual grating.
The immersion blender works well enough as a traditional blender. You might want something a little more serious if you’re regularly trying to crush ice, but the All in One is more than capable of blending the vast majority of soups or smoothies.
Where the immersion blender shines is when you need to refine a sauce into a smoother consistency – you can simply plunge it into hot liquids rather than waiting for sauces to cool enough to put in a food processor.
The masher is great for anyone who likes a good potato mash (or anyone that makes their own baby food) and the whisk comes in handy a lot for baking and other egg-based recipes.
(Image credit: Future - Joel Burgess)
Should you buy the All in One from Breville?
Buy it if...
Don't buy it if...
Also consider
How I tested: Breville the All in One
I used the All in One for a month
I used it as my primary food processor
I tested all the other features and functionalities
I tested the Breville All in One by using it over a month with general kitchen tasks like grating cheeses and vegetables, and other food processing tasks like dicing nuts and combining date and peanut butter protein balls. I also used the device on multiple occasions to mash potato, plus whisked eggs and other ingredients for baked goods.
The immersion blender capabilities came in handy when I refining a beef brisket sauce in a pot while on the stove and I used the All in One to blend a light banana smoothie without ice in a jug. I benchmarked this against the Smeg '50s-style Hand Blender, which offers a similar array of attachments and features.
