Lenovo Yoga 7i (2022) review: A stylish mainstream laptop with a ton of value

On its own, this year’s Lenovo Yoga 7i is an excellent laptop. What I mean by that if that if no one told you that this is a mainstream device, you wouldn’t think less of it. It’s just that good. It’s got a great keyboard that feels awesome to type on, a new design that feels premium, and excellent Dolby Atmos speakers.

The one thing that I don’t care for is the screen. The 300-nit 2.2K LCD doesn’t feel bright enough. Luckily, there’s an OLED option, which you should totally opt for if you can.

But while this is a great laptop overall at $1,199, it’s actually $300 off at Best Buy at the time of this writing. For $899, it’s an absolute steal, offering more value than any other laptop in the game. There’s also a base model that’s on sale for $699. You can’t beat it.

Lenovo Yoga 7i

The Lenovo Yoga 7i is a great overall laptop, packing Intel's 12th-gen processors, an all-new design, and more.

Features:

Pros: Cons:

See at Best Buy

Navigate this review:

• Lenovo Yoga 7i pricing and availability
• Lenovo Yoga 7i specs
• Design: It comes in a pretty new Stone Blue color
• Display: The good model comes with 2.8K OLED
• Keyboard and touchpad: Excellent for a mainstream laptop
• Performance: It uses Intel’s 12th-gen U-series processors
• Should you buy the Lenovo Yoga 7i (2022)?

Lenovo Yoga 7i (2022) pricing and availability

• The Lenovo Yoga 7i comes in Stone Blue and Storm Gray, and starts at $999

Available now, the Lenovo Yoga 9i starts at $999.99, and you can get it from retailers like Lenovo.com and Best Buy. That price will get you a Core i5-1235U processor, 8GB LPDDR5 RAM, a 512GB SSD, and 2.2K LCD. At the time of this writing though, it’s actually $300 off at Best Buy.

The unit that Lenovo sent me for review includes a Core i7-1255U, 16GB RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 2.2K LCD, and that one will run you $1,199.99 at Best Buy. It’s also $300 off right now. It also comes in the new Stone Blue color, with the other option being the more traditional Stone Grey.

Lenovo Yoga 7i (2022) specs

Processor	Intel Core i7-1255U
Graphics	Intel Iris Xe
Body	12.47″ x 8.67″ x 0.68″ (326.66mm x 220.25 mm x 17.35mm), 3.3lbs (1.5kg)
Display	14”, 2.2K LCD (2240 x 1400) IPS, 300 nits, 100% sRGB, 60 Hz, 16:10 (WUXGA), Touchscreen
Memory	16GB LPDDR5
Storage	512GB PCIe NVMe
Ports	2 x USB-C (Thunderbolt 4.0 / PD / DisplayPort / USB 4.0) 1 x HDMI 2.0 1 x microSD Card Reader (UHS-1(104) PCIe Gen 1) 1 x USB-A (USB 3.2 Gen 1) 1 x Audio Combo Jack 1 x Power Button
Connectivity	Intel Wi-Fi 6E + Bluetooth 5.2
Audio	2 x 2W user-facing tweeters and 2 x 2W woofers Dolby Atmos Speaker System
Keyboard	6-row, multimedia Fn keys, LED backlight Precision Touchpad
Battery	71Wh
Material	Aluminum
Color	Stone Blue
OS	Windows 11 Home
Price	$1,199.99

There’s also an option for a 2.8K OLED display, and not only does it have a better screen, but that model is 0.2 pounds lighter.

Design: It comes in a pretty new Stone Blue color

• It has two Thunderbolt 4 ports, one USB Type-A port, HDMI, and a microSD card slot
• It features Lenovo’s Comfort Edge design

There are two key things to know about the look and feel of the Lenovo Yoga 7i. One is that there’s a new color. You can get it in Storm Grey, which is the normal gunmetal gray color that Lenovo has been putting in consumer laptops for ages, or you can get it in the all-new Stone Blue. Personally, I love the new color.

I also hate Storm Grey. It’s boring, and nothing about it feels inspired at all. Stone Blue is a nice change. It’s a subtle shade of blue that could be mistaken for gray in the wrong lighting, but it’s not a light color like Microsoft’s Ice Blue or Apple’s Sierra Blue. This is a darker color, and it gives it a stylish and personalized look that doesn’t come off at too flashy.

