Oppo shows off ColorOS 15, full of smooth animations and lots of iOS… ‘inspiration’ [Video]

Ben Schoon | Oct 17 2024 - 1:45 pm PT

Ahead of a rollout starting in November, Oppo has revealed ColorOS 15 with some big UI changes, but also a lot of… let’s say “inspiration” from iOS.

At an event in China today, Oppo revealed ColorOS 15 (via GSMArena), its Android 15 update. The new version brings several UI updates as well as a huge focus on animations. The “Aurora and Tidal Engine” lets animations run in parallel for a smoother experience when switching between apps, while “Motion Effects” improve the animations both in Oppo’s apps, as well as third-party apps. Oppo also says that behind-the-scenes improvements speed up app installation by 26% while app responsiveness should be around 18% better.

But there are much more impactful changes here.

For one, Oppo has split the notification shade from the Quick Settings, something that Samsung is doing in One UI 7, and that even Google is rumored to do in the future. There are also a bunch of new AI features including a new way to interact with Oppo’s XiaoBu Assistant using natural language, as well as using XiaoBu to circle content on screen to search for more information about it. AI will also be used for image processing and editing, such as blur removal, image upscaling, reflection removal, and more. AI can also summarize content in apps such as the Notes app and the voice recorder.

If you spend just a moment watching Oppo’s promo videos for ColorOS 15, though, you’ll also see a ton of features that are pretty clearly copies of iOS features. There’s a blatant clone of Dynamic Island, a huge focus on a heavily customizable lock screen that looks eerily similar to Apple’s implementation (such as separating pieces of the wallpaper and being able to store multiple lock screen configurations).

Even Oppo’s AI assistant has the same interface as Siri with Apple Intelligence, with a colorful light-up border around the screen when the assistant is activated.

Oppo will start rolling out ColorOS 15 in November on devices such as Find X7, expanding to dozens of Oppo and OnePlus devices in China (and in the global market) through March of next year.

OnePlus today announced plans to show off its own Android 15 update, OxygenOS 15, next week which is expected to have essentially all of the same features and designs, just meant for the global market.