The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 already has stiff competition in the UK if you want a cutting-edge booky-style folding phone, with excellent alternatives from Honor, Google and OnePlus, with the OnePlus Open being Express.co.uk’s pick of the bunch with a superlative mix of design, build quality, software touches and camera performance - and now OnePlus has announced a special edition called the OnePlus Open Apex Edition.

The new model of the Open comes ten months after the original’s October 2023 release and though OnePlus is waiting to announce the phone’s full details till 7 August, the firm is promising “enhanced storage, AI image editing features, and innovative security features”.

More obvious is the Crimson Shadow colour, which joins the existing green and black models. It certainly stands out with a vegan leather finish that OnePlus says is a callback to the Hasselblad 503CW 60 Years Victor Red Edition - as if we knew what that was.

A cursory Google search tells us it was a special edition film camera made in 2008 to celebrate Hasselblad’s 60th anniversary. The legendary camera brand is a partner of OnePlus, and helps tune the look of photos on the OnePlus Open, which in our review of the phone we found to be truly excellent. The Open is head and shoulders above Samsung’s Z Fold 6 when it comes to photography, even though the latter phone is months newer.

"The OnePlus Open is a flagship foldable masterpiece boldly integrating our most cutting-edge technology," said Kinder Liu, President and COO of OnePlus. "Since its launch last year, the series has received widespread acclaim from users worldwide, disrupting the status quo and transforming the foldable experience. With the updated OnePlus Open Apex Edition, we continue to push boundaries with enhanced features, delivering a luxurious experience that embodies our 'Never Settle' mantra."

The Crimson Shadow version has a polished silver frame and an orange accent on its alert slider, the much-loved physical switch most OnePlus phones have that let you toggle between Ring, Vibrate and Silent modes.

OnePlus says it will reveal the price and full specs of the Apex Edition on Wednesday 7 August. We hope it doesn’t cost more than the £1,599 regular Open, which at the time of writing is down to £1,399 when you buy from OnePlus’s UK website. But the company is hinting it’ll have boosted storage and features, which could bump up the price.

Either way, it’s likely to undercut the £1,799 Z Fold 6, which we feel is too overpriced considering the OnePlus Open has it beat for design and cameras, while the Honor Magic V2 has a much slimmer and pocketable build.

Express.co.uk is hoping to check out the new Apex Edition at some point soon, so we’ll report back on whether it improves upon the original that we gave a glowing four-and-a-half-star review to last year.