OnePlus 5T's hot new limited edition Sandstone White finish is launched

OnePlus has released a brand new colour scheme for the OnePlus 5T. Called Sandstone White, it combines the texture from the classic Sandstone Black phone finishes with the brilliant white colour of the limited Silk White OnePlus One from four years ago.

To achieve this new finish each cell phone parts is put through a 75 minute ordeal involving four high-precision processes. Firstly, a primer is applied before a white masking layer is coated onto the body. This second layer helps ensure the white colouring is truly opaque, completely covering the metal material.

After that, the phones are sandblasted with a mixture of white oil paint and minerals to give it its white finish and sandstone texture. Lastly, a UV layer is added to "refine" the way this finish feels.

The end result is a phone which feels different to pretty much any other phone out there. In the hand, its texture is nowhere near as rough as the older Sandstone Black phones and cases have been. It has the feel of a very smooth pebble, rather than sandpaper.

In contrast to the new brilliant white finish, the Sandstone White model comes with a bright red alert slider and black volume rocker, power button and SIM tray.

In essence then, this is the same look as the limited Star Wars editionthat launched exclusively in India last month, except without the official Star Wars logo stamped on the back.

To look at, it's certainly eye-catching. Very few phones on the market have this kind of matte white metal finish. In fact, perhaps the only notable device so far is the "Panda White" Pixel 2 XL. It's a finish that ensures your device stands out among the crowd of anodised metallic and shiny glass device.

For those of you who have followed OnePlus since the beginning, you'll know that the Sandstone texture has been a mainstay of the company's portfolio since the original OnePlus One.

The company's first ever smartphone came in a plastic Sandstone Black finish as standard, as did the OnePlus 2. After the switch to all-metal unibody design with the OnePlus 3, Sandstone Black was released in form of a plastic snap-on case, and has been available in this form with every phone since then. This is the first time a variation on the texture has been used on the metal body itself.

With this being a rather unique finish, it's no surprise to see only one spec configuration available at launch. You can now buy the Sandstone White OnePlus 5T with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage.

OnePlus is billing this as the "most expensive" finish it's created so far, but the etradesupply costs just the same as its spec-identical sibling. That means you'll be able to buy it for £499 in the UK, or $559 in the US, direct from OnePlus.net.