Realme has been the talking point among tech enthusiasts worldwide. This is because the OPPO off-shoot has phenomenal growth since May 2018, becoming the fastest-growing smartphone (renowned) brand in the world. After kicking it off in the budget smartphone segment, Realme pro-actively launched new smartphones covering every segment and even set a new benchmark for affordable flagships with the Realme X2 Pro. India is a key market for Realme and sees the maximum launches from the company. Today, it is launching yet another smartphone which was promised at the unveiling of the Realme XT and also anticipated by the gamers among Realme’s fan community.
The Realme X2 is launched in India today and the smartphone, as we know from previous launches in China and Europe, is almost the same as the Realme XT. The Realme X2 comes with the same 64MP quad-camera design, the same hyperbola-inspired rear glass design – albeit with a new color variant, the same Super AMOLED with a notch, and similar RAM/storage configurations. What has changed, however, is the chipset that powers the smartphone and this is among the most exciting upgrades here.
A Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G mobile platform is what powers the Realme X2. The Snapdragon 730G is optimized for gaming and will bring a notable performance and graphics boost over the Snapdragon 712 that powers the Realme XT. Besides the newer chipset, Realme X2 also comes with support for faster, 30W charging that is claimed to refill the 4,000mAh battery in under 70 minutes.
In terms of photography, the quad-camera includes a 64MP Samsung ISOCELL Bright GW1 sensor, an 8MP wide-angle camera, a 2MP depth sensor, and a 2MP camera for macro photography. The selfie camera has been updated and is now a 32MP sensor instead of the 16MP on the Realme XT. The front camera also supports 4-in-1 pixel binning along with Nightscape mode for the front camera.
Realme has also introduced a new color variant with the Realme X2 while retaining the other two colors from the XT. The new color is called Pearl Green.
Realme X2: Specifications
Specifications
Realme X2
Dimensions & Weight
158.7 × 75.16 × 8.55 mm
183g
Display
6.4-inch Super AMOLED
1080 x 2340
Gorilla Glass 5
SoC
Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G
2 x 2.2GHz Kryo 470 Gold
6 x 1.8GHz Kryo 470 Silver
Adreno 618 GPU (overclocked at 575MHz)
RAM
4GB/6GB/8GB
Storage
64GB/128GB UFS 2.1
Dedicated microSD slot
Battery
4000mAh, 30W VOOC 4.0 fast charging
Fingerprint Sensor
In-display fingerprint
Rear Camera
64MP Samsung ISOCELL GW1 primary sensor, f/1.7
8MP 119° wide-angle sensor, f/2.25
2MP macro lens, f/2.4
2MP depth sensor, f/2.4
4K video recording at 30fps
Front Camera
32MP, f/2.0
Full HD video recording @ 30fps
Android Version
ColorOS 6.1 based on Android 9 Pie
Colors
Pearl White, Pearl Blue, Pearl Green
Realme Wireless Charging pad
Realme has also launched a 10W wireless charger with Qi charging support. The wireless charger will be available soon and will support wireless charging on all Qi-compatible smartphone or iPhone beside the Buds Air.
Realme PaySa
Realme has announced Realme PaySa, a payments and finance solution exclusive to India. Through PaySa, users will be able to invest in mutual funds, digital gold purchases, insurances, and SIP etc. In future, the service will support payments via UPI. Further, there will support for personal loans and the app will also provide free credit score reports. Besides personal loans, Realme PaySa will also offer loans up to ₹5 million to SMEs across India.
Besides classic financial products, Realme will also offer phone screen insurances for Realme devices. The claim process is fully digital and the insurance allows up to two claims.
Realme PaySa is available for all Android smartphones. While the app is currently in beta and can be downloaded from the Google Play Store.
OnePlus is gearing up for an eventful 2020. Everyone, of course, expects the Chinese company to launch the next OnePlus flagship pair; and we have already seen leaks of the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro, giving us a fair idea of what to expect. What really surprised everyone was the renders of the OnePlus 8 Lite, a phone that is rumored to be OnePlus’ first mid-range smartphone in more than four years. OnePlus has also been teasing everyone with its presence at CES 2020, and now, the company is teasing the OnePlus Concept One.
