OxygenOS 16 is the current significant OS release from OnePlus. Developed on top of the brand-new Android 16 base os, OxygenOS 16 is a development of the concepts presented with OxygenOS 15, consisting of parallel processing for UI animations, brand-new AI performance, and enhanced interconnectivity with other platforms.
We had a possibility to evaluate the beta variation of the OS on the OnePlus 13s ahead of launch, however these observations ought to use to the last variation on other gadgets.
Style
Beginning with the style of ‘evolutionary, not innovative’we have the style. The distinctions from OxygenOS 15 are subtle, needing a 2nd look, and even a 3rd, to identify.
For beginners, a handful of app icons are various. This consists of the similarity Clock, Camera, and Settings. A minimum of these are the ones you’ll see, as others like Calculator, Weather, and My Files are so discreetly various that you ‘d require to bust out the magnifying glass.
OxygenOS 16 – OxygenOS 15
Mentioning apps, there is likewise a brand-new app drawer now. You can change in between an all-app view and iOS-style classification, and you can quickly change in between the 2 by swiping sideways. The search bar has actually been relocated to an easier area at the bottom.
App drawer
The homescreen and lockscreen now include included customizability. Folders on the homescreen have 3 various designs that differ in appearance, however likewise in the number of apps you can release without opening the folder. App icons can now be broadened to use up more area; the user is complimentary to change from 1×1, 1×2, 2×1, or 2×2 sizes for them. In 2×2 mode, you can likewise designate extra functions to the icon from the app.
On the OnePlus 13s that we checked on, you can now likewise select a brand-new 5×7 grid design for the homescreen icons along with the previous 4×6 and 5×6 alternatives. If you conceal the icon names, you can select from 4×7 or a brand-new 5×9 grid. These alternatives might possibly be various on other gadgets.
Homescreen
The lockscreen most likely sees the most significant visual modification on the system, offered you tailor it. OxygenOS 16 features a wonderful set of brand-new clocks and visual results to jazz up your lockscreen, and the OS makes fantastic usage of maker finding out to thoroughly position on-screen components behind crucial parts of your wallpaper for a three-dimensional impact. You can likewise utilize videos or live pictures as wallpaper to develop a lot more striking result.
Along with the numerous clock and text products, you can now likewise position widgets on the lockscreen, so you can look at info or launch particular app functions without having to get to the homescreen.
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Lockscreen
You can likewise have the lockscreen be your always-on display screen, however in a dimmed state. The term ‘always-on’is utilized loosely here, as this screen does not remain on for longer than a couple of seconds, and there is no method to keep it made it possible for completely.
The lockscreen modification in OxygenOS 16 has the exact same constraint as in the past, which is that the choices you have actually readily available are restricted to that particular style. Specific styles will use you the huge clocks, however others do not, and there’s no chance to simply put whatever you desire on screen despite your base style. If you never ever go into the Flux styles menu, you may not even see a few of the cooler personalization alternatives that the OS needs to provide, just due to the fact that they aren’t present on the default style.
. As a side note, you can > now go into lockscreen customizability straight from the homescreen, without needing to dig through the settings initially, which is excellent when you rapidly wish to alter the appearance of your phone.
The Quick Settings are now more adjustable if you utilize the Split view. You can now even move or eliminate system tiles, such as the brightness and volume bar, and change them with something else. There are more tiles readily available now to select from, so you can have precisely the important things you desire without any set products.
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Quick settings
OxygenOS 16 likewise has a brand-new swipe animation for navigation gestures, however it remains in beta for some factor and handicapped by default. You require to go to Settings > System & upgrade > System navigation and after that scroll all the method to the bottom to allow it. When made it possible for, you get an iOS-style swipe animation when you swipe in from the edge to return. Rather of simply performing the back swipe function, this function lets you slowly relapse the existing screen and peek at the previous screen, or perhaps cancel the gesture by reversing the movement. We simply kept it on, and the UI felt visibly more fluid as an outcome.
< img alt="New swipe animation" width ="215" height ="466" src="https://fdn.gsmarena.com/imgroot/news/25/10/oxygenos-16-review/inline/-215/gsmarena_021.jpg">
New swipe animation
The last significant element of the visual upgrade is all the bits of Liquid Glass components peppered throughout the OS. You understood it was coming, which it was just a matter of time before Android OEMs overthrew their whole style language to make their software application appear like iOS 26, so this truly should not be a surprise. In OxygenOS 16, OnePlus has actually restricted its usage to choose products, such as the digits in the Calculator app or the passcode screen, the buttons on the lockscreen, and the Close button in the job supervisor. It’s unclear if this is done to keep the impact subtle or since there was merely no time at all to incorporate it into more locations before release.
