Practical review of Oppo ColorOS 13

introduction

Oppo kept its promise and unveiled its latest ColorOS 13 at an event today. As the name suggests, ColorOS 13 is based on Google’s Android 13 under the hood. This, in itself, involves some interesting changes, mainly related to personal data and security. Oppo hasn’t directly adopted Android 13, particularly on the visual side of things, where the company has put its own spin on things. However, the “under the hood” improvements are present. You can read more about those here.

However, there is a lot to focus on in ColorOS 13 besides Google’s 13-bit Android. As you can imagine, ColorOS 13 has been in testing for some time. Mostly in internal circles, followed by limited public testing. Now that the global version is ColorOS 13 is official, we expect a much larger version to follow shortly. In the meantime, we’re happy to report that Oppo has offered us the opportunity to try Color OS 13 early before the official release.

Follow along as we detail what’s new and changed and our overall experience with ColorOS 13 and Android 13 on Oppo’s flagship Find X5 Pro laptop. We apologize if we leave out any particular details as there is a lot of ground to cover.

Visual changes – Aquamorphic design

Let’s kickstart the visual changes in ColorOS 13. There is a distinct change in the overall look of the UX. As you’d expect, it’s more refined and this time around Oppo has a completely new and consistent visual style that permeates most of the user interface. He’s calling him Oppo Aquamorphic designwhich involves many rounded shapes, such as pebbles, with smooth lines and smooth transitions and animations inspired by the movement of water.

ColorOS overview 13

Most layouts incorporate cards for good visual separation. Icons they are highly recognizable, with contrasting colors and rounded shapes inspired by nature. Speaking of icons, you can really see the level of close collaboration between Oppo and Google since the new Material you The AOSP design subsystem is clearly integrated into ColorOS 13.

Icon customization

Oppo has given a twist of its own, but the basics are clearly courtesy of Google. Personalization really goes in depth. You can change the shape, curvature, size and color of the text. There are also elegant presets. One thing worth noting is that now third-party app icons can be stylized to some extent even across the same interface for a consistent look. Font legibility has been improved in many languages. Animations throughout the user interface are provided courtesy of a special Quantum animation enginewhich also includes behavioral prediction for user actions.

The Android core color palettes functionality is also part of ColorOS 13. You can use one of the preset palettes or create your own entirely. In keeping with its aquatic theme, by default, ColorOS 13 has a selection of colors mainly inspired by color schemes at sunrise and sunset near the sea, which means many accents of deep blue and orange to yellow similar to the Sun.

Color palettes

Always active display

Always on display he also did some work, both visually and functionally. In terms of functionality, there is a brand new one widget currently playing. Spotify, in particular, gets special treatment here. Oppo has also developed a new style of notifications to keep track of things like updates on delivery status and updates on ride sharing from various supported apps.

Always-on display widgets

There is a lot of customization to be done for the always-on display in general. You can have a different set of elements present or absent from the screen. There are also a ton of behavioral settings, like setting the always-on display according to a schedule to save battery.

Behavioral display options always active

ColorOS 13 provides some interesting custom bits, such as the Always-on insight. View a timeline with data about every time you unlocked and used your phone during the day. It’s sort of an addition to the Android digital wellness system, so you can keep track of how much you use your phone.

Always-on insight

Another interesting addition to ColorOS 13 is Bitmoji integration on the always-on display. It’s a little custom avatar that can be hung on the lock screen. It won’t be static either, as it can react to the time of day, weather, and some activities on the phone.

Bitmoji always on display

There is also a number of Animations of the always-on Homeland display which show changes in the natural habitats of some creatures as a result of climate change and changes during the day based on daily temperature fluctuations.

Control center

The control center was also renovated. The sticks are easier to differentiate and use. There is a universal playback control widget which allows you to quickly switch between audio sources and playback devices.

Control center and playback control widget

The Control Center has a sleek new horizontal layout in ColorOS 13. It has quick switches on the left and notifications on the right.

Horizontal layout of the control center

Folders

ColorOS 13 has a new type of enlarged folder interface for your desktop.