OnePlus’ CEO first put out a teaser a few days ago, but other than the company’s presence at CES 2020, the teaser did not reveal much. Now, OnePlus’ official Weibo has revealed the name “OnePlus Concept One”.
The first guess for the teaser would be a concept smartphone, but owing to the tribute the name pays to the OnePlus One, the company’s first smartphone. But the teaser does not actually mention “phone” anywhere, so our guess remains a guess at best. The Chinese text within the teaser translates into “Variable Design, Variable Future”, which is still very vague and does not shed any light on the exact specifics of the announcement.
We’ll have to wait for CES 2020 to know exactly what OnePlus has planned and what the OnePlus Concept One is. There’s also a possibility that we get some more teasers as a run-up to the announcement — but since this is a concept that is unlikely to be marketed as a consumer product, the announcement itself can be equated with a teaser. We’ll find out soon enough.
Google launched a standalone app for Google Tasks way back in April last year. And since then, users have requested seamless Tasks integration in Google Calendar. Google has been working on the Tasks integration for a while now and we spotted the feature in one of our recent teardowns. The APK teardown revealed strings of code highlighting the upcoming functionality and mentioned a new task button, prompts to create repeating tasks, and task descriptions among other things. It seems like the feature is now close to release as it can now be manually triggered in the latest release of Google Calendar.
Our Editor-in-Chief Mishaal Rahman has managed to manually enable the new Google Tasks integration in version 2019.47.2-284533606-release of the Google Calendar app. As you can see in the screenshots above, the app now has a new Task button which allows you to quickly add a task just like you would add a reminder or a goal. You just need to tap on the new task button, select a date, select your task, choose if you wish the task to repeat or not and you’re done.
The Tasks you add in the Google Calendar app appear just like your reminders in the calendar view. To help you easily differentiate between tasks and other calendar entries, the app also lets you select a different accent color for tasks and set up different notification sounds. The Google Tasks notification looks like any other notification pushed from the Google Calendar and you can easily dismiss it by tapping on Done.
What’s really great about the Tasks integration is that most of the aforementioned features work even if you don’t have the Google Tasks app on your phone. However, if you wish to click on any tasks that you create (either in the calendar view or on a notification), tap on the overflow menu (as seen in the screenshot above), or tap on the “View in Tasks” action, you’ll need the Tasks app on your phone. Considering that Tasks integration has finally reached the testing phase, it shouldn’t be long before Google officially rolls it out to users.
Google launched a standalone app for Google Tasks way back in April last year. And since then, users have requested seamless Tasks integration in Google Calendar. Google has been working on the Tasks integration for a while now and we spotted the feature in one of our recent teardowns. The APK teardown revealed strings of code highlighting the upcoming functionality and mentioned a new task button, prompts to create repeating tasks, and task descriptions among other things. It seems like the feature is now close to release as it can now be manually triggered in the latest release of Google Calendar.
Our Editor-in-Chief Mishaal Rahman has managed to manually enable the new Google Tasks integration in version 2019.47.2-284533606-release of the Google Calendar app. As you can see in the screenshots above, the app now has a new Task button which allows you to quickly add a task just like you would add a reminder or a goal. You just need to tap on the new task button, select a date, select your task, choose if you wish the task to repeat or not and you’re done.
The Tasks you add in the Google Calendar app appear just like your reminders in the calendar view. To help you easily differentiate between tasks and other calendar entries, the app also lets you select a different accent color for tasks and set up different notification sounds. The Google Tasks notification looks like any other notification pushed from the Google Calendar and you can easily dismiss it by tapping on Done.
What’s really great about the Tasks integration is that most of the aforementioned features work even if you don’t have the Google Tasks app on your phone. However, if you wish to click on any tasks that you create (either in the calendar view or on a notification), tap on the overflow menu (as seen in the screenshot above), or tap on the “View in Tasks” action, you’ll need the Tasks app on your phone. Considering that Tasks integration has finally reached the testing phase, it shouldn’t be long before Google officially rolls it out to users.
