OnePlus’ new OxygenOS 15 bears the slogan “speed meets AI” but what features does it actually boast?
A week on from its promised announcement, OnePlus has officially launched OxygenOS 15, the latest iteration of its smartphone (and tablet) user experience on the international stage, and it’s one of the first to arrive based on the latest Android 15, which 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 its devices.
In a nutshell, AI underpins new features that focus on creativity, productivity and security. Well, it is 2024 after all.
Here’s a rundown of the biggest upgrades featured within OxygenOS 15, which is set to debut on the OnePlus 12 on October 30 (with select AI features not arriving until November) and is expected to arrive on the company’s other current roster of phones and tablets in the weeks and months to follow.
It will also, we assume, ship with the upcoming OnePlus 13.Fast and smooth
To address OxygenOS’ core tenet of ensuring a fast and smooth experience, one upgrade that’s unique to this forthcoming (at the time of writing) flavour of Android is something called Parallel Processing.
As the naming implies, this alternative approach to system animations takes the six steps that Android usually employs when you touch the screen to, say, open an app (Response > Activate > Drawing > Rendering > Refreshing > Scheduling) and can now execute the first two stages of the process concurrently, should you change your mind and device to open up an app almost immediately, for example.
Previously, the user experience had to render all six of those 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 on, without it impacting the launch of the second action you meant to execute.
It’s a near-imperceptible shift in side-by-side examples at this stage, but does deliver smoother visual navigation, without impacting on OxygenOS’ famously snappy animation style. What’s more, it’ll likely help phones maintain their responsive feel longer than they would had they remained on OxygenOS 14 or older.
Secondly, using the OnePlus 12 as the guinea pig again, OxygenOS 15 also takes up about 20% less storage space than the previous release, meaning more user-accessible room for apps and media, whilst also gaining new functionality.Creativity
OnePlus has reportedly taken user feedback to inform the visual tweaks running throughout OxygenOS 15; from a first-time setup experience with more personality to more rounded iconography; intended to provide a more ‘friendly’ feel.
