ISSUE 65 • ANDROID ADVISOR 83BUYING GUIDESoftware
Let’s wrap it all up on a high note. As ever, OnePlus
excels on the software side – Oxygen OS is probably
our favourite Android skin, and the only one that’s
arguably better than Google’s own efforts on the
Pixel phones.
The look is close to stock, but with usability
tweaks across the board and subtle UI tweaks to
smooth over some of Android’s rough edges. Not
everything is perfect – swiping up for back remains
one of the less intuitive gesture controls out there,
and the lack of a true always-on display is still a
frustration, but for the most part this is about as good
as Android gets. Tweaks this year are mostly minor,
but welcome. There’s a built-in screen recorder in
case you want to share footage direct from your
phone, which lets you record for as long as you
want, pausing and resuming at any point, and record
either internal or external sound.
The full-screen means no room for a notification
LED, so instead OnePlus has turned to a software
solution: the sides of the display will pulse with light
when a notification comes through, with the colour
actually determined by the app in question. It’s a nice
touch, but still easy to miss, as the light only pulses
once – it won’t keep flashing after the fact, as a
normal LED might. That could get annoying of course,
not to mention drain the battery, which is likely why
OnePlus opted to avoid it.
Gaming mode has had an upgrade to give more
granular notification controls, and there’s even an
enhanced version – branded by the e-sports teamISSUE 65 • ANDROID ADVISOR 83BUYING GUIDESoftware
Let’s wrap it all up on a high note. As ever, OnePlus
excels on the software side – Oxygen OS is probably
our favourite Android skin, and the only one that’s
arguably better than Google’s own efforts on the
Pixel phones.
The look is close to stock, but with usability
tweaks across the board and subtle UI tweaks to
smooth over some of Android’s rough edges. Not
everything is perfect – swiping up for back remains
one of the less intuitive gesture controls out there,
and the lack of a true always-on display is still a
frustration, but for the most part this is about as good
as Android gets. Tweaks this year are mostly minor,
but welcome. There’s a built-in screen recorder in
case you want to share footage direct from your
phone, which lets you record for as long as you
want, pausing and resuming at any point, and record
either internal or external sound.
The full-screen means no room for a notification
LED, so instead OnePlus has turned to a software
solution: the sides of the display will pulse with light
when a notification comes through, with the colour
actually determined by the app in question. It’s a nice
touch, but still easy to miss, as the light only pulses
once – it won’t keep flashing after the fact, as a
normal LED might. That could get annoying of course,
not to mention drain the battery, which is likely why
OnePlus opted to avoid it.
Gaming mode has had an upgrade to give more
granular notification controls, and there’s even an
enhanced version – branded by the e-sports team