Samsung kicked off the One UI 2 beta (Android 10) for the Galaxy S10 series back in October. Late last month, the stable update started rolling out to beta testers in Germany. Today, the company has started rolling out the stable version of One UI 2 to Galaxy S10, S10+, and S10e beta testers one month early.
The update was announced in the beat app first and has since been confirmed by T-Mobile. S10 device owners on T-Mobile, Sprint, and Xfinity Mobile have reported receiving the update already, and some users in Canada as well. The build numbers of the entire family below:
Galaxy S10 (G973USQU2CSKP)
Galaxy S10+ (G975USQU2CSKP)
Galaxy S10e (G970USQU2CSKP)
The One UI 2 update comes in around 2.4GB in size and includes the December security patch. As Samsung’s announcement says, this update is rolling out to beta testers before it officially arrives for others. So if you have been enrolled in the One UI 2 beta program on your Galaxy S10, you can download stable Android 10 before everyone else. It should be a matter of time before the update starts appearing on AT&T, Verizon, and more Canadian devices.
ColorOS is OPPO’s custom user interface on top of Android. At first, its functionality was tailored to users in China, which remains the company’s biggest market. Not unlike other user interfaces from Chinese OEMs, it borrowed inspiration from the design elements of iOS, while offering greater functionality than stock Android. However, OPPO’s expansion in international markets such as the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and Europe meant that ColorOS needed to evolve to keep up with the times. The iOS-inspired design elements were now a liability rather than an asset, as they conflicted with stock Android’s design language. To rectify this, OPPO released ColorOS 6, based on Android 9 Pie, in March this year. ColorOS 6 was a good improvement over previous versions, but it still had some functionality drawbacks and aesthetic issues that prevented it from being regarded as one of the better full-featured custom user interface.
OPPO, however, hasn’t given up on improving its software. Android 10 was released in September, and although OPPO wasn’t the quickest device manufacturer to roll out the update to its phones, the company offered a detailed roll-out schedule for the next version of its custom UI, which would be called ColorOS 7. At the end of October, OPPO started rolling out ColorOS 6.7 for the first-generation OPPO Reno. ColorOS 6.7 was very similar to ColorOS 7 (as they’re both Android 10-based), and it saw limited availability as it was only available for one phone. We did an in-depth review of ColorOS 6.7, which also functions as a review of ColorOS as a whole.
OPPO held a separate event for the international launch of ColorOS 7 on November 26 in New Delhi, India, after launching it for the Chinese market on November 20. The event’s location showed that OPPO was focusing on the Indian market, which is no surprise considering that India is the world’s second largest smartphone market. The ColorOS 7 upgrade adoption plan is said to be the largest update plan ever for ColorOS.
The ColorOS 7 update is now being rolled out as a trial version upgrade for users of the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom and OPPO Reno. Users of the OPPO Reno 2 will get the update before the end of the year (as will F11, F11 Pro, and F11 Pro Marvel’s Avengers Limited Edition, and other OPPO phones will receive it in batches. The full roll-out schedule can be read here.
Our ColorOS 6.7 review covers much of what is new in ColorOS 7, so readers are invited to check that out. This article will attempt to cover the ColorOS 7 functionality that was not covered in the older review, such as Smart Assistant, Doc Vault, the one-hand friendly modal UI, and new system sounds, wallpapers, and an all-new icon design. In essence, this review is an addendum. Without any further ado, let’s delve right into ColorOS 7.
About this review: This review was based on three weeks of usage of ColorOS 7 on the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom, which was loaned to XDA by OPPO.
