What you need to know
- OnePlus shared details about OxygenOS 16.1, which is rolling out now for the OnePlus 15 5G in India.
- Many of its AI features have received small QoL upgrades, such as its document scanning, which leans on AI to help remove blemishes.
- The camera is also receiving a few upgrades to clean its UI for an "intuitive" shooting experience.
If you've been waiting for the next software release from OnePlus, wait no more, as the OnePlus 15 receives it in batches.
This week, OnePlus detailed its OxygenOS 16.1 patch, which is rolling out for the OnePlus 15 5G in India. The brand revealed its patch notes in full, detailing what's coming for its AI suite. The Translate app for the phone now offers a "dedicated on-device AI model" for more accurate translations when you're offline. Editing photos into a brilliant creation through Collage's Pop out mode brings adjustable borders, directions, and more.
Scanned documents are automatically entered into your Documents app and can be found in "recents." OnePlus highlights upgrades to its scanning, stating that it's become quicker and its software now removes paper wrinkles, shadows, and blurs with a tap.
For the sake of customization, OxygenOS 16.1 rolls out updates for Live Space. The lock screen has received a "dual-mode design featuring a notification capsule that displays notifications and Live Updates without covering the wallpaper." Users can swipe down to collapse the lock screen notifications and Live Alerts into a "tidy capsule." Swiping back up unveils the full list. Color or category-based organization heads to the home screen, and the layouts you decide are now auto-saved as you progress.
Smoother animations enhance floating window actions in OxygenOS 16.1, as well as AI-reconstructed touch recognition to reduce jitters in apps. You can read the full patch notes, but we will also highlight a few more key points.
- Introduces Master presets. You can now save your custom parameters as presets and share them via watermarks.
- Upgrades Camera with cleaner UIs and more natural interactions, resulting in a smoother, more intuitive shooting experience.
- You can now adjust the speaker's sound effects via the equalizer. Choose from various effects like Pop and Rock, or customize the effects across different frequency bands. You can find this feature in "Settings - Sound & vibration - Sound effect settings - Custom."
- Better protection against unwanted calls: enhanced caller identification can now recognize telemarketing, spam, and suspected fraud calls.
OxygenOS 16 felt fresh
OxygenOS 16 was officially announced last October, positioned as a piece of software that truly knows its user. Intelligent data interactions were said to carry their personalized experience, thanks to AI. OxygenOS 16 completely revamped the UI with customizable themes, app visual enhancements, and more. Of course, OnePlus didn't conclude things without detailing its AI features, which we've seen pick up some sweet upgrades with its v16.1 update.
For me, the animations/lock screen upgrades and the gaming capabilities that OnePlus brought won me over. OxygenOS 16 looked amazing. I was truly impressed with how far OnePlus went with it. OxygenOS 16.1 is a bit toned down in that sense, only because we're not drowning in so many new features. Still, the company is rolling out little enhancements to keep those original features feeling top tier.
In our review of OxygenOS 16 on the OnePlus 13, the software's animations, lock screens, and gaming capabilities stole the show. Games could finally run at 120fps with OxygenOS 16. When it came to lock screens, OnePlus got fancy, deploying a new set of tools to make the phone feel like its owner.
