A look at the new ‘Sandstone White’ OnePlus 5T

Next week, OnePlus is adding a new addition to its 5T lineup.

On January 9th, the company will start selling a new ‘sandstone white’ OnePlus 5T, available in limited qualities and only when consumers upgrade to the more expensive $729 5T model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage.

OnePlus says the manufacturing process involved in making the sandstone white 5T — all told, there are four separate processes that take about 75 minutes per phone from start to finish to achieve the finish — makes it the most expensive OnePlus phone to date.

Thankfully, OnePlus is selling the 128GB model in sandstone white for the same price as the same model in midnight black.

If the sandstone white 5T looks familiar, it’s because OnePlus recently released a Star Wars-themed 5T in India that featured the exact same finish.

For OnePlus, re-purposing a special edition colour has become an old trick. That’s how OnePlus fans got the company’s now standard ‘midnight black’ colour.

Toward the end of the 3T’s shelf life, OnePlus partnered with Parisian fashion boutique to release 250 special edition 3T smartphones that featured a new ‘midnight black’ colour and Colette logo. OnePlus later manufactured a small number of 3Ts that featured the new black colour without any of Colette’s branding.

In terms of look and feel, the sandstone white 5T is probably the best phone OnePlus has released over its short history. The finish, which mimics the company’s sandstone cases, feels fantastic. Best of all, it makes the phone virtually immune to fingerprints and smudges.

I will say both the black buttons and red alert slider are a bit too reminiscent of the sandstone white 5T’s past as a marketing tie-in with the new Star Wars movie. However, the phone still looks very attractive overall.

The sandstone white 5T goes on sale on Tuesday, January 9th, at 10am ET.