The Good
More minimalist UI
Full support for Android’s notification features
ColorOS 7 has a better dark mode implementation than Google’s stock Android
Rich feature-set that can go head-to-head with top user Android custom interfaces
The Bad
ColorOS 7 has a lot of bloatware, including region-specific bloatware for India
ColorOS 7 is based on Android 10
The latest version of OPPO’s user interface is, as expected, based on the latest version of Android 10. That means users will get all the expected Android 10 features: full-screen navigation gestures, dark mode, more granular permission management, and a mandatory Digital Wellbeing solution (in ColorOS 7, OPPO uses Google’s Digital Wellbeing implementation instead of developing a custom solution). Android 10 in itself is a solid upgrade over Android 9, and it’s good to see that every single flagship feature of it is retained in ColorOS 7.
ColorOS 7’s design is much improved from ColorOS 6.0
OPPO’s ColorOS 7 comes with a new user interface that is a breath of fresh air, as it doesn’t have the blur-focused user interface that so many China-based user interfaces have. Instead, its UI is starkly 2D, starkly minimalist. We went into greater detail in our ColorOS 6.7 review, but suffice it to say that this is not the ColorOS of old. Let’s take one example. The bright contrasting colors in the Control Center (quick settings menu) have vanished. OPPO now uses a single shade of green, and while it may sound insignificant, it makes a big difference when considering the fact that users make use of the Control Center multiple times everyday. Such examples of minimalism are found throughout the UI. The Recent Apps menu, the calling screen, and applications such as the dialer benefit from the lack of visual clutter.
ColorOS 7 has a brand new icon design, featuring rounded squares. The icons themselves are nicer-looking than the those of ColorOS 6.0, as the color scheme is more pleasing to the user’s eyes. OPPO says that the new icon design works with hundreds of third-party apps, ensuring visual consistency. In my usage, all of my third-party apps did adapt seamlessly to OPPO’s rounded square icon design.
The system comes with three new minimalist abstract wallpapers on top of the ColorOS 6 wallpaper collection. Additions include the Hawa Hamal live wallpaper, which is an example of a localized theme. The Artist Wallpaper Project helps users design wallpapers of their own.
ColorOS 7 brings an improved sound system including new ringtones, notification sounds, and alarm sounds. Again, this doesn’t sound a big improvement, but the new default notification sounds are quite good. It’s a small improvement that will be felt everyday, so it’s good to see OPPO nailing the basics.
One of the biggest improvements that ColorOS 7 brings is the modal page that helps one-handed usability of the UI. Samsung popularized this with One UI, and OPPO has now brought its own unique implementation. The toggles in the Control Center are placed lower, which is one thing. The modal page is used in system apps such as Clock, Contacts, and Messaging, and it’s placed on the lower half of the display. This proves beneficial when using phones with big displays, such as the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom, which has a 6.6-inch 19:5:9 display.
ColorOS 7 brings useful functionality on top of Android 10
ColorOS 7 is one of the most full-featured custom user interfaces out there. Its dark mode implementation is better than that of stock Android 10, as explained in our ColorOS 6.7 review. Dark mode in ColorOS 7 is adaptive, with support for hundreds of third-party apps, including the top 200 apps for users. The enhanced three-finger screenshot feature is another great example. Most custom user interfaces feature a gesture to take a screenshot by swiping down with three fingers, but ColorOS 7 lets users take a long screenshot or a short one by defining the screenshot area, which is not found in any other other custom user interface. Screenshots can also be edited instantly after taking them.
Features such as Riding Mode, Smart Assistant, and Doc Vault have been customized for international markets (once again, with a particular focus on India). Riding Mode is a specialized do-not-disturb mode for cyclists/motorcyclists, as it allows calls from only specified contacts and silences other notifications. Doc Vault, on the other hand, consists of a partnership of ColorOS with Indian digital document issuing platform DigitalLocker, which allows users to access digital versions of official documents and certificates straight from their phones. This can be used to speed up the ID verification process in places like airports or hotels, for example. It should be noted that we were unable to test out this feature, given that it is not present in the current ColorOS 7 trial version on the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom.