As you can most likely envision, it watches out of location thinking about the style language of OxygenOS 16 has absolutely nothing in typical with iOS 26, which was developed from the ground up to be utilized with Liquid Glass. Nor is the impact done in addition to Apple’s GPU-intensive theatrics. The just great glass result in OxygenOS 16 is the brand-new charging animation, which is rather striking.
Liquid Glass influenced components
You can most likely anticipate more Liquid Glass advancement in future variations of OxygenOS, or perhaps other Android skins, for that matter. Honestly, we ‘d be shocked if that didn’t end up being the case.
Animations
While basically an element of the style, the animations on OxygenOS 16 do deserve their own area.
With OxygenOS 15, OnePlus presented the idea of parallel processing for the homescreen animations, which permitted them to run separately of one another in different procedures. A user might therefore activate an animation and after that another one in fast succession, and the 2nd animation would play out instantly without needing to await the very first one to end up.
At the time this was launched, the result appeared subtle at best, specifically thinking about how performance-optimized animations in OxygenOS were to start with. Over time, we have actually come to value them more, specifically when changing to another gadget.
With OxygenOS 16, OnePlus is bringing parallel processing to a lot more circumstances within the UI. OnePlus is calling this Parallel Processing 2.0, and it is now readily available for the three-button navigation, the Shelf, app drawer, and more. OnePlus is likewise presenting a brand-new animation innovation called Flow Motion that is everything about the shifts in between various parts of the UI and applications.
The apparent location you see this is with the brand-new lockscreen. When once again, you require to change to among the good styles, once done, you will be welcomed with sensational animations where the wallpaper and products on the lockscreen with dignity shift to the homescreen. It assisted that our OnePlus 13s had the ability to perform these shifts without missing out on a beat at the complete 120Hz, however it would be intriguing to see how well they work and if they are even readily available at all on lower-end Nord gadgets.
Even outside of the more apparent locations, OxygenOS 16 glides like an adroit figure skater on ice. There is no friction or doubt seen anywhere, and it seems like your phone sneakily got its refresh rate bumped up even beyond 120Hz. We can’t wait to see how this searches the supposed 165Hz of the OnePlus 15, where the icons would likely simply move off the screen. That is presuming OnePlus really lets the users gain access to the complete 165Hz beyond choose apps and video games.
Apps
OxygenOS 16 has primarily the exact same apps as its predecessor. Many of them likewise look and work the exact same, so you are not going to feel much of a modification when you go past the icon.
There are a couple of brand-new apps here. OnePlus has actually lastly included a Compass, which comes in handy. The old Games app has actually been changed with a brand-new Game Assistant, which primarily works the exact same however has an extremely gamery visual that’s a bit ugly. There is a Videos app as seen on Oppo and Realme phones. It plays regional video however actually simply exists to serve you more video material and advertisements.
< img alt="New apps" width ="215" height="466" src="https://fdn.gsmarena.com/imgroot/news/25/10/oxygenos-16-review/inline/-215/gsmarena_029.jpg">
New apps
Did we truly require more system-level apps that can not quickly be uninstalled? Most likely not. Is OnePlus going to do something about the reality that there are now 2 contact apps, 2 file supervisors, 2 image galleries, 2 web browsers, and 2 app shops? Certainly not.
Connection
OxygenOS 16 likewise brings with it enhanced cross-platform connection. A great deal of the functions here, such as having the ability to link to and manage your tablet or PC from the phone, are readily available. The O + Connect app for Mac and Windows likewise enables accessing the files on the phone through your PC. It’s simply that these choices are now provided in a far more sophisticated method on the phone within the Device Connect menu.
OnePlus has actually been promoting much better connection with Apple items for a couple of years now. Part of that is the O + Connect app for the Mac, as pointed out above. The other part is setting up the iOS equivalent of that app on an iPhone and having the ability to share material with a OnePlus phone with the familiar bumping of the top of the phones.
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Connection alternatives
The current effort in this one-sided love affair with Apple is having the ability to link your Apple Watch with a OnePlus phone. Yes, you check out that right; you can now link an Apple Watch with a OnePlus phone and get alerts, messages, and contacts the watch from your OnePlus phone. Furthermore, you will likewise have the ability to sync your exercise records, from another location manage the phone’s cam, and utilize the’ Find My Phone ‘function to make the phone ring. All of this can be done by setting up the OHealth app on the watch.
As excited as we were to attempt this function, we did not have an Apple Watch convenient at the time of composing. This leaves us with a couple of concerns, such as how well the function works, if you still require to have an iPhone around, and what occurs when Apple ultimately learns about this and takes a hatchet to the OnePlus workaround with a well-placed software application upgrade that disables this performance completely.
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