Large folder interface

These folders allow you to navigate within them, such as scrolling through app pages and launching the apps themselves without opening the actual folder. Inspiration for iOS is clearly visible, but that’s not bad as they fit perfectly with the overall look of the UX.

ColorOS 13 functional changes

As already mentioned, a huge selling point for ColorOS 13 is the fact that it is based on Google’s latest Android 13 operating system. This means that phones running ColorOS 13 automatically get all the underlying benefits from the new core operating system.

Many of the new features and improvements in Android 13 have to do with privacy and security. Apps don’t access the entire media library just to be able to share an item. Clipboard history is automatically cleared “after a period of time” if you copy sensitive data such as email, phone number or login credentials and apps need to explicitly ask you to allow them to send notifications, rather than having that ability by default . All of this is present in ColorOS 13 along with all the accompanying settings and the security dashboard interface.

Privacy and security settings and dashboard

Oppo has also added some custom privacy systems in addition to the Android core. An interesting thing that ColorOS 13 can do is automatically pixelate avatars and names in chat screenshots.

Pixelize names and avatars in screenshots

The feature works surprisingly well. You can also choose from a trio of pixelation / blur options. The detection of avatars and names takes place entirely on the device for the best possible privacy and is fully automatic thanks to the image recognition technology. It’s certainly a relatively small feature, but one that has huge potential to save a lot of time and effort for a particular subset of users.

Oppo also claims that thanks to its software it works and also to the new Android 13 core battery efficiency is now better with ColorOS 13. Also, more apps can stay active in the background, thanks to better memory management, which Oppo calls “Always active apps”. Both of these improvements are part of what Oppo calls their own Dynamic calculation engine.

Oppo’s inter-device collaboration feature, called Multiscreen connection it became more powerful in ColorOS 13 as well.

The feature allows you to seamlessly transfer files between your phone and another connected device, now with more supported file types, or directly edit files stored on your phone from a PC. You also get all notifications synced and you can even completely remotely control your phone. This latter feature appears to be a new addition to the mix and offers a whole new level of flexibility.

Multiscreen connection

The multiscreen connection is available via a Windows app, or as Oppo points out, it works great even if you also own an Oppo tablet, such as the Oppo Pad Air along with an Oppo phone.

Another interesting novelty is the Meeting assistant. Includes some features including streamlined banner notifications during online meetings for minimal distractions, the ability to quickly take notes in a pop-up window, and background network optimization to prioritize meeting and chat app data packets video.

ColorOS 13 implementation program

Oppo continues to work closely with Google on the Android operating system front. This partnership often results in earlier and more timely builds and updates for Oppo devices. This time around, Oppo has kept its promise to bring Android 13 sooner and soon enough to the Oppo Find X5 series and the foldable Oppo Find N. Comprehensive global launch plans for Color OS 13 are much more ambitious and include around 35 smartphone models. .

Please note that Oppo claims this rollout schedule is “tentative” and potentially subject to change. Even so, it offers a nice overview of the company’s ambitious ongoing upgrade plans. It’s also quite important to note that Oppo claims that all of these upcoming ColorOS 13 update ROMs will be based on Android 13 as well, which is pretty cool to hear.

Final thoughts

ColorOS 13 is practically the embodiment of Oppo’s close partnership with Google and its commitment to timely Android adoption and updates. It’s really cool to see timely delivery and dissipation of important core Android updates for things like security and privacy. Oppo’s custom work on Android for ColorOS 13 is also significant and impactful. The refined Aquamorphic design language and accompanying animations and colors are easily seen throughout the user interface and offer a nice modern twist to keep things fresh. The promises of better battery and memory management are also welcome, however vague.

However, there is nothing truly revolutionary or vastly different about ColorOS 13. For better or for worse, this should be clarified. We were hoping that Oppo would finally fix some of its long-standing big problems, such as the inability to get high-refresh rate games even on its high-end devices. Unfortunately, it apparently wasn’t a priority. However, we appreciate and appreciate the changes present in ColorOS 13 and we believe you will too.