Smart Assistant is OPPO’s version of the customized left-hand panel on the home screen of the system launcher. OnePlus has its Shelf feature, while Xiaomi has App Vault. However, OPPO’s Smart Assistant is more feature-rich than its two competitors. OPPO describes it as a “handy information platform” that lets users view their step count, manage events, track packages, download popular apps, and more, all in a single place. Smart Assistant’s quick functions lets the user access Google Search, scan documents and cards, and translate text in photos. Users can follow matches in popular games, and popular apps can be downloaded. The weather information can be shown in the Smart Assistant, and users can also choose to enable a favorite contacts widget on the assistant for quick dialing.
The privacy protection features that ColorOS offers is a significant differentiating factor for the custom UI. We have explained the innovative Personal Information Leakage Protection feature in detail in our ColorOS 6.7 review, and the feature won’t be found in any other custom UI for now, although it’s disabled by default. OPPO specifically promotes that unlike most custom user interfaces, ColorOS 7 allows users to decline an app permission requirement while still being able to use the app because of having the option to send blank contact information. The focus on privacy is welcome as ColorOS has 300 million active users according to OPPO. The OS does prioritize user privacy and security.
Private Safe is another example of a privacy-focused feature. It keeps important private files safe by transferring them to a storage folder, where they can’t be accessed, read, or modified by other applications. This requires a privacy protection password – pattern unlock is not eligible here.
In terms of imaging additions, the camera app of ColorOS 7 is visually similar to that of ColorOS 6.0, but comes with functional improvements. Specifically, it has a new Ultra Night Mode. This does prove its worth in the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom by improving image quality to the point where the night mode is a serious competitor for Samsung’s night mode on the Samsung Galaxy S10, for example. Ultra Night Mode is said to optimize the clarity, brightness, and color of photos taken at night through multi-frame HDR and “smart AI algorithms”. The optimized post processing algorithm is also said to reduce image processing time, and therefore, photos in this mode can be generated in 2.5 seconds, improved from the 4-5 second wait time of the older night mode found in ColorOS 6.0.
Apart from this, we have AI Beautification 2.0 (that is thankfully disabled by default), smart AI noise cancellation, and the bokeh effect can now be applied in portraits as well as videos. Smart AI noise cancellation is able to repair pixel-level defects by anticipating noise points to make the sure the photos won’t be grainy and noisy, according to OPPO.
Finally, OPPO also includes its own video editor in ColorOS 7, named Soloop. This is a basic video editor that does the job for casual editing with respect to adding filters and effects, but advanced users will want to head to the Google Play Store and download a third-party app.
In terms of performance improvements, ColorOS 7 doesn’t leave users wanting more. Cache Preload is said to improve app cold starts by 25%. oSense, on the other hand, is said to be a scheduling mechanism that gives priority to front-end and user-related threads to optimize touch response and frame rates. Similarly, oMem is a priority management solution that allocates higher priority to the most frequently used apps. UFS+ is a System Anti-Aging solution, but further details were not given on how the feature works.
Game Space and Game Assistant are OPPO’s implementation of the gaming mode feature that has found its way in most custom user interfaces in 2019. Game Space enables users to manage and quick-launch games, while Game Assistant provides an autoplay feature and a customizable split screen mode. Do Not Disturb is included in Game Assistant, and users can choose to reject incoming calls as well. OPPO says that its oSense tech solution improves touch response by ~21% and frame rates by ~38%.
Conclusion
OPPO has gone from strength to strength in 2019. Its hardware this year has been defined by shark fin popup cameras, the innovative 5x optical zoom periscope camera module on the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom, 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 charging on the OPPO Reno Ace, and other futuristic features. We know that in Q1 2020, the company will announce the OPPO Find X2 with 5G support, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865, a camera with an innovative autofocus solution, and more.
OPPO’s hardware has proved itself to be a differentiating factor; the software needed to keep up.
With ColorOS 7, OPPO has achieved that. Does it have annoyances and small usability issues? Yes, it does. On the other hand, however, it also has unique features that the competition doesn’t have an answer for, at least as of now. In its latest iteration, ColorOS is now an asset for OPPO phones, which can only be a good thing. We are excited to observe OPPO’s hardware and software development efforts in 2020.
