OnePlus announced OxygenOS 13 alongside the launch of the OnePlus 10T yesterday. Later this year, OxygenOS 13 will ship with Android 13, as well as a new UI and features.
According to OnePlus, the new OS is designed using “Aquamorphic Design,” based on the look of water, and promises “soothing fonts, minimalist icons, natural and rounded shapes, and a wide range of forms and textures.”
OnePlus highlights the following features in its Android 13 update:
- Icons and widgets, in particular, will now be softer in shape and appearance, and widgets will expand after a long press.
- Smart Launcher, which enlarges the contents of folders, will also make them accessible.
- The Sidebar Toolbox feature from sister firm Oppo’s ColorOS, which allows you to put shortcuts to apps in a tab to the side of the screen designed to be reached with one hand, will be incorporated into OxygenOS 13 as a little homage to the fact that OxygenOS is now based on the base of ColorOS. When using OxygenOS 13, you’ll notice that the colors change throughout the day, from brighter in the morning to darker after sunset.
- OnePlus’s always-on display (AOD) options also represent a nice visual upgrade. The Tech Advisor was told by OnePlus that the company’s online fan base inspired the company to develop a new music control AOD. The album image, artist name, and song title will all be displayed without having to unlock your phone. There will also be the possibility to add information from an app, such as food delivery information, to the AOD, which will display a live tracking map and other data while the phone is locked.
- Zen mode is an existing OnePlus setting that disables distracting apps and services to help users focus on work and life. In OxygenOS 13, you can specify when you don’t want to be harassed or pinged, which is accompanied by enhanced aesthetics.
- All the under-the-hood enhancements of the Android 13 OS that OxygenOS 13 is built on will be utilised, along with the incremental adjustments to privacy controls and power economy.
Newer Android capabilities, such as Nearby Share for sharing files, are also included. - It incorporates a feature called AI system booster, which the developers claim helps with multitasking by virtue of its intelligent memory management.
- The HyperBoost Gaming Engine is built into the OS to help serious gamers with frame rate stability and other performance issues.
- If music is more your thing, you’ll be happy to know that OxygenOS 13 has support for spatial audio, which allows you to change the audio’s directionality across apps (though this does depend on the hardware). The addition of Dolby Atmos support should make phones running the software sound even better, and OnePlus is updating its Fast Pair and Audio Switch features so that users can more easily connect wireless headphones and switch between audio outputs.
Timeline for the OxygenOS 13 Update
If you’re curious about when OxygenOS 13 will be available for your device, it will depend on a few variables. It will debut on the OnePlus 10 Pro, with the company simply announcing that it will be available “soon.” The OnePlus 10T is expected to arrive “later this year.” The following gadgets will finally get OxygenOS 13:
Flagship product line: OnePlus 8, OnePlus 8 Pro, OnePlus 8T, OnePlus 9, OnePlus 9 Pro, OnePlus 9R, OnePlus 9RT, OnePlus 10 Pro, OnePlus 10R, OnePlus 10T
Nord product line: OnePlus Nord 2, OnePlus Nord 2T, OnePlus Nord CE, OnePlus Nord CE 2, OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite
The company just states that OxygenOS 13 will eventually be available on these phones without providing a specific release date.
