The rise and fall of Oxygen OS | Hacker News Reader

The rise and fall of Oxygen OS

androidauthority.com

92 pointsjiri52 comments

My experience:

Bought a used OnePlus 7 Pro in late January 2021. It came with Oxygen OS 11 Beta, and had some severe bugs:

* Display issue on lock screen would cause mismatch between PIN/Pattern display and touch input making it very difficult to unlock

* Black screen requiring button combination to force reboot

Both happened several times a day.

At the time, I rolled back (easily) to Oxygen OS 10.3.8. When 11 was officially released, I ignored it for two updates. Finally, 11.0.0.2 came out and I caved. Guess what?

Same. Two. Bugs. Constantly. Also had a really bad issue during the install process that caused the screen to flicker rapidly the entire time.

Since this wasn't a beta, it was not trivial getting back to 10.3.8. Eventually I found the correct imaging tools and images and was able to get back to 10.3.8, which doesn't have any apparent or show stopping bugs.

I'm using the EU version of the OnePlus 7 Pro on 11.0.1.1 and I don't have such issues. I gave my 2 year old device a refresh at the official service center with a new battery and it's going strong still.

Likewise, I have the US version OnePlus 7 Pro and I have never seen these issues. I've been using this phone for 2+ years and like you mentioned, the battery could use a refresh, but it still lasts long enough to not be too annoying.

I tried switching to a Pixel 4a 5G but I was not impressed and switched back to the OnePlus.

That being said, I'm not sure if I'd pay the premium prices of their new flagship models at this point.

There's no doubt that if everyone had the issues I did, OnePlus would fix it or there'd be a louder outrage! But the point being that there's clearly a change (for the worse) in their drivers that affects some handsets (examples below of various reports), despite working fine in earlier versions.

https://old.reddit.com/r/oneplus/comments/ldg7gn/op7pro_open...

https://old.reddit.com/r/oneplus/comments/mvddho/android_11_...

https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/lock-screen-scaling-is-wr...

On my 6T I actually have lock screen hangs that require a reboot since 10.3.9 or 10.3.10.

I still use my OnePlus 3 and its great! The battery capacity has degraded significantly (which isn't such a big deal during lockdown) but because most Apps stay in memory with its 6GB of RAM I hardly have issues with performance (to be fair I'm not really a phone power user)

For the most time I was so happy with this phone, that I was sure my next one would be a OnePlus again. But following the reviews of new OnePlus phones closely: They're really quite expensive now, Oxygen is deviating more and more from vanilla android and personally I'm not a big fan of some software and hardware design choices.

Eventually I'll need a new phone and OnePlus is still in the race, but by a significantly smaller margin than maybe two or three years ago.

I am in the same boat, still using OP3. Unfortunately the latest OP9 has crappy 5G (does not even work on AT&T in US), so I have significant doubts about buying it.

The powerbutton on my op3 stopped working some months ago, otherwise I’d also still be on it. Latest Android (LineageOS) and GCam made it still a pleasure to use with an acceptable cam even. Pretty remarkable phone. I think the 6g ram really helped it live so long at such pleasant speeds.

I switched to an iPhone12 mini, love that too.

If you wanted to have a second spare phone, the OP3 is easily serviceable, if you are inclined to do so. I've dropped the phone bending the power button, opened the phone (two screws on the bottom) and replaced the piece with ease.

Hmm, maybe I will, for my mother in law then. Where did you get the button from?

I myself am by now just too happy with the camera of my iPhone12 mini, can't really go back anymore...

I've found it on ebay uk if I remember right, but any site with replacement parts will do. The 3/3T models have been quite successful and the spare parts market is not small

>Unfortunately the latest OP9 has crappy 5G (does not even work on AT&T in US)

2 things:

1. All the 5nm devices with Exynos/Qualcomm chipsets are fabbed by Samsung 5nm and they overheat like crazy, avoid. I recommend either getting an 8-series if going Oneplus (7nm TSMC) or waiting 6+ months for a new series with TSMC 4nm fabbed chips.

