A week after its promised announcement, OnePlus has officially launched OxygenOS 15, the latest iteration of its smartphone (and tablet) user experience on the international scene, and it is one of the first to arrive based on the latest Android 15, itself released back in mid-October.
The theme of the new operating system is “speed meets AI”, building on the company’s long-standing commitment to providing a “fast and smooth” software experience across all of its devices.
In a nutshell, AI underpins new capabilities focused on creativity, productivity and security. Well, it’s 2024 after all.
Here’s a look at the biggest upgrades featured in OxygenOS 15, which is expected to debut on the OnePlus 12 on October 30 (with some AI features not arriving until November) and is expected to arrive on the other current list of the company’s phones and tablets. the weeks and months to come.
We assume it will also come with the upcoming OnePlus 13.
Fast and smooth
To meet OxygenOS’ core principle of ensuring a fast and smooth experience, a unique upgrade to this upcoming (at the time of writing) version of Android is called Parallel processing.
As the name suggests, this alternative approach to system animations follows the six steps that Android usually uses when you touch the screen to, say, open an app (Response > Activate > Draw > Render > Refresh > Schedule) and can now execute the first. two steps of the process simultaneously, if you change your mind and device to open an app almost immediately, for example.
Previously, the user experience had to render these six steps before executing the next action you’re trying to perform, but with parallel processing, the system can resolve the first app launch you changed your mind about , without this impacting the launch of the second action you wanted to execute.
It’s an almost imperceptible change in the side-by-side examples at this point, but it provides smoother visual navigation, without affecting OxygenOS’ famous vivid animation style. Plus, it will likely help phones maintain their responsive feel for longer than they would have if they had remained on OxygenOS 14 or earlier.
Second, using the OnePlus 12 as a guinea pig again, OxygenOS 15 also takes up around 20% less storage space than the previous version, meaning more user-accessible space for apps and media, while benefiting from new features.
Creativity
OnePlus reportedly took user feedback into account to inform visual adjustments made in OxygenOS 15; from a first configuration experience with more personality to a more rounded iconography; intended to provide a more “friendly” feel.
OnePlus created a sort of reverse iOS by removing color and visual clutter from the settings menu, adding gradients and greater definition to widgets on The Shelf, while reworking the physics of UI elements ; how they react to taps, swipes, the paths they take on the screen, and more.
OnePlus
With the aim of offering users a more personal lock screen while maintaining its functionality, OnePlus OneTake (pictured above) can separate the chosen subject from a photo and place it on a cleaner, complementary graphic background, which also complements phones that support AOD (always-on display).
The excellent Open canvas The multitasking experience that we first encountered on the OnePlus Open foldable and has since arrived on the OnePlus Pad 2 tablet is also set to grace conventional candy bar-style OnePlus phones with OxygenOS 15.
Hannah Cowton / Foundry
On the image editing side, OnePlus had already started adding AI-based features to its devices, with tools like AI Eraser, AI Clear Face and AI Best Face arriving over the past few months, but a Another trio of features in the same vein has landed. with OxygenOS 15 to try to keep up with the Google Pixel 9.
Unblurring AI aims to do as the name suggests and remove blur, not only from photos captured on your OnePlus device, but from any images you throw at it.
AI Thinking Eraser lets you capture clearer photos through windows and the like, with results that appear to outperform those of similar features from competing brands (at least according to our first look at the technology.
Lately, Improved AI details acts as a resolution upscaler, ideal for cropping shots while avoiding pixelation, with the AI taking into account lost details if necessary.
Productivity
One of the coolest new additions coming to OxygenOS 15 has to be Share with iPhonewhich finally seeks to overcome the wireless file transfer barrier established by AirDrop.
Google and Samsung have collaborated to bring its QuickShare standard to virtually every modern Android device, alongside Windows PCs, while Apple’s equivalent technology – AirDrop – remains exclusive to products and operating systems in Apple’s walled garden .
Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd
The O+Connect app that facilitates this new “Share with iPhone” feature is already available in preview on the AppStore and appears to finally allow users on both sides of the fence to transfer files between each other seamlessly.
Unlike QuickShare, this is not an Android-wide addition, but expands beyond OnePlus devices, to also include Oppo and Realme phones (other brands that also belong to the family BBK Electronics).
Similar to what we saw with Honor’s MagicOS 8 and Samsung’s One UI 6.1, trained on Google’s Gemini models, OxygenOS 15’s Notes app now contains its own AI assistant, which can summarize your copy in the form of succinct bullet points and can even remove it from automatically transcribed voice recordings.
Additionally, you can have it clean up your scribbles, removing filler words and the like, polish existing copy for easy reading, continue writing based on the context of what is already written, and expand or shorten specified sections of copy, as you wish.
In messaging, you can also use the new AI response functionality to generate replies, based on the context of your current message thread, with tone suggestions giving you choices on how to continue the conversation, again similar to what Samsung launched earlier this year.
Smart Search also leverages your device’s system-wide search. This upgrade can scan all your local files and display specific information from notes, spreadsheets and more. Unlike some of the features shown here, however, it’s not expected to debut until the OnePlus 13 arrives.
Security
Running on Android 15, OxygenOS 15 naturally also benefits from the former’s upgrades, which is particularly evident when it comes to security.
Enhanced protection with live threat detection, powered by Google Play Protect, is part of the experience, meaning the system analyzes unusual app behavior and also checks for malicious apps or code.
One of the most ambitious upgrades is theft protection, which goes as far as allowing your device to detect when it has been snatched from your hands by a thief, at which point it enters locked mode, to protect your data.
OnePlus was a little gray on the details of how exactly this works and how it discerns any type of sudden movement when your phone is grabbed from your hands, against a device thrown on a couch, or carried in your hand or in the pocket while you are. running, so it will be interesting to see how often this addition is mistakenly triggered by users.
You can also expect remote locking, without the need to use your Google account credentials (a phone number is enough) and offline device protection, which prevents thieves from Extract data from a stolen device intentionally kept in airplane mode or out of range. cellular or WiFi signal.
Biometric authentication is also being added at more points throughout the user experience, beyond the lock screen; prevent unwanted users from disabling theft protection in the Find My Device app, for example.
If you decide to install OxygenOS 15 for yourself, don’t forget to also try typing “1+=” in the calculator app. Yeah. It’s back.
These are the phones that receive Android 15 first.
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