8 ms·

The rise and fall of Oxygen OS

92 points by jiri 5y ago

Twixes 5y ago
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.
Justin_K 5y ago
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.
- brundolf 5y ago
  To be fair, "better than Samsung's" is about the lowest bar you could possibly set
  - robotnikman 5y ago
    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
  - unethical_ban 5y ago
    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.
- edgeform 5y ago
  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.
  - spentu 5y 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.
    - edgeform 5y ago
      > 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.
      - spentu 5y ago
        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.
mrlatinos 5y ago
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.
Scene_Cast2 5y ago
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.
edgeform 5y ago
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-results-1167114/ https://www.androidauthority.com/oneplus-oxygen-os-11-poll-r...
neogodless 5y ago
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.
- ferongr 5y ago
  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.
  - mfkp 5y ago
    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.
  - neogodless 5y ago
    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_beta_2_lock_screen_bug/ https://old.reddit.com/r/oneplus/comments/ldg7gn/op7pro_open... https://old.reddit.com/r/oneplus/comments/mvddho/android_11_on_oneplus_7_pro_is_completely/ https://old.reddit.com/r/oneplus/comments/mvddho/android_11_... https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/lock-screen-scaling-is-wrong.1383081/ https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/lock-screen-scaling-is-wr...
Yaina 5y ago
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.
- warkdarrior 5y 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.
  - teekert 5y ago
    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.
    - alserio 5y ago
      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.
      - teekert 5y ago
        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...
eric__cartman 5y ago
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.
- drewzero1 5y ago
  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.
  - fistynuts 5y ago
    I've got a 6T and wondered what you meant by breaking the notch hiding feature?
    - drewzero1 5y ago
      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/files/styles/larger/public/article_images/2018/05/oneplus-6-notch.gif https://www.androidcentral.com/sites/androidcentral.com/file... [1] https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/notification-bar-displaced-by-hide-notch-setting.1159888/ https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/notification-bar-displace...
at-fates-hands 5y ago
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.
- cogman10 5y ago
  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.
  - mdasen 5y ago
    > 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.
joecool1029 5y ago
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.
jordache 5y ago
"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.
- skulk 5y ago
  huh? That was their announcement in 2015 which this article is quoting for context.
nonbirithm 5y ago
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.
- fistynuts 5y ago
  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.
- distances 5y ago
  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.
shreyshnaccount 5y ago
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?
flakiness 5y ago
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.
handelaar 5y ago
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.
- rkoten 5y ago
  Having a laugh picturing a similar article about Linux.
hsn915 5y ago
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.
- koyote 5y ago
  What kind of bugs are you finding? My OnePlus 6t has been running smooth since day one.
handedness 5y ago
The site renders initially but goes blank unless it can place a cookie. Better link: https://web.archive.org/web/20210624160327/https://www.androidauthority.com/oneplus-oxygen-os-rise-fall-1234103/ https://web.archive.org/web/20210624160327/https://www.andro...
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 5y ago
  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

92 points by jiri 5y ago

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.

Justin_K 5y ago

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.

brundolf 5y ago
To be fair, "better than Samsung's" is about the lowest bar you could possibly set
- robotnikman 5y ago
  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
- unethical_ban 5y ago
  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.
edgeform 5y ago
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.
- spentu 5y 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.
  - edgeform 5y ago
    > 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.
    - spentu 5y ago
      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.

mrlatinos 5y ago

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.

Scene_Cast2 5y ago

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.

edgeform 5y ago

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-results-1167114/ https://www.androidauthority.com/oneplus-oxygen-os-11-poll-r...

neogodless 5y ago

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.

ferongr 5y ago
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.
- mfkp 5y ago
  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.
- neogodless 5y ago
  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_beta_2_lock_screen_bug/ https://old.reddit.com/r/oneplus/comments/ldg7gn/op7pro_open... https://old.reddit.com/r/oneplus/comments/mvddho/android_11_on_oneplus_7_pro_is_completely/ https://old.reddit.com/r/oneplus/comments/mvddho/android_11_... https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/lock-screen-scaling-is-wrong.1383081/ https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/lock-screen-scaling-is-wr...

Yaina 5y ago

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.

warkdarrior 5y 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.
- teekert 5y ago
  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.
  - alserio 5y ago
    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.
    - teekert 5y ago
      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...

eric__cartman 5y ago

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.

drewzero1 5y ago
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.
- fistynuts 5y ago
  I've got a 6T and wondered what you meant by breaking the notch hiding feature?
  - drewzero1 5y ago
    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/files/styles/larger/public/article_images/2018/05/oneplus-6-notch.gif https://www.androidcentral.com/sites/androidcentral.com/file... [1] https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/notification-bar-displaced-by-hide-notch-setting.1159888/ https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/notification-bar-displace...

at-fates-hands 5y ago

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.

cogman10 5y ago
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.
- mdasen 5y ago
  > 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.

joecool1029 5y ago

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.

jordache 5y ago

"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.

skulk 5y ago
huh? That was their announcement in 2015 which this article is quoting for context.

nonbirithm 5y ago

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.

fistynuts 5y ago
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.
distances 5y ago
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.

shreyshnaccount 5y ago

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?

flakiness 5y ago

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.

handelaar 5y ago

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.

rkoten 5y ago
Having a laugh picturing a similar article about Linux.

hsn915 5y ago

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.

koyote 5y ago
What kind of bugs are you finding? My OnePlus 6t has been running smooth since day one.

handedness 5y ago

The site renders initially but goes blank unless it can place a cookie. Better link: https://web.archive.org/web/20210624160327/https://www.androidauthority.com/oneplus-oxygen-os-rise-fall-1234103/ https://web.archive.org/web/20210624160327/https://www.andro...

1vuio0pswjnm7 5y ago
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