2. AT&T built their '5G' poorly with DSS. They also blacklist IMEI's they don't sell from using their 5G network and I think even using voLTE. Oneplus did enable DSS in their newer models on a per-network basis but if they didn't, it's possible to enable it yourself: https://mt-tech.fi/en/modify-oneplus-7-pro-5g-8-and-8-pro-nr...

yeah what's interesting is, a speculated upper midange Mediatek A78-based chip on TSMC 4NM will perform much more efficiently than Samsung 5NM X1 designs, the former of which (Sammy 5NM) which is still being used for the next Qualcomm chip - they rebranded 5NM as the 4NM cited to be used. So if Samsung 5 is right on par with TSMC 7... QC's flagship chip will be effectively two process nodes behind Apple and Mediatek come early 2022.

I expect TSMC 4NM chips with A78/A710 based designs - as is rumored with Mediatek this year - to be fantastic long-term values on the performance per watt + outright usability metrics.

RE At&t, holy hell, I kind of can't believe the FCC allows that provided the device support is in place...

>RE At&t, holy hell, I kind of can't believe the FCC allows that provided the device support is in place...

The FCC allows a lot of bullshit, see DISH's decade-long spectrum hoarding/squatting for the most egregious offense. This, uh, explains some of it concisely: https://makespectrumgreatagain.com/

Also, AT&T knows how to navigate government lobbying and effectively lives off government welfare through the FirstNet government contract: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Responder_Network_Author...

Same. A part from some audio issues has been a great phone. I'm struggling while looking for a good replacement. Phones these days are going in awful directions. Way too big, way too bulky with useless (for me) cameras, awkward screen cutouts, missing basic functionalities like led notifications, audio jack and dedicated buttons. And the os is often bloated beyond usability

I'm just taking a moment to admire a publication which describes an OS with -- count 'em -- six different photographs of the back of the phones it ran on.

Having a laugh picturing a similar article about Linux.

FWIW, most of the OnePlus line is officially supported by LineageOS. Not giving OnePlus a pass but I really only care about the hardware, reasonable repair costs if it breaks, and the ability to run my own builds without showstopper bugs.

The most annoying bug I had from Android 10 to 11 (worked in 9) was the loss of ability to use my bluetooth keyboard adapter with the phone on both OOS and LOS (affected both the 6T and 8T). LineageOS appears to have fixed it this month by syncing up with the current Qualcomm driver trees.

The "conclusion" is quite the eyeroller.

They cite their own internal poll[1] claiming that "with Oxygen OS 11, the most recent version of the skin, OnePlus has faced a ton of controversy". Look at the linked poll. It's a completely even split. The poll article goes on to quote mostly negative comments from the poll despite there being an even split on the actual choices presented.

Also from the poll article:

> A surprising number of respondents (25.3%) said they need to try the update before deciding how they feel about the direction of Oxygen OS.

Yet we're declaring an OS dead because some blog posted a poll in October 2020 that resulted in approximately ~6300 people (38.34% of the 16660 respondents) saying "nah, I prefer the stock approach"?

Just going to ignore those other 10,360 people I suppose. That article won't get you to the top of /r/gadgets or HN I suppose.

[1]https://www.androidauthority.com/oneplus-oxygen-os-11-poll-r...

I have a OnePlus 5. The final update that the manufacurer left the device on is shamefully bad. It was buggy, slower than previous versions, had an ancient security patch when it was released, and to make things worse OnePlus kept promising they would fix everything until the three year support period ended. Then they basically told everyone to go fuck themselves.

I'm now using Android Ice Cold Proyect rom (www.aicp-rom.com) and it's been great. The latest version of Android runs snappily and with the Google Camera installed even the camera is better than ever. I receive weekly patches and my phone works better than before. Kudos to all AICP and Lineage OS developers for making better software than the manufacturer itself.

And fuck you OnePlus for screwing over every OnePlus 5/5T owner with your garbage Android 10 build. Never buying a OnePlus phone again.

It really seems like they're currently doing the same thing to 6/6T owners, trying to run out the clock before they eventually release Android 11.

Based on reports from those with newer 1+ phones, I'm not sure I'd want to upgrade anyway. I'm already annoyed that they broke hiding the notch in A10 and that's a pretty minor bug compared to some of the ones others are dealing with.

I've got a 6T and wondered what you meant by breaking the notch hiding feature?

In Android 9, hiding the notch would black out the screen around the notch but put the status icons on the same level as the notch [0]. In 10, hiding the notch just drops the top of the screen below the notch and pushes the status icons down [1], essentially throwing away 1/4" of screen real estate.

