OnePlus 10 Pro long-term review

OxygenOS 12.1, updates

The OnePlus 10 Pro runs Android 12 underneath OxygenOS 12.1, which is rather hard to tell as the version of the skin isn't mentioned in the About section of Settings, weirdly enough. Anyway, think of OxygenOS 12.1 as ColorOS 12.1 with some OnePlus customizations and tweaks, and you'll get a pretty reasonable picture of what to expect.

Current software at the time of writing

Now, a lot of people will instantly dislike this arrangement, and if the argument is that losing a truly independent OxygenOS reduces choice in the Android skin game, we hear you. But a lot of people simply don't like ColorOS, and that's it. This we find harder to grasp, as Oppo's skin is now one of the fastest, smoothest, and more bug-free options you can get. So it's a solid base for OnePlus to come and modify slightly in order to make OxygenOS 12.1 out of it. Sure, before version 7, ColorOS was just a bafflingly executed iOS clone, but it's been many years since that was the case, and if you haven't looked at it since, maybe you should.

Settings

For someone who isn't a die-hard fan of the 'old', purer version of OxygenOS, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the 12.1 incarnation, ColorOS-tinted as it may be. The user interface is easy enough to navigate, the user experience is great thanks to the unmatched smoothness all over, and we have encountered only two bugs throughout our time with the OnePlus 10 Pro, on two different software versions.

The first was already mentioned in the Battery life section and has to do with Optimized night charging not doing what it's supposed to, while the second relates to having dark gray on black text in Gmail notifications - not for the email titles, mind you, but for the content. It's a minor niggle (since you can still read the titles of the emails), and while the basic assumption is there's something wrong with OxygenOS' dark mode implementation here, there is a slim chance it's a weird interaction between the skin and the app creating the problem.

Those being the only bugs we've encountered is definitely praiseworthy considering that the previous OnePlus model we reviewed long-term, the Nord 2, was an entirely different animal, with plenty of issues throughout the software. Perhaps the company simply pays more attention to high-end devices, optimizing the builds better, and that's a good thing for a prospective OnePlus 10 Pro owner, despite not being great for anyone wanting to buy a mid-ranger.

The end result is that this is the smoothest Android skin we've ever used, and so despite all of the Oppo merger shenanigans, at least that part of OnePlus' unique selling points hasn't changed. Hopefully, it never does.

Update cadence, on the other hand, could definitely be improved. As we write this in early August, the OnePlus 10 Pro still has the June security patch level, and that's now two months behind. We're confident an update is coming soon, but only issuing security fixes once every couple of months is not great compared to most of the competition, especially Samsung.

Personalizations, multitasking, screenshots

The Personalizations section in Settings neatly groups together all of the things you can do to alter the appearance of the software, and we're big fans of having such a quickly accessible hub for when you want a fresh coat of paint on your device, even if some of the settings in here are duplicated elsewhere. That's a tradeoff we think is worth it, as for people who are just getting their first OnePlus device it's very easy to notice this and jump straight in without having to surface stuff from multiple Settings sub-sections. This also helps new users realize how many things they can actually customize to their liking.

You can switch wallpapers, control the AOD functionality, as well as customize icon shapes and sizes, Quick Settings icons' shape and color accent, the color accent used throughout the skin, fonts and display size, the fingerprint animation, and the behavior of the Horizon light which comes up on the curves of the screen when you get a notification or call. That's a lot of stuff, nicely packed into one area, and it should allow people to quickly customize their software experience in a matter of minutes, every time they want to.

Personalizations

Another thing we really appreciate about OxygenOS 12.1 (and ColorOS 12.1, since they share this feature) is the ability to easily switch into split-screen multitasking mode by swiping up with three fingers. This puts the app you are currently in at the top, allowing you to quickly select another app for the lower portion of the screen. No messing with the Recent apps menu first or anything like that.

This has made us use split-screen multitasking much more than on devices that don't have such a quick way of getting into it, and we wanted to mention it because you may not be aware it's even a thing, unless you're the type to take a deep dive into Settings to look at every nook and cranny to be found over there. This is on by default, thankfully, but if for some reason you don't like it, you can switch it off.