We thank OPPO for sponsoring XDA. OPPO had minimal involvement in the creation of the content within this article. In particular, they were consulted for fact-checking. Any opinions expressed are those of the author. Our sponsors help us pay for the many costs associated with running XDA, including servers, developers, writers, and more. While you may see sponsored content alongside Portal content, all of it will be clearly labelled as such. The XDA Portal team will not compromise journalistic integrity by accepting money to write favorably about a company. Our opinion cannot be bought. Sponsored content, advertising, and the XDA Depot are managed by a separate team.
ColorOS is OPPO’s custom user interface on top of Android. At first, its functionality was tailored to users in China, which remains the company’s biggest market. Not unlike other user interfaces from Chinese OEMs, it borrowed inspiration from the design elements of iOS, while offering greater functionality than stock Android. However, OPPO’s expansion in international markets such as the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and Europe meant that ColorOS needed to evolve to keep up with the times. The iOS-inspired design elements were now a liability rather than an asset, as they conflicted with stock Android’s design language. To rectify this, OPPO released ColorOS 6, based on Android 9 Pie, in March this year. ColorOS 6 was a good improvement over previous versions, but it still had some functionality drawbacks and aesthetic issues that prevented it from being regarded as one of the better full-featured custom user interface.
OPPO, however, hasn’t given up on improving its software. Android 10 was released in September, and although OPPO wasn’t the quickest device manufacturer to roll out the update to its phones, the company offered a detailed roll-out schedule for the next version of its custom UI, which would be called ColorOS 7. At the end of October, OPPO started rolling out ColorOS 6.7 for the first-generation OPPO Reno. ColorOS 6.7 was very similar to ColorOS 7 (as they’re both Android 10-based), and it saw limited availability as it was only available for one phone. We did an in-depth review of ColorOS 6.7, which also functions as a review of ColorOS as a whole.
OPPO held a separate event for the international launch of ColorOS 7 on November 26 in New Delhi, India, after launching it for the Chinese market on November 20. The event’s location showed that OPPO was focusing on the Indian market, which is no surprise considering that India is the world’s second largest smartphone market. The ColorOS 7 upgrade adoption plan is said to be the largest update plan ever for ColorOS.
The ColorOS 7 update is now being rolled out as a trial version upgrade for users of the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom and OPPO Reno. Users of the OPPO Reno 2 will get the update before the end of the year (as will F11, F11 Pro, and F11 Pro Marvel’s Avengers Limited Edition, and other OPPO phones will receive it in batches. The full roll-out schedule can be read here.
Our ColorOS 6.7 review covers much of what is new in ColorOS 7, so readers are invited to check that out. This article will attempt to cover the ColorOS 7 functionality that was not covered in the older review, such as Smart Assistant, Doc Vault, the one-hand friendly modal UI, and new system sounds, wallpapers, and an all-new icon design. In essence, this review is an addendum. Without any further ado, let’s delve right into ColorOS 7.
About this review: This review was based on three weeks of usage of ColorOS 7 on the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom, which was loaned to XDA by OPPO.
The Good
More minimalist UI
Full support for Android’s notification features
ColorOS 7 has a better dark mode implementation than Google’s stock Android
Rich feature-set that can go head-to-head with top user Android custom interfaces
The Bad
ColorOS 7 has a lot of bloatware, including region-specific bloatware for India
ColorOS 7 is based on Android 10
The latest version of OPPO’s user interface is, as expected, based on the latest version of Android 10. That means users will get all the expected Android 10 features: full-screen navigation gestures, dark mode, more granular permission management, and a mandatory Digital Wellbeing solution (in ColorOS 7, OPPO uses Google’s Digital Wellbeing implementation instead of developing a custom solution). Android 10 in itself is a solid upgrade over Android 9, and it’s good to see that every single flagship feature of it is retained in ColorOS 7.