Stone Blue feels stylish and personal without being too flashy.

The other thing that you need to know is that it has Lenovo’s new Comfort Edge design, which ddebuted with the Yoga 9i. Comfort Edge is coming to most of Lenovo’s consumer laptops, and I’m here for it. It offers soft, curved edges instead of the flat edges and sharp corners that we’re used to. Not only is it more stylish, but it’s more functional, making it easier to life the lid.

A key difference between the Yoga 7i and the Yoga 9i is that the more premium Yoga 9i has mirrored edges, where the Yoga 7i is all matte. It’s a bit more subtle, which is probably better for many people.

The port selection is about what you’d expect from one of Lenovo’s consumer laptops these days, meaning that there are two USB Type-C ports and one USB Type-A port. The left side actually has the two Thunderbolt 4 ports, microSD, and an HDMI port. Dual Thunderbolt ports are nice to see at this price point, since so many companies have cheaped out and included only one.

On the right side, you’ll find the USB Type-A port, a headphone jack, and the power button.

The port selection is fine. Like I said, you’ll find that combo of two USB Type-C ports and one USB Type-A port on tons of Lenovo consumer laptops; the same goes for HP too, in fact. HDMI is great if you need it, as is microSD.

I’m personally just a big fan of the design of Lenovo’s newest laptops. They’re not wedge-shaped like many devices are; they’re a uniform thickness throughout. It makes it feel good to use, and it makes it feel like the weight is evenly distributed.

Display: The good model comes with 2.8K OLED

• The two display options are 2.2K LCD and 2.8K OLED

As usual, the Yoga 7i comes with a 14-inch display, and this one is 16:10. The aspect ratio is pretty common now, and frankly, it’s just better than the 16:9 displays that we’ve seen in previous years. There are two options: 2.2K LCD and 2.8K OLED. Obviously, OLED is better, but it’s actually a lot better.

For one thing, the OLED model can go up to 90Hz, while the LCD one is capped at 60Hz. The OLED screen is also brighter at 400 nits instead of 300 nits. Frankly, the 2.2K screen on the variant that Lenovo sent me – while offering sufficient resolution – isn’t very good.

As you can see, it supports 99% sRGB, 76% NTSC, 80% Adobe RGB, and 81% P3. You can bet that the OLED screen would be in the 90s across the board. On the 2.8K OLED screen on the Yoga 9i (presumably, it’s the same panel), it supported 100% sRGB, 92% NTSC, 94% Adobe RGB, and 100% P3.

Brightness came in at 299.5 nits, right around the 300 nits that were promised. The Contrast ratio maxed out at 1,280:1, which is fine, but again, it’s nowhere near what you’d see with OLED.

On the LCD panel that this model has, it’s just fine. After all, the Yoga 7i is all about value. With some of the deals that are offered, you can get this unit that has the 2.2K LCD, a Core i7-1255U, 16GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD all for under $900. And despite all of that, it’s a really good laptop. But if you want that kind of value for the price, OLED simply won’t come standard.

One thing that’s nice is that it has a 1080p webcam, which is pretty good. It’s not as good as the 5MP sensor that HP is using these days, but it’s much better than we’ve seen on the 720p cameras that were on previous years’ laptops. It also has a privacy guard that you can use in case you’re worried about that.

The one issue with the privacy guard, of course, is that it will also block Windows Hello facial recognition, which this laptop does include. I’ve started keeping Windows Hello off by default, given that Microsoft has done virtually nothing to improve the experience since it was introduced with Windows 10 in 2015. If you’re OK with typing a PIN, then turning on the privacy guard won’t be an issue.

Keyboard and touchpad: Excellent for a mainstream laptop

• As usual, Lenovo offers one of the best keyboards
• It has Dolby Atmos speakers on the keyboard deck

The keyboard really hasn’t changed generation over generation. Probably the biggest difference is just the feel since it’s not a wedge-shaped design anymore. I really do like this design for Lenovo’s laptops a lot.

The keyboard is both comffortable and accurate. When you type on it, it feels premium. The keys don’t seem to wobble, it’s fairly quiet, and the amount of force required to press a key feels just right. Naturally, it’s backlit as well. Considering how premium it feels, it’s really nice to see at the price point.

