[HN Gopher] The rise and fall of Oxygen OS
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The rise and fall of Oxygen OS
Author : jiri
Score : 87 points
Date : 2021-06-22 07:44 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.androidauthority.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.androidauthority.com)
| eric__cartman wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| I've got a 6T and wondered what you meant by breaking the
| notch hiding feature?
| nonbirithm wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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.
| Twixes wrote:
| 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.
| joecool1029 wrote:
| 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.
| Justin_K wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| To be fair, "better than Samsung's" is about the lowest bar you
| could possibly set
| unethical_ban wrote:
| 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.
| robotnikman wrote:
| 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
| edgeform wrote:
| 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.
| flakiness wrote:
| 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.
| neogodless wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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.
| jordache wrote:
| "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 wrote:
| huh? That was their announcement in 2015 which this article is
| quoting for context.
| at-fates-hands wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| > 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.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| 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.
| mrlatinos wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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...
| Yaina wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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.
| alserio wrote:
| 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
| teekert wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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.
| joecool1029 wrote:
| >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...
| leucineleprec0n wrote:
| 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...
| joecool1029 wrote:
| >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/wi
| ki/First_Responder_Network_Author...
| handelaar wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Having a laugh picturing a similar article about Linux.
| shreyshnaccount wrote:
| 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?
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