ColorOS 14, Realme UI 5, OxygenOS 14 (Android 14) evaluate

Despite the fact that Oppo, Realme and OnePlus name their proprietary Android skins with completely different names, the three UIs feel and appear the identical and supply the identical set of options and just about the identical person expertise, a lot to the frustration of long-time OnePlus customers who nonetheless mourn a few of Oxygen OS’s proprietary options.

Nonetheless, no matter which one of many three manufacturers your cellphone comes from, you’ll get pleasure from a largely clean and feature-rich expertise.

In comparison with the older ColorOS 13/OxygenOS 13/Realme UI 4.0, the brand new Android 14-based ColorOS 14/OxygenOS 14/Realme UI 5.0 variations supply few user-facing modifications. We’ll cowl these as we go.

Lock display screen, house display screen, All the time-on show

You’d really feel proper at house should you’ve ever used one of many three working methods. There aren’t any notable modifications to the way you navigate or how the UI seems. You get an ordinary app drawer by default and a well-recognized notification shade with fast toggles.

Dwelling display screen • Notification shade • Current apps menu

Most of the UI components are customizable – fonts, icons, accent colours and even the form of the short toggles within the notification shade.

UI customization choices

The All the time-on show perform affords all kinds of customizations as properly.

All the time-on show

A well known characteristic by this level is the flexibility to launch an app by holding down the fingerprint reader when unlocking. A pop-up menu with apps of your alternative opens up. Oppo/OnePlus/Realme pioneered this characteristic, and we’re completely satisfied to see it nonetheless round.

Fast Launch fingerprint characteristic

Gestures and navigation

Navigation is fairly customary – you possibly can select between gestures and software program buttons. The gesture navigation will be tailor-made to your desire – sensitivity for the again gestures with separate granular management over the left and proper edge, hiding the gesture information bar, and so on.

System navigation choices

Some further gestures are additionally at hand – screen-off gestures to launch apps by drawing letters on a locked display screen, lifting the cellphone to your ear to reply, and auto switching to the earpiece if related to Bluetooth. On sure Realme/OnePlus/Oppo units, often higher-end handsets, you possibly can management the cellphone from afar with Air gestures.

Display screen-off gestures and Air gestures

Multitasking and productiveness options

As most Android overlays these days, the trio has a handful of options appropriate for multitasking. You’ve got the usual Cut up View (two apps opened on the display screen concurrently), Versatile Window (open apps in interactive small home windows, you possibly can maintain a handful opened at a time) and Good Sidebar (choose apps and instruments of your alternative so you possibly can launch them by pulling out the bar from the facet edge).

Multitasking choices

The Sidebar will get a brand new characteristic of its personal, although. Now you can save any sort of file to the File Dock and entry it anytime. A Current Recordsdata record can be obtainable.

Final however not least, a Good Contact characteristic means that you can extract photos and textual content straight from a screenshot, and it seems to be obtainable solely on higher-end units. Nonetheless, the built-in Google Lens performance can try this for you, even when your Oppo/Realme/OnePlus cellphone would not help Good Contact.

Notifications

Notification options are fairly customary and easy, though there are notable exceptions. The Good notification hiding, for instance, is a cool privateness characteristic obtainable on most Realme/Oppo/OnePlus units, even on extra finances ones. Whenever you allow Face Unlock, the system will use your face’s information to maintain your notifications personal. As an illustration, if the front-facing digital camera catches another person taking a look at your cellphone, it’s going to cover the contents of the notification banner.

Notification-related options and customizations

Talking of banners, the system will present a few fast contextual actions so that you can select from straight from the notification within the notification shade.

Good Recommendations are pop-up banners that may additionally persist within the notification shade as common notifications. They supply real-time info relying on the scenario. For instance, it’s going to maintain you posted about your meals supply, ride-hailing service, and so on. You may as well permit them on the lock display screen and All the time-on show.

Good solutions

Sadly, the system would not help good solutions from all apps, so your expertise could fluctuate.

Equally to Apple’s Dynamic Island, Oppo has applied some kind of contextual bubbles. Oppo calls it Aqua Dynamics, and it really works with sure system apps, just like the recorder. A small bubble exhibits up on the standing bar, indicating that the recorder is energetic. We could not make it work with the Music app, although, which is unlucky because it makes probably the most sense to work with media gamers.

And in case you’re a OnePlus or Oppo Discover N3 machine proprietor, you possibly can change between Ring mode, Vibrate mode and Silent mode on the fly through the use of the alert slider.

Multi-screen join

That is hardly a brand new characteristic, but it surely affords an intensive record of issues you are able to do by connecting your PC and cellphone or one other Oppo/Realme/OnePlus machine. You possibly can display screen forged, share recordsdata and multitask. Nonetheless, we discovered the connection course of to be extraordinarily tedious with a number of sign-ins and points when connecting a Realme to an Oppo smartphone, and you may’t use it together with your desktop PC if it would not have wi-fi adapters. It is a bizarre limitation given that every one units are on the identical community. It is undoubtedly not an easy course of and it’s miles from Samsung’s DeX or Motorola’s Prepared For options.

Wrap-up

Though clean and feature-rich, ColorOS/OxygenOS/Realme UI is a bit behind the curve on the subject of implementing the most recent Android modifications and stylish options. There are little to no modifications in the way in which you should use these three Android overlays and there aren’t any notable new options both. Whereas Samsung and Google are integrating AI-powered options into their very own variations of Android 14 and Xiaomi is revamping its MIUI 14 into HyperOS, Oppo, OnePlus, and Realme’s strategy is considerably stale.