The touchpad is great too. It’s a Precision touchpad, as you’d expect, and it takes up most of the available real estate. You can see to the right that there’s also a fingerprint sensor, in case you’re not a fan of facial recognition.

The speakers are located right on the keyboard deck, and they’re pretty great. The two speakers that flank the keyboard are 2W tweeters, while there are two 2W woofers on the bottom of the laptop. They’re both loud and clear, and they sound fantastic whether you’re using the laptop in laptop mode, tent mode, or anything in-between.

Performance: It uses Intel’s 12th-gen U-series processors

• Intel’s 12th-gen U-series processors are the right choice
• Battery life is pretty great thanks to a 71WHr battery

The Lenovo Yoga 7i packs Intel’s 12th-gen U-series processors, and I love it. There are lots of choices for laptops at this point. Intel has three of its own, but in my experience, when you try to pack a 28W P-series processor or a 45W H-series processor into an ultrabook chassis, you end up with issues with sustained performance, and it eats up battery life. AMD has some great new Ryzen 6000 U-series processors, but those, like their predecessors, struggle with performance when not connected to power.

Intel’s 15W 12th-gen U-series processors just feel like the sweet spot for me. This is a productivity-focused machine, and the performance is great for that. It’s also good for photo editing. Intel didn’t really offer any improvements to Iris Xe graphics with this generation, but it’s still pretty good.

For benchmarks, I used PCMark 10, 3DMark, Geekbench, Cinebench, and CrossMark.

	Lenovo Yoga 7i (2022) Core i7-1255U	Lenovo Yoga 9i Core i7-1260P	Huawei MateBook 16S Core i7-12700H
PCMark 10	5,453	5,616	5,501
3DMark: Time Spy	1,774	1,678	1,957
Geekbench 5 (single / multi)	1,694 / 8,370	1,736 / 9,525	1,779 / 9,789
Cinebench R23 (single / multi)	1,763 / 7,315	1,638 / 7,757	1,815 / 10,615
CrossMark (overall / prodictivity / creativity / respnose time)	1,492 / 1,420 / 1,661 / 1,251	1,454 / 1,353 / 1,650 / 1,235	1,720 / 1,576 / 1,917 / 1,619

If you want battery life, you came to the right place.

As you can see, there isn’t that much of a performance difference between the three tiers of Intel processors that are showing up in ultrabooks. The Yoga 9i does better with the P-series processor, but it’s also using a similar chassis. I have other test results, like the Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360, that use a 28W processor and actually gets a lower PCMark 10 score.

Battery life is pretty great too. The worst I got was five hours and 18 minutes, and the best I got was six hours and 50 minutes. As usual, this was with the power slider set to balanced. Screen brightness was set to 75%, since that’s the lowest that was comfortable with this 300-nit screen. If you can average six hours of battery life on an x86 laptop, and you can with this one, that’s pretty great.

Should you buy the Lenovo Yoga 7i (2022)?

The Lenovo Yoga 7i is an excellent convertible laptop. Here’s who should buy it.

Who should buy the Lenovo Yoga 7i (2022):

• People who want a lot of value for their money
• People that work from home
• Anyone that takes their laptop on the go and needs battery life

Who should not buy the Lenovo Yoga 7i (2022):

• Customers that need a lot of power for editing video
• Those that want the best of the best

Using the Yoga 7i, I’m kind of in love with it. It’s such a great convertible. But still, I’m even more in love with the Yoga 9i. After all, that’s why it tops our best laptops list. So if you do want the best of the best, you should totally go for the Yoga 9i. For a bit more value, the Yoga 7i is a fantastic choice.

The post Lenovo Yoga 7i (2022) review: A stylish mainstream laptop with a ton of value appeared first on XDA.

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Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 vs Oppo Find N: How does Samsung’s improved foldable fare against 2021’s best foldable hardware?

For most people in the world, if they want a foldable phone, it’s Samsung or nothing. But if you live in China, or you are an enthusiast open to importing, then you have other options.