ColorOS 7’s design is much improved from ColorOS 6.0
OPPO’s ColorOS 7 comes with a new user interface that is a breath of fresh air, as it doesn’t have the blur-focused user interface that so many China-based user interfaces have. Instead, its UI is starkly 2D, starkly minimalist. We went into greater detail in our ColorOS 6.7 review, but suffice it to say that this is not the ColorOS of old. Let’s take one example. The bright contrasting colors in the Control Center (quick settings menu) have vanished. OPPO now uses a single shade of green, and while it may sound insignificant, it makes a big difference when considering the fact that users make use of the Control Center multiple times everyday. Such examples of minimalism are found throughout the UI. The Recent Apps menu, the calling screen, and applications such as the dialer benefit from the lack of visual clutter.
ColorOS 7 has a brand new icon design, featuring rounded squares. The icons themselves are nicer-looking than the those of ColorOS 6.0, as the color scheme is more pleasing to the user’s eyes. OPPO says that the new icon design works with hundreds of third-party apps, ensuring visual consistency. In my usage, all of my third-party apps did adapt seamlessly to OPPO’s rounded square icon design.
The system comes with three new minimalist abstract wallpapers on top of the ColorOS 6 wallpaper collection. Additions include the Hawa Hamal live wallpaper, which is an example of a localized theme. The Artist Wallpaper Project helps users design wallpapers of their own.
ColorOS 7 brings an improved sound system including new ringtones, notification sounds, and alarm sounds. Again, this doesn’t sound a big improvement, but the new default notification sounds are quite good. It’s a small improvement that will be felt everyday, so it’s good to see OPPO nailing the basics.
One of the biggest improvements that ColorOS 7 brings is the modal page that helps one-handed usability of the UI. Samsung popularized this with One UI, and OPPO has now brought its own unique implementation. The toggles in the Control Center are placed lower, which is one thing. The modal page is used in system apps such as Clock, Contacts, and Messaging, and it’s placed on the lower half of the display. This proves beneficial when using phones with big displays, such as the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom, which has a 6.6-inch 19:5:9 display.
ColorOS 7 brings useful functionality on top of Android 10
ColorOS 7 is one of the most full-featured custom user interfaces out there. Its dark mode implementation is better than that of stock Android 10, as explained in our ColorOS 6.7 review. Dark mode in ColorOS 7 is adaptive, with support for hundreds of third-party apps, including the top 200 apps for users. The enhanced three-finger screenshot feature is another great example. Most custom user interfaces feature a gesture to take a screenshot by swiping down with three fingers, but ColorOS 7 lets users take a long screenshot or a short one by defining the screenshot area, which is not found in any other other custom user interface. Screenshots can also be edited instantly after taking them.
Features such as Riding Mode, Smart Assistant, and Doc Vault have been customized for international markets (once again, with a particular focus on India). Riding Mode is a specialized do-not-disturb mode for cyclists/motorcyclists, as it allows calls from only specified contacts and silences other notifications. Doc Vault, on the other hand, consists of a partnership of ColorOS with Indian digital document issuing platform DigitalLocker, which allows users to access digital versions of official documents and certificates straight from their phones. This can be used to speed up the ID verification process in places like airports or hotels, for example. It should be noted that we were unable to test out this feature, given that it is not present in the current ColorOS 7 trial version on the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom.
Smart Assistant is OPPO’s version of the customized left-hand panel on the home screen of the system launcher. OnePlus has its Shelf feature, while Xiaomi has App Vault. However, OPPO’s Smart Assistant is more feature-rich than its two competitors. OPPO describes it as a “handy information platform” that lets users view their step count, manage events, track packages, download popular apps, and more, all in a single place. Smart Assistant’s quick functions lets the user access Google Search, scan documents and cards, and translate text in photos. Users can follow matches in popular games, and popular apps can be downloaded. The weather information can be shown in the Smart Assistant, and users can also choose to enable a favorite contacts widget on the assistant for quick dialing.
The privacy protection features that ColorOS offers is a significant differentiating factor for the custom UI. We have explained the innovative Personal Information Leakage Protection feature in detail in our ColorOS 6.7 review, and the feature won’t be found in any other custom UI for now, although it’s disabled by default. OPPO specifically promotes that unlike most custom user interfaces, ColorOS 7 allows users to decline an app permission requirement while still being able to use the app because of having the option to send blank contact information. The focus on privacy is welcome as ColorOS has 300 million active users according to OPPO. The OS does prioritize user privacy and security.
