Regardless that Oppo, Realme and OnePlus name their proprietary Android skins with totally different names, the three UIs feel and appear the identical and provide the identical set of options and just about the identical consumer expertise, a lot to the frustration of long-time OnePlus customers who nonetheless mourn a few of Oxygen OS’s proprietary options.
Nonetheless, no matter which one of many three manufacturers your telephone comes from, you’ll get pleasure from a largely clean and feature-rich expertise.
In comparison with the older ColorOS 13/OxygenOS 13/Realme UI 4.0, the brand new Android 14-based ColorOS 14/OxygenOS 14/Realme UI 5.0 variations provide few user-facing modifications. We’ll cowl these as we go.
Lock display screen, house display screen, All the time-on show
You’d really feel proper at house in case you’ve ever used one of many three working methods. There are not any notable modifications to the way you navigate or how the UI seems to be. You get a typical app drawer by default and a well-known notification shade with fast toggles.
Residence display screen • Notification shade • Latest apps menu
Most of the UI components are customizable – fonts, icons, accent colours and even the form of the short toggles within the notification shade.
UI customization choices
The All the time-on show perform provides all kinds of customizations as effectively.
All the time-on show
A well known function by this level is the flexibility to launch an app by holding down the fingerprint reader when unlocking. A pop-up menu with apps of your selection opens up. Oppo/OnePlus/Realme pioneered this function, and we’re completely satisfied to see it nonetheless round.
Fast Launch fingerprint function
Gestures and navigation
Navigation is fairly commonplace – you possibly can select between gestures and software program buttons. The gesture navigation could be tailor-made to your desire – sensitivity for the again gestures with separate granular management over the left and proper edge, hiding the gesture information bar, and so on.
System navigation choices
Some further gestures are additionally at hand – screen-off gestures to launch apps by drawing letters on a locked display screen, lifting the telephone to your ear to reply, and auto switching to the earpiece if related to Bluetooth. On sure Realme/OnePlus/Oppo gadgets, often higher-end handsets, you possibly can management the telephone from afar with Air gestures.
Display screen-off gestures and Air gestures
Multitasking and productiveness options
As most Android overlays these days, the trio has a handful of options appropriate for multitasking. You could have the usual Break up View (two apps opened on the display screen concurrently), Versatile Window (open apps in interactive small home windows, you possibly can maintain a handful opened at a time) and Sensible Sidebar (choose apps and instruments of your selection so you possibly can launch them by pulling out the bar from the facet edge).
Multitasking choices
The Sidebar will get a brand new function of its personal, although. Now you can save any kind of file to the File Dock and entry it anytime. A Latest Recordsdata listing can be accessible.
Final however not least, a Sensible Contact function lets you extract photos and textual content immediately from a screenshot, and it seems to be accessible solely on higher-end gadgets. Nevertheless, the built-in Google Lens performance can do this for you, even when your Oppo/Realme/OnePlus telephone does not assist Sensible Contact.
Notifications
Notification options are fairly commonplace and easy, though there are notable exceptions. The Sensible notification hiding, for instance, is a cool privateness function accessible on most Realme/Oppo/OnePlus gadgets, even on extra price range ones. Whenever you allow Face Unlock, the system will use your face’s knowledge to maintain your notifications non-public. As an illustration, if the front-facing digital camera catches another person your telephone, it’ll conceal the contents of the notification banner.
Notification-related options and customizations
Talking of banners, the system will present a few fast contextual actions so that you can select from immediately from the notification within the notification shade.
Sensible Ideas are pop-up banners that may additionally persist within the notification shade as common notifications. They supply real-time data relying on the state of affairs. For instance, it’ll maintain you posted about your meals supply, ride-hailing service, and so on. It’s also possible to enable them on the lock display screen and All the time-on show.
Sensible solutions
Sadly, the system does not assist good solutions from all apps, so your expertise might fluctuate.
Equally to Apple’s Dynamic Island, Oppo has applied some type of contextual bubbles. Oppo calls it Aqua Dynamics, and it really works with sure system apps, just like the recorder. A small bubble exhibits up on the standing bar, indicating that the recorder is lively. We could not make it work with the Music app, although, which is unlucky because it makes essentially the most sense to work with media gamers.
And in case you’re a OnePlus or Oppo Discover N3 gadget proprietor, you possibly can change between Ring mode, Vibrate mode and Silent mode on the fly through the use of the alert slider.
Multi-screen join
That is hardly a brand new function, nevertheless it provides an in depth listing of issues you are able to do by connecting your PC and telephone or one other Oppo/Realme/OnePlus gadget. You possibly can display screen forged, share information and multitask. Nevertheless, we discovered the connection course of to be extraordinarily tedious with a number of sign-ins and points when connecting a Realme to an Oppo smartphone, and you may’t use it along with your desktop PC if it does not have wi-fi adapters. It is a bizarre limitation given that each one gadgets are on the identical community. It is positively not an easy course of and it’s miles from Samsung’s DeX or Motorola’s Prepared For options.
Wrap-up
Though clean and feature-rich, ColorOS/OxygenOS/Realme UI is a bit behind the curve in terms of implementing the most recent Android modifications and stylish options. There are little to no modifications in the best way you need to use these three Android overlays and there are not any notable new options both. Whereas Samsung and Google are integrating AI-powered options into their very own variations of Android 14 and Xiaomi is revamping its MIUI 14 into HyperOS, Oppo, OnePlus, and Realme’s method is considerably stale.
