OnePlus OxygenOS 16 Review: Smarter, Smoother, and Surprisingly Human

OnePlus has been doing some pretty cool things with its software lately. Oxygen OS 15 is one heck of a UI, one of the best that you can have on a smartphone. Well, I have been trying out the closed beta of the Oxygen OS 16, and this time around, apart from some visual changes here and there, the biggest change is coming in the form of AI and how well integrated Google Gemini is with Oxygen OS.

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And then, there is the entire stuff they have been doing with Plus Mind and AI which is very interesting to see. For me, OnePlus’ software experience has become the benchmark for all Android smartphones. Have they been able to continue with that?

Design changes in Oxygen OS 16

Right out of the gate, the first thing you notice are the animations and their fluidity. Oxygen OS 15 had smooth animations, but with Oxygen OS 16, OnePlus has taken things to a whole new level; all thanks to something called Flow Motion and Parallel Processing 2.0. Basically, this allows a new animation to begin even before a preceding one has completed, which ensures seamless transitions. This results in exceptionally smooth performance.

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You also get to see a new Design Language, called Breath With You — basically a more liquid and flowy interface, coupled with Rounded corners and elegant Gaussian blur effects. Subtle optical light feedback adds interactivity to core applications like the calculator and compass.

Oxygen OS 15 has some pretty cool customisation options, and Oxygen OS 16 turns things up a notch.

I have this as my lock screen, and obviously, you have this animated wallpaper and depth effect, but I also like how you can now add these simple widgets in any way you like. You can truly make your device look and feel the way you like in a manner that you never could before.

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App icons also get a thematic change. We have a new icon theme called Flux, which lets you have all your apps in a single colourway.

You can also resize app icons, folders, and of course widgets on your OnePlus devices, and set a home screen that looks something like this. This is the home package that I have been using, and it has all my most frequently used apps set to be the biggest. Essentially, I can have all of my apps, shaped like a widget, to get to them quickly. It’s a nice little touch that I really like.

Plus Mind and Mind Space in Oxygen OS 16

Then we have Plus Mind and Mind Space. For those who don’t know, OnePlus’ Mind Space is basically like a scrapbook or rather, a notebook. You use it to save screenshots, links, and voice notes, then use AI to organise and recall them later. Think of it like a smart brain built right into your phone.

It’s pretty awesome to use, actually. You can take screenshots of your emails, messages, event posters and whatnot, and OnePlus will automatically add important stuff like meetings and dates to your calendar.

You could always go into Mind Space and ask you to create plans, itineraries, or a menu for a party you were organising.

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For example, I am planning to host a party and have been looking for food and drink items that I can serve. With the Plus Key on the OnePlus 13S, I would just take screenshots, which would be saved into Mind Space. And then I can ask Mind Space to create a menu for my party.

Now, Mind Space comes integrated with Google Gemini, and it can pull data out of content that you save in Mind Space. Think of it this way; Google’s Powerful LLMs are giving you results based on your content, just for you.

Gemini AI X Mind Space

But where OnePlus has made things truly magical is by integrating Gemini with Mind Space

Let’s say you’re planning a two-day trip to Osaka to explore its food scene and have saved a lot of screenshots of reels, Insta posts and blogs.

Just ask Gemini to go inside Mind Space and plan a trip. Gemini will now go through everything you’ve saved, analyse it, and within seconds, build a full itinerary, only from the information that you have saved. How neat is that!

Oxygen OS’ other AI features

OnePlus has also made some other improvements to other AI features. For example, if I want to post an image on Instagram, and I am feeling too lazy to come up with a caption, now I can do that directly in the App.

Another interesting feature is that OnePlus’ AI writer now comes with creating tables or mind maps. Case in point: my mom is visiting Berlin sometime later this month, and having been there last year, I know how confusing the Metro system can be. I found an article online that I feel will really help her. But instead of a basic summary, which is bound to miss some details, I can ask my OnePlus 13S to create a Mind Map for me. All I need to do is select this text and ask it to create a mind map. I can share this as a JPG, PDF, or even save it to my notes.

Even the photos have gotten some really cool updates. You have AI Portrait Glow, which lets you digitally add a fill light to your photos, in case you had to take a photo in the dark. The way it works is also very intelligent. It's not just boosting the exposure willy nilly; it studies what each photo needs and then gives you a simple slider to select how much of the effect do you really want.

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Another cool feature is AI Perfect Shot. Suppose you take a photograph and your eyes are shut, or you’re not happy with the expression. You can change that now. OnePlus’ AI will go through your library, pick some of the best faces that you have from your photos, and let you replace that shut eye, or that awkward expression in a jiffy. It’s not always perfect, but it works well.

OnePlus has another trick up its sleeve, and although I haven’t been able to try this out, it sounds very interesting, so I had to share it with you. Oxygen OS 16 will come with AI Playlab, which is basically a bunch of AI toys and programmes that OnePlus will be testing out. The Party Up feature really caught my eye. You take a single photo, put it into the Party Up app, and it generates a short video from it. Seriously, this is very cool!

New and improved security

Now, of course, with all these new AI features, data privacy becomes a big question, but OnePlus has already thought of that. With Oxygen OS 16, you get Android’s first Private Computing Cloud that uses advanced encryption and both GPU and CPU protection to keep your data completely secure. Even OnePlus can’t access it.

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Another added security feature is that if your phone ever goes missing, the new Plus Lock feature adds another layer of safety. You can remotely lock your device, and with 11 layers of encryption plus two-factor authentication, your data stays completely safe. For now, Plus Lock is exclusive to India and will only work on OnePlus 15 devices when they launch.

Oxygen OS 16 allows OnePlus phone to connect with Apple Watch

Now, Oxygen OS 15 had some pretty nifty stuff in terms of connecting your OnePlus device to your PC, Macs and iPhones, and with the Oxygen OS 16, they say they have improved a ton of things.

One thing that caught my eye was that you can now connect an Apple Watch to your OnePlus Phone and get calls, messages and other notifications. You will also get access to Find My Phone.

We tried doing that with an Apple Watch Series 10 and Series 9, but we weren’t able to, probably because we are running a closed beta. But it will be interesting to see how this works out.

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What did work for us, though, were updated Touch to Connect features. All you have to do is tap the two phones together and you can share photos and videos, etc. Yes, it was a feature that was there in Oxygen OS 15, and yes you still need your iPhone to have the O+ Connect app. But, transferring content from an iPhone to a OnePlus phone was still tricky. In Oxygen OS 16, the transfer process from an iPhone to a OnePlus device is way smoother now, and the transfer speeds across the board is faster.

Verdict

Oxygen OS 15 was a solid UI, in my book, and had one of the best UX. Oxygen OS 16 takes all of that and turns the dial up to 11. Visually, the changes might not be that big, but all of them do add up, especially if you have been paying any attention to detail.

What really sets Oxygen OS 16 apart, though, are the AI features. Mind Space’s integration with Gemini is seriously cool, and something I really cannot wait to try out more. I see myself using something like that practically every day, even for work.

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And then there is all the other AI stuff. It feels like OnePlus has figured out how to properly integrate AI into a smartphone, and not just for the sake of it, but by actually making it useful.

Some of the features that we have seen sure feel copied from other UIs or even iOS. However, they have plenty of features that smartphone manufacturers should start copying.