Elegant, abundant and innovative. These are the three words to describe the OnePlus Open Apex Edition, the Chinese company’s foldable in the new Crimson Shadow version. Beautiful to look at but also to touch because the dimensions are generous, but the build quality is excellent. This is thanks to materials such as leather, chosen to combine OnePlus’ classic red with the Hasselblad 503CW 60 Years Victor Red Edition, a medium format analogue camera produced by Victor Hasselblad and renowned for its quality, versatility and reliability (which fetches stratospheric prices on eBay, with proposals of up to €20,000).

‘The Hasselblad 503CW 60 Years Victor Red Edition is a true icon, especially with its legendary burgundy red leather accents that contrast beautifully with the other silver metal elements. It’s great to see the same combination again on a OnePlus smartphone,’ said Bronius Rudnickas, Hasselblad Global Marketing Director. For the uninitiated, the Apex Edition is a tribute to the camera, an icon of analogue photography.

Like a flat smartphone

If first impressions count, the OnePlus Open Apex Edition has few rivals. Because build quality is its best calling card. It weighs 239 grams, just 18 grams more than the iPhone 15 Pro Max, but thanks to the clever distribution of physical buttons on the two sides, it is easy to handle, sometimes even with one hand when closed. The feel is pleasant, especially on the b-side where there is the aluminium casing, the vegan leather and the impressive triple rear camera block.

Very nice to look at, but with that bulk it causes the phone to become unstable when resting it on a plane. The design is overall promoted, not least because of the phone’s mere 5.8 millimetres thickness when open, which becomes 11.9 millimetres when folded. I was impressed by the hinge, which allows you to open the smartphone like a book and is only noticeable if you fix your gaze on it because, in everyday use, it is hardly noticeable.

Two first-class screens

The Oled screens are good, with the outer 6.31-inch one offering a 7.82-inch panel when opened. The 120Hz refresh rate, excellent visibility, and reading outdoors are two other important elements that should be evaluated in the displays. In the user experience, the integration between the two displays should be highlighted because a task started on the external display can be continued by opening the phone on a larger surface that provides more space and a better view.

Little can be said about performance, thanks to the presence of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and a memory capable of lightening any effort in terms of consumption and storage: 16GB of RAM, up to 1TB of storage. The 4,800 mAh battery makes it through the day, but that is not the best quality of the OnePlus Open Crimson Shadow, which comes with a 67W charger (recharges up to 50% in less than 20 minutes) and a cover to match the colour of the phone.

Telephoto makes a difference

So far, one of the most obvious limitations of foldable has been the camera, but OnePlus is trying to rewrite history with its triple rear lens. The 48-megapixel main camera adds a 48MP ultra-wide-angle and a 64MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom. Numbers aside, the result is clean shots during the day and at night. However, among the three cameras, the telephoto camera stands out in quality, rendering detail even at a very high zoom. On the front side, there is either a 20MP camera on the internal display (so you have to open the phone for a selfie) or a 32MP camera on the external display. Basically, beyond the choice, pictures and video (4k at 60 fps) are very good.

VIP Mode

The OnePlus foldable brings a couple of interesting novelties. The first concerns security and privacy, thanks to a chip that offers independent and physically isolated storage, providing exclusive protection for important files and personal information. The second is VIP mode, which is activated via the Alert Slider located on the left side of the smartphone when open. In this mode, all of the phone’s microphones and cameras are disabled, and advertising tracking is restricted via security chip-powered authorisation encryption, thus preventing chat information from being viewed or recorded by apps without authorisation.

AI for editing images

Last but not least, because indeed, the technology at the moment is AI. With features to edit images, although these are options already seen on phones launched in recent years, the first is AI Eraser, with which to remove unwanted elements from the shot. Whether people, animals or objects, simply circle or highlight the element to be removed, with AI automatically filling in the blank space. Cropping objects in photos and creating customised stickers are the purposes of AI Smart Cutout, which, with just a few clicks, allows you to change the photograph and perfect it however you like.

Price

Coming with Android 14 with OxygenOS 14.0 interface, OnePlus Open Apex Edition counts on a three-year software update and four-year security patch plan. No price has yet been specified, which could vary between European countries. Bearing in mind that OnePlus’ foldable in Voyager Black and Emerald Dusk colours was launched at €1,849 in the 16GB + 512GB version, which these days is discounted to €1,499.