And these options aren’t also-rans. They arguably have been pushing foldable innovations at a faster pace than Samsung’s Fold series. Let’s take a look at how Samsung’s newest Galaxy Z Fold 4 compares against arguably 2021’s best foldable hardware, the Oppo Find N.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 is Samsung's latest flagship foldable, packing high-end specs and up to 512GB of internal storage. You can't expand it with a microSD card, though.

See at Samsung

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Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Oppo Find N: Specifications

	Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4	Oppo Find N
CPU	Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1	Snapdragon 888
Dimensions and weight	Folded: 67.1 x 155.1 x 14.2- 15.8mm Unfolded: 130.1 x 155.1 x 6.3mm 263g	Folded: 132.6 x 73 x 15.9 mm Unfolded: 132.6 x 140.2 x 8.0 mm 275g
Display	Inner display: 7.6-inch QXGA+ Dynamic -AMOLED 2X Display 22.5:18 aspect ratio 2208 x 1768 120Hz Cover display: 6.2-inch HD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display 24.5:9 aspect ratio 2268 x 832 120Hz	Inner display: 7.1″ flexible OLED with UTG 1792 x 1920 120Hz refresh rate Cover display: 5.5″ AMOLED screen 988 x 1972 60Hz refresh rate 18:9 aspect ratio
Camera	12MP ultra-wide, f/2.2 ultra-wide, FoV 123-degree 50MP wide, f/1.8, Dual Pixel AF, OIS 10MP telephoto, 3x optical zoom 10MP front-facing selfie camera 4MP front-facing under-screen selfie camera	50 MP wide, f/1.8, 24mm (wide), 1/1.56″ 16 MP ultra-wide f/2.2, 14mm (ultra-wide), 123˚ 13 MP, 2X telephoto f/2.4, 52mm (telephoto), 1/3.4″
Memory	12GB RAM, 256GB/512GB UFS 3.1 storage	12GB RAM, 256GB/512GB UFS 3.1 storage
Battery	4,400mAh dual battery	4,500mAh
Network	LTE: Enhanced 4X4 MIMO, 7CA, LAA, LTE Cat. 20 5G
Water Resistance	IPX8	None
Sensors	Capacitive fingerprint sensor (side), Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyro sensor, Geomagnetic sensor, Hall sensor (analog), Proximity sensor, Light sensor, Wacom layer for stylus input	Capacitive fingerprint sensor (side), Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyro sensor, Geomagnetic sensor
OS	Android 12L with One UI on top	Android 12 with ColorOS on top
Colors	Blue, Silver, Black	Blue, grey (vegan leather)
Price	Starts at $1,799	Starts at 8,201 yuan (around $1,200)

Note: All photos showing both phones side-by-side are of the Oppo Find N and the Galaxy Z Fold 3. As I am currently on the road, I do not have access to both devices at the same time. But considering that the Fold 3 and Fold 4 look almost identical save for a couple of mm in height and width, the photos will still give you a good idea of scale. Any photo showing just Samsung’s foldable is of the Galaxy Z Fold 4.

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Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 vs Oppo Find N: Design and Hardware

Both devices are inner folding devices, a design pioneered by Samsung. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 is quite a bit taller, with a 7.6-inch, 10.8:9 aspect ratio main display compared to the Find N’s 7.1-inch, 8.4:9 aspect ratio main screen.

The Galaxy Z Fold 4.

These aspect ratios mean the Fold 4’s main screen is an upright rectangle while the Find N’s screen is a sideways rectangle. Oppo reasons its wider landscape style main screen is more ideal for consuming videos, but most Android apps display better in portrait orientation, so they tend to fit Samsung’s upright rectangle shape better.

The Oppo Find N.

When folded, the Find N is very compact, with a 5.5-inch, 18:9 screen compared to the Fold 4’s 6.2-inch, 23.1:9 screen. Oppo’s aspect ratio is much closer to a typical smartphone, so when it comes to the outside display, it is the Find N that will display apps more properly. Do not the photo below shows the Find N next to a Z Fold 3, not the newest Z Fold 4. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 is slightly shorter and wider, but for the most part, the Z Fold 4 will still tower over the Find N like so.

Find N and Z Fold 3.

Each phone trade blows in other hardware bits. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 supports an official IPX8 water resistance rating (meaning it can be submerged in water and survive) while the Find N has no such official rating. The Z Fold 4 also supports the S-Pen stylus, though that requires an additional purchase.