[0] https://www.androidcentral.com/sites/androidcentral.com/file... [1] https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/notification-bar-displace...

Offtopic: Once you have built and installed plain AOSP, you'll realize that there is no "Stock/Vanilla" Android - It doesn't even haven an login account system. The time has stopped like 5 years ago or so in terms of the visual design. You can check how it looks like in the emulator environment if you're only lightly curious.

Even Lineage isn't stock, although they've done a great job to make it feel like that.

I'm currently in the market for a new phone. I'm using a Samsung A71 and AT&T has notified me several times their 3G network is going away so I need to move to a 5G phone. I had boiled down my options to OnePlus 9 5G and iPhone 12.

Just from the comments it would seem the safe choice is to go with the iphone - even though I'm still pissed about Apple removing the charging block and forcing people to buy a new one.

I'm getting ready to make the apple jump, my next phone will be an iPhone (when my current phone, Pixel 5, falls out of support).

The major issue I have with the Android ecosystem is support is stupidly short. My last phone (Pixel 2) was fine, other than the fact that security support was ending.

Meanwhile, apple is pushing their latest version of iOS down to the 6S, a 5 year old device.

> The major issue I have with the Android ecosystem is support is stupidly short

I got a Motorola One Ace 5G and I'm still waiting for Android 11 (they promise one OS update beyond what it ships with). It's annoying that I don't have it almost 10 months after release. Yes, they have updated it to 11 for some, but not on my carrier.

It feels like my device just gets ignored as soon as I buy it while iOS users get the updates as soon as they're released for 5-6 years (the iPhone 6S probably won't be supported by iOS 14, but it's still getting the latest OS through this fall). I'm not saying I want to keep my phone for 6 years, but even when an Android device is still within its supported-window (as mine is), they still aren't delivering me the OS updates in a timely manner. My phone was released in January 2021 without the latest OS and I still don't have access to it which is just frustrating.

It just makes the whole experience feel cheap. OnePlus offers two years of OS updates on their iPhone-priced devices, but that feels kinda crappy if I'm paying $1,080 for a OnePlus 9 Pro - as expensive as an iPhone 12 Pro Max with a significantly slower processor.

I kinda understand why companies don't want to offer OS updates. You'd rather they pay you money for a new phone than spend your money supporting an existing one. Maybe Apple can do it because they know that iOS loyalty will translate into future sales for Apple. If Samsung, Motorola, OnePlus, or anyone else make me happy about being in the Android ecosystem, they're only going to capture a fraction of the future sales.

Still, it's a frustrating experience and I think Apple might be in my future as well.

I had Motorola phones a while back; my experience was they got the new Android 12-14 months after release. I switched to HMD/Nokia and was pleasantly surprised with how prompt the updates were.

[edit]

Though my current phone is a Unihertz Jelly-2 (just purchased this month). No clue what the OS update schedule will be like, and it's not for everyone, but the form-factor was something I couldn't pass up.

iPhone 6s supports iOS 14 and will support iOS 15 as well.

I have an iphone 7+ in mint condition. The only issue is the IC Audio chip and a dwindling battery. I can probably fix the battery myself. The IC Audio chip is another issue and the two places I've called have given me two estimates - one for $235 and the other for $325.

I love that phone, but the cost of that repair is more than the phone is worth, and I doubt Apple would fix it for any less.

I felt the same way 2.5 years ago and finally picked an iPhone for the first time. After years of supporting Google’s nexus line and trying Samsung devices, the writing was on the wall – Android long term support is nonexistent. You get two years of updates on Android devices, then you are left with sporadic updates and broken features ranging from Bluetooth to cameras to privacy. I don’t regret switching to an iPhone at all.

I moved off Oxygen to Lineage on my OnePlus 7, but I still have two major gripes:

- The mic quality is terrible, even on speakerphone. People can barely hear me on voice calls. I haven't heard of significant backlash against this, but it's so painful every time I make a call.

- No headphone jack. I had to go through 5 USB dongles just to find one that produces sound, and even then I am unable to charge and use headphones at the same time. I end up suffering from this nearly every day.

The lack of a headphone jack alone should have been a deal breaker for me, but my previous 4-year-old phone tanked in performance after an Android major version update and I was desperate.

