You no longer have to buy a OnePlus 5 in a shade of black; because OnePlus has launched a limited edition soft gold colored model, and we’re here to tell you it’s a real beauty. Much as we like the stealthy midnight black version, the more glitzy gold OnePlus 5 is an eye-catching delight, and like many shiny things, it’s going to be very difficult to resist.
The soft gold OnePlus 5 continues a tradition for the company, and we’ve seen the color on the OnePlus 3 and the OnePlus 3T in the past. It’s not the only limited edition color it has produced either. The midnight black color that’s now standard on the OnePlus 5 arrived on the OnePlus 3T just before it came to the end of its life this year, too.
We’ve been handling (and loving) the soft gold OnePlus 5 for a few days, and this is what it’s like. It has the same soft texture as the midnight black OnePlus 5, and the antenna bands are in a contrasting color to maintain a consistent look; but the front bezels are in white. The black versions of the OnePlus 5 have black bezels. There’s gold accent colors around the fingerprint sensor on the front, and a raised camera lens on the back, which catches the light very attractively.
Our delight at the soft gold color has created a dilemma. Choosing the new soft gold OnePlus 5 means selecting the phone with 64GB of internal memory and 6GB of RAM. While obviously not an underpowered device, it’s unfortunate that power-fiends can’t have the best color on the best version of the OnePlus 5.
More memory and more RAM means your phone will last longer, don’t forget. Does it make any difference to performance? It’s certainly not immediately obvious, and AnTuTu benchmark tests on both the 8GB and 6GB models showed a consistent score of between 175,000 and 183,000 for both. We don’t think you’ll notice much in the real world. If the 8GB/128GB version is for you, then to coincide with the soft gold OnePlus 5’s announcement, OnePlus has also added the slate grey color option to the $540 phone.
OnePlus hasn’t altered the price for the soft gold OnePlus 5. It’s $480, or 450 British pounds, and is available to buy from August 8. This is a limited edition though, so it won’t be around forever, despite OnePlus not announcing how many will be produced. The midnight black OnePlus 3T sold out in a short time, for example. If your finger is hovering over the buy button, make sure you check our review of the OnePlus 5 before you make the final decision.
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