The Find N, however, can fold entirely flat, without leaving a gap at the folding point the way Samsung’s foldables do. And the Find N’s main screen doesn’t have a hard crease thanks to a “waterdrop” hinge design that allows the screen to fold at a less harsh angle. There is still a slight crease on the Find N screen, it’s just a lot less noticeable than the harsh crease in the Galaxy Z Fold 4.

Oppo’s screen crease is very hard to see and feel, while Samsung’s screen crease is quite noticeable.

Both hinges can stay in place mid-fold, allowing the phones to work as a mini laptop of sorts. This ingenious feature was pioneered by Samsung, so it deserves credit. This feature is an absolute game changer for me, as I often use these foldables to take hands-free video calls or selfies.

SoC, memory, and battery

Since the Find N came out last year, it runs on the older Snapdragon 888 compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 4’s Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1. The newer chip is obviously better, but exactly how much depends on your usage. The most important thing to note is the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 is more energy efficient, so it should bring better battery life than the Find N in theory, considering both phones have similar battery sizes.

However, my own testing with the Find N yielded excellent battery life, and I haven’t had the chance to do the same testing with the Fold 4 yet. Both phones run on 12GB of RAM and come with either 256GB or 512GB of storage.

Cameras

Both the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Find N pack a triple-lens main system headlined by a 50MP main camera with a 1/1.55-inch image sensor. They are different sensors, however, with the Find N using Sony’s IMX766 and the Fold 4 using Samsung’s own GN5. Performance is very similar between these two sensors, however, as they’re direct competitors, both capturing pixel-binned 12.5MP shots. Photos captured by the main cameras of both are going to be vibrant and well-detailed, with even a bit of natural bokeh if you get close enough to a subject. These aren’t ultimate tip-top flagship sensors, but very good ones anyway.

For ultra-wide, the Fold 4 uses a 12MP f/2.2 shooter to the Find N’s 16MP, also f/2.2 ultra-wide. Samsung takes the lead in zoom photography here, with a 10MP f.2.4 telephoto that can produce 3X optical zoom compared to the Find N’s 13MP 2X telephoto. A dedicated lens for just 2X zoom seems weak in this day and age when slab phones can produce clean 5X or even 10X zoom shots.

The Z Fold 4’s triple lens array.

The selfie front favors Oppo: the Find N packs a pair of 32MP selfie shooters on each screen, and both are good front-facing cameras. The Fold 4, meanwhile, uses a just decent 10MP selfie camera on the outside screen and a 4MP “under-display” selfie camera on the main screen that produces very soft image quality due to it being placed underneath the OLED panel. However, some people may prefer this as it gives the Fold 4’s main screen a more uninterrupted look.

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Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 vs Oppo Find N: Software

The Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Oppo Find N both run on Android 12, but Samsung’s foldable is running on Android 12L, which is a version of Android optimized for larger screens. This makes the Galaxy Z Fold 4’s version of Android a bit better suited to handle the odd aspect ratio of foldable phones. In fact, even before Android 12L, Samsung’s OneUI was already doing a better job than Oppo’s ColorOS in dealing with changing screen sizes. This shouldn’t be a surprise, considering that Samsung has made eight foldables now while Oppo has just one.

And for a debut foldable offering, the Find N’s software is not bad at all — it’s just not as polished as Samsung’s. Oppo did introduce some intuitive gestures, like swiping down the middle of an app to trigger split-screen mode, or swiping up an app higher than usual to launch it into a small floating window. To do the same window mode with an app on the Z Fold 4 requires two taps and a long-press.

Oppo’s ColorOS also has zippier animations than Samsung’s OneUI. Even though both phones have 120Hz main screens, animations just feel faster and smoother on the Oppo Find N. But this benefit is purely aesthetic. The bottom line is the Fold 4 can just do more, such as open three apps at the same time while the Find N cannot, and output a desktop window setup to an external monitor (Samsung calls it DeX mode).

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Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 vs Oppo Find N: Performance

The Oppo Find N is an absolute fine performer even today, but as already mentioned, the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 is a notable superior chip to previous Qualcomm SoCs, so the Galaxy Z Fold 4 is just more capable. Battery life should run a bit longer, and any intensive tasks like rendering videos or playing graphically intensive games will run better on a Fold 4 than a Find N. The Fold 4’s software is also more optimized to do things like multitasking, with fewer app scaling issues.