Rather than using a USB dongle you might find it easier to buy a Bluetooth adapter for your headphones. I was surprised that they're pretty cheap and have excellent sound quality.

Pixel A line still has headphone jacks, and of course has the clean Android version with first updates. Especially 4A 5G is pretty cool with the beefier processor and better camera. Not a flagship still of course.

I noticed a "centralization" trend with phones and laptops. A decade ago, there were dozens of brands one would look at. These days, the non-top-3 brands feel like they take up way less mindshare. Perhaps the moves by OnePlus were to make sure they weren't left behind.

With OnePlus, they're currently the only brand that consistently has great ROM support, so they have at least that going for them.

Currently running OOS 11 Open Beta 5 on 8T. Recently switched from a Pixel XL, I've been using Google devices since Nexus 5.

Personally, I feel Pixel OS has deviated farther from stock android than OOS. This is why I went with the 8T rather than newer Pixel models.

I can't really relate to the author's doomsday sentiments. I didn't notice a significant amount of bloatware. I've noticed in recent betas they introduced a "OnePlus account" in the settings menu, which is somewhat annoying. The most annoying branding decision is the fuchsia-colored 1s on the clock.

I don't think they're copying Samsung's UI - if anything, Samsung has started copying OOS. But I think mobile OS designs have become more homogeneous in recent years, all of them pretty bland.

I find the OS to be better, FAR cleaner and more stable than what I had with past Samsung's. Really don't agree with the article.

To be fair, "better than Samsung's" is about the lowest bar you could possibly set

To be fair, their OS actually isn't that bad once they dropped touchwiz 1.0. its been great the past few years since the S8

I own my first Samsung, and software-wise, I enjoy it greatly. The only thing I don't like is the level of bloatware and Samsung-specific apps, and the need to register for Samsung Pay just to be able to disable the bottom swipe-bar on the UI.

The fact that I bought a $850 phone that GSMArena said was dual-sim, only to find out it is single-sim, pissed me off.

The article is clickbait, I think. While there is a vocal subset of OnePlus users that dislike the change, their own poll they cited says approximately 60% of users approve or were taking a "wait and see" approach as of 8 months ago.

Everything is subjective. The users who are voting now are not same people as the users who bought first models.

I have OnePlus3 as my main phone and I am still quite happily using it. However, as the manufacturer has changed their target audience, my next phone is not going to be oneplus.

Sad thing, it is pretty hard to find a decent phone which does not have crap pre-installed.

> The users who are voting now

Except no one is voting "now", they voted nine months ago and now this post is making an entire article centered around that vote.

I probably wasn't clear. By "now" i mean past few years. I personally feel that the article was speaking from old userbase's perspective.

Had the OnePlus X back in their's geekier days, I loved it. Never liked how big their flagships were, but the X was ideal and indeed affordable. Oxygen OS was pretty great, no Samsung-like bloat, just some nice features borrowed from custom ROMs. Shame that didn't sell as well as they hoped.

The site renders initially but goes blank unless it can place a cookie.

Better link: https://web.archive.org/web/20210624160327/https://www.andro...

Worked for me wihtout a cookie. Consider disabling Javascript.

Or request the page with simpler software, then view in a browser:

    curl https://www.androidauthority.com/amp/oneplus-oxygen-os-rise-fall-1234103/|grep -o "<p>.*</p>" > 1.htm
    firefox ./1.htm

My experience: Got a one plus Nord, and a Nord CE. Pretty good phone's for the value, oxygen OS is stable and pretty good compared to other phones in a similar price range. Can only complain about the Nord CE cams being a bit disappointing, but not abismal either. The preloaded apps are good and there's virtually no bloat. What more could I want?

My Android recently is full of bugs (OnePlus 6).

I don't know if it's just 1+ though. My wife's completely unrelated Android phone is even more buggy and sluggish than mine.

I'm seriously contemplating going back to iPhone for my next upgrade.

What kind of bugs are you finding? My OnePlus 6t has been running smooth since day one.

"As an element, Oxygen is the epitome of simplicity, yet it’s also extraordinarily powerful. Oxygen is all around us."

Amazing, even when they are deprecating a product, they still need to promote some marketing fluff.. What's the point?

This makes me not like One+. They are on my smartphone sh*tlist now.

huh? That was their announcement in 2015 which this article is quoting for context.

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