OnePlus Unveils Open Apex Edition with Exclusive Features

With a Crimson Shadow finish that has not been seen on any other device, a new Alert Slider design, 1TB of internal storage, and a VIP Mode that has been specially programmed. The OnePlus Open Apex Edition.

The OnePlus Open has long been my favourite foldable phone heading into 2023, as I think it’s especially on the money for a premium Android smartphone. The Open is in need of a refresh, and early rumours suggest that the replacement model – a OnePlus Open 2, perhaps? – might indeed be delayed into Q1 2025. With competitors having refreshed their book-style foldables, OnePlus still needs something to keep it in the headlines. The OnePlus Open Apex Edition remains this puzzle’s missing piece – borrowing over the most impactful of changes from the original and much-adored One.

Limited to just 300 units, the device is available in a new Crimson Shadow color that is probably best described as a rich, wine red or dark burgundy. Its colour is found on the back and encircles the camera ring – from the rear of the device.

OnePlus says the colour is inspired by the Hasselblad 503CW 60 Years Victor Red Edition, which, again, I know absolutely nothing about apart from the fact that the OnePlus Open Apex Edition is unquestionably very nice-looking indeed.

The mid-frame has been given a highly reflective and smooth gloss look that’s chrome-like in its appearance (though prone to very visible fingerprints) but which is quite easy to wipe clean. With this faux leather vibe going for the Open Apex Edition, it has that CMF (colour, materials and finish) that you’d expect for a true flagship phone that’s more than just a boring old slab of glass sandwich.

There is no other smartphone as gorgeous or unusual as the OnePlus Open Apex Edition in this distinctive red.

There’s even a box containing a case to match the phone’s red theme, although OnePlus’s power cable is similarly red but closer to reds found in the company’s logo than the Open Apex Edition, and the charging adapter is a conventional-looking white.

Another of the only ways you can distinguish this OnePlus Open Apex Edition from the regular OnePlus Open is by the words OnePlus Alert Slider along the bottom of the back of the phone, since the samething exists on the normal regular Open, but sans the textured pattern hinting at a strip of orange accent beneath that lifts it out of the otherwise totally black phone.

1TB storage

To further distinguish itself, however, the OnePlus Open Apex Edition ships with 1TB of storage, up from the 512GB UFS 4.0 internal storage that comes with the regular OnePlus Open.

The phone still has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, paired with 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM. That sounds like a good SoC still, even if the company has come out with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Were I fabbing a foldable phone, I’d probably want the latest SoC, but it makes sense that the company might wait to give an SoC upgrade to the sequel to this foldable, not just a variant.

VIP Mode to instantly revoke camera and microphone permissions of all apps

Few people are aware that the original OnePlus Open design had an independent security chip on board simply called GSEA0. Its specs are an ARM SC300 Core clocked at 96MHz and 1.5MB of user-available flash memory, which is used for biometric data encryption, file encryption protection, system secret keys and lost phone protection.

Beside the security chip runs the VIP mode of the OnePlus Open Apex Edition, assigned to the top lever of the Alert Slider.

When turned on, VIP mode prevents applications from accessing the camera and microphone by essentially blocking them at the software level: that is, even if an app was already accessing your camera or microphone when VIP mode is activated, it will still be prevented from doing so.

You could accomplish the same through revoking all apps access to your cameras and microphone, but VIP lets you disable these shortcuts with a slide. There is no toggle in the settings app for turning on VIP – you have to access it through the Alert Slider, the only way to switch this mode on. I was unable to see any way to remap the Alert Slider, either – in case you don’t care about the VIP mode.

Oxygen OS 14 running on Android 14 will launch the OnePlus Open Apex Edition, which is set to receive three Android version upgrades and four years of security upgrades.

While that might look from the cowshed less than the four Android version upgrades and five years of security upgrades promised for the standard edition, its initial Android version (Android 13) was delivered out-of-the-box in October 2023, and since then it has received the other updated versions included in the software update promise. The standard edition is now left with three Android version upgrades and about four years of security patches.

In practice, since they are in practice exactly the same phone, the window of their software support is exactly the same, although the span of that support is different.

OnePlus Open Apex Edition pricing and availability

Sold in a sole 16GB RAM + 1TB storage unit, the OnePlus Open Apex Edition will retail for $1,899.99 / Rs. 1,49,999 via the OnePlus website and other retail partners, with limited units of the phone being made available across the US from 8 August 2024, as long as stock lasts. To make your purchase a wee bit sweeter, one can activate the code 1TBFORLIFE at checkout to get a $300 discount. The company will also be offering the pre-order gift of a Keyboard 81 Pro (worth $219) and, in case you don’t like the idea of typing on a keyboard that much, you could always go for swapping the keyboard for OnePlus Buds Pro 2 (worth $180) instead.

The Apex Edition will be available in India from 10 August 2024. You can enjoy discounts up to Rs. 20,000 on the phone with partner bank cards. For EU, details regarding pricing and availability will be announced on August 27.

The 13in base version with 512GB storage, for example, costs $ 1,699.99 / Rs 1,39,999, though at times the price goes down with deals.