Private Safe is another example of a privacy-focused feature. It keeps important private files safe by transferring them to a storage folder, where they can’t be accessed, read, or modified by other applications. This requires a privacy protection password – pattern unlock is not eligible here.
In terms of imaging additions, the camera app of ColorOS 7 is visually similar to that of ColorOS 6.0, but comes with functional improvements. Specifically, it has a new Ultra Night Mode. This does prove its worth in the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom by improving image quality to the point where the night mode is a serious competitor for Samsung’s night mode on the Samsung Galaxy S10, for example. Ultra Night Mode is said to optimize the clarity, brightness, and color of photos taken at night through multi-frame HDR and “smart AI algorithms”. The optimized post processing algorithm is also said to reduce image processing time, and therefore, photos in this mode can be generated in 2.5 seconds, improved from the 4-5 second wait time of the older night mode found in ColorOS 6.0.
Apart from this, we have AI Beautification 2.0 (that is thankfully disabled by default), smart AI noise cancellation, and the bokeh effect can now be applied in portraits as well as videos. Smart AI noise cancellation is able to repair pixel-level defects by anticipating noise points to make the sure the photos won’t be grainy and noisy, according to OPPO.
Finally, OPPO also includes its own video editor in ColorOS 7, named Soloop. This is a basic video editor that does the job for casual editing with respect to adding filters and effects, but advanced users will want to head to the Google Play Store and download a third-party app.
In terms of performance improvements, ColorOS 7 doesn’t leave users wanting more. Cache Preload is said to improve app cold starts by 25%. oSense, on the other hand, is said to be a scheduling mechanism that gives priority to front-end and user-related threads to optimize touch response and frame rates. Similarly, oMem is a priority management solution that allocates higher priority to the most frequently used apps. UFS+ is a System Anti-Aging solution, but further details were not given on how the feature works.
Game Space and Game Assistant are OPPO’s implementation of the gaming mode feature that has found its way in most custom user interfaces in 2019. Game Space enables users to manage and quick-launch games, while Game Assistant provides an autoplay feature and a customizable split screen mode. Do Not Disturb is included in Game Assistant, and users can choose to reject incoming calls as well. OPPO says that its oSense tech solution improves touch response by ~21% and frame rates by ~38%.
Conclusion
OPPO has gone from strength to strength in 2019. Its hardware this year has been defined by shark fin popup cameras, the innovative 5x optical zoom periscope camera module on the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom, 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 charging on the OPPO Reno Ace, and other futuristic features. We know that in Q1 2020, the company will announce the OPPO Find X2 with 5G support, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865, a camera with an innovative autofocus solution, and more.
OPPO’s hardware has proved itself to be a differentiating factor; the software needed to keep up.
With ColorOS 7, OPPO has achieved that. Does it have annoyances and small usability issues? Yes, it does. On the other hand, however, it also has unique features that the competition doesn’t have an answer for, at least as of now. In its latest iteration, ColorOS is now an asset for OPPO phones, which can only be a good thing. We are excited to observe OPPO’s hardware and software development efforts in 2020.
We thank OPPO for sponsoring XDA. OPPO had minimal involvement in the creation of the content within this article. In particular, they were consulted for fact-checking. Any opinions expressed are those of the author. Our sponsors help us pay for the many costs associated with running XDA, including servers, developers, writers, and more. While you may see sponsored content alongside Portal content, all of it will be clearly labelled as such. The XDA Portal team will not compromise journalistic integrity by accepting money to write favorably about a company. Our opinion cannot be bought. Sponsored content, advertising, and the XDA Depot are managed by a separate team.
In terms of imaging additions, the camera app of ColorOS 7 is visually similar to that of ColorOS 6.0, but comes with functional improvements. Specifically, it has a new Ultra Night Mode. This does prove its worth in the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom by improving image quality to the point where the night mode is a serious competitor for