Screenshot gesture settings

The same goes for capturing a screenshot by doing the opposite gesture - swiping down with three fingers. That said, pressing the power and volume down buttons simultaneously is a similarly quick way to achieve the same goal, so there's less of a speed improvement here than for multitasking. Still, it's nice to have an extra option to take a screenshot, we don't mind. Speaking of which, you can also touch and hold with three fingers to take a partial or scrolling screenshot.

Dark mode, gesture navigation

As we already mentioned, the OnePlus 10 Pro comes with a Dark mode. This can be on or off, made to auto switch on either from sunset to sunrise or during a custom time interval, and you have three darkness options: Gentle, Medium, and Enhanced. We always like the true blackness of the Enhanced mode, but if that's too much for you then you can pick one of the other two, for an added bit of flexibility.

We'd like it if all Android skins had something like this, but for now only ColorOS and its derivatives do - OxygenOS and Realme UI. You can also have it so the screen color contrast intensity is adjusted automatically based on ambient lighting conditions, while wallpapers and icons can be 'adjusted' to Dark mode too, meaning they get darker so that if you have a light-colored wallpaper or icon theme it won't sear your retinas while using Dark mode. This is probably the most customizable Dark mode on the market right now, and we love it.

Dark mode settings

The Beta-labeled 'Dark mode for third-party apps' function, though, is pointless. It's hilariously only available for AliExpress, LinkedIn, and Speedtest. The laughably small number of supported apps aside, LinkedIn actually has a dark mode of its own now, and Speedtest's UI has always been dark by default, so the usefulness of this feature is highly debatable.

In this day and age, most third-party apps have thankfully got their own dark themes, and some of them can even apply those automatically if your phone is in Dark mode, so this will probably never come out of Beta and instead will be on its way out in future versions of OxygenOS. Can't say we'd miss it if it did go away, especially in this barebones incarnation.

Gesture navigation is supported, of course, and it works like a charm all the time. We're thankful that you can remove the "gesture guide bar" white pill-shaped abomination that takes up screen real estate at the bottom, maybe Google should take note of the fact that this is pretty much an option in every third-party skin now? We also like that the Back gesture can trigger a vibration, as that just enhances the perceived physicality of the motion.

Gesture navigation settings

Although other skins have done away with this, OxygenOS still lets you quickly switch to the previous app by performing the Back gesture and then holding for a bit. That's a very good option to have if you don't want to constantly swipe across the bottom to perform the same task.

Launcher, Recents

The launcher that ships with the OnePlus 10 Pro has all the features you'd expect, including a choice between having an app drawer and not having one, and nothing more, but it's perfectly competent, and we've had no issues with it.

Home screen, app drawer, Google Discover feed

Well, aside from one - by default, if you swipe down from the top right corner, you're getting the OnePlus Shelf, which has been relocated here from its previous position to the left of the leftmost home screen. That's now where the Google Discover feed resides, which is a plus, but why the Shelf hasn't been provided simply as an alternative option for that position and nothing more (like Samsung does for its Today feed) is beyond us.

The Shelf setting and where to find it

The Shelf showing up when you swipe down just clutters the UI for no reason and will confuse people who are looking for their notification panel and who don't know that you can actually disable the Shelf popping up. We immediately did, and hopefully, this will be useful to those who aren't aware of what's going on.

Similarly, you can have the swipe down from anywhere else around the top bring down a global search menu or the notification area. We're fans of the latter choice, especially on devices this big, as otherwise it would take a lot of finger gymnastics to reach the absolute top of the screen. Then again, if you hate quickly being able to look at notifications and would rather search for something or look at the Shelf, you can do those things too.

Launcher settings

The Recent apps display is the usual horizontally scrolling affair, with the ColorOS / OxygenOS touch on top which means there's a row of the app icons right under their respective screenshots, and if you swipe across this row of icons you get much faster scrolling than if you swipe across the screenshots.

Recent apps

We would have liked to see some app predictions somewhere, like in One UI, especially as there seems to be enough room for that, too if the Close all button wasn't unnecessarily huge (and not to mention totally unneeded to begin with). Then again, having a row of suggested apps' icons right under a row of the recent apps' icons might get confusing, so as things stand in the Android world you get one or the other but not both.