However, do note that all of the above are more power user demands. If your phone usage is more basic, like just reading words on a website, scrolling through Instagram, and taking the occasional selfies and basic indoor photos, it’s not like you’ll miss that extra power the Fold 4 offers. And I want to make clear that the Find N’s battery life is not bad either — the phone can comfortably go a full 13-hour day for me, which the older Galaxy Z Fold 3 could not do. However, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 should be able to surpass this, given the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1’s very impressive battery life in other devices I’ve tested so far.

As a media consumption device, the Find N’s wider aspect ratio displays movies and most videos with less letterboxing than Samsung’s Fold 4, but the former has two bottom-firing speakers while the latter has more symmetrical speakers on top and bottom for fuller audio.

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Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 vs Oppo Find N: Which foldable is more impressive?

This last section in these comparison articles is usually titled “which one should you buy,” but in this case, that point is moot, because most people should just buy the Galaxy Z Fold 4 due to much wider availability. You’ll have a warranty and after-sales service that you likely won’t get for the Find N (unless you are in China). Plus Samsung has some very enticing Fold 4 deals right now.

If you do want to import the Oppo Find N, the good news is the phone was reasonably priced even at launch months ago (about $1,200 after conversion from its original 9,999 yuan), and the price has dropped a bit since. This means even if you pay the usual import markup, this is a phone that you should be able to get for under $1,500 — still lower than what Samsung’s asking for the Fold 4.

But you should just get the Fold 4, because of the aforementioned reasons and the newer chipset. The Oppo Find N is a very interesting device though, and at the time of release, it definitely offered much more impressive hardware than the Galaxy Z Fold 3 at the time. But Samsung has since made improvements to the Fold 4, so now the gap between the two isn’t that far off.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 is Samsung's latest flagship foldable, packing high-end specs and up to 512GB of internal storage. You can't expand it with a microSD card, though.

See at Samsung

The post Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 vs Oppo Find N: How does Samsung’s improved foldable fare against 2021’s best foldable hardware? appeared first on XDA.

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ColorOS 13 Hands-on: Oppo’s take on Android 13 is packed full of new features

Remember when it was said, long ago, that Oppo and OnePlus were working on a Unified OS? The premise was simple: it was the best of both ColorOS and OxygenOS packed into one clean operating system based on Android. While that has since been dead and buried, it’s clear that there is more than just a passing similarity when comparing recent OxygenOS versions to ColorOS. It seems the companies have doubled down though, as if you’ve seen the recent OxygenOS 13 Open Beta, you’ve also seen ColorOS 13.

ColorOS has come a long way since the days when it looked merely like another iOS rip-off. It’s built its own identity with its own incredible set of features, and it’s one of my favorite Android variants to use nowadays. It doesn’t get everything right, but it nails the basics and adds some great features on top. I’ve been using an alpha build on an Oppo Find X5 Pro for the past week that recently updated to the beta version, and so far, it’s a great approach to Android 13.

About this hands-on: Oppo provided us with an Oppo Find X5 Pro preloaded with ColorOS 13 for the purposes of this article. While the company provided us with a unit and software access, it did not have any input into the contents of this hands-on.

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Design and UI changes

I prefer how ColorOS 13 looks to stock Android 13

There are a ton of small changes across the system which means it looks better now than ever before. The most important and noticeable change is how the quick settings are laid out. The media player is always visible, but it’s a smaller square that’s relegated to the top right of the quick settings, rather than taking up a ton of space below them. I prefer how it looks to stock Android 13, to be honest, though that might be controversial.

Shelf

If you’re familiar with the OnePlus Shelf, that’s… basically what this is. It’s not exactly a subtle recreation of the feature, and it works the exact same way as it does on OxygenOS 13. You can pull it down anywhere on the launcher to invoke it, though you can’t access it from within other applications at the moment. You’ll also need to enable it within the launcher — by default, pulling down will just access your notifications.

Shelf looks good and is fluid to use

There’s not a whole lot that it can do currently, but it integrates with Spotify and allows you to add some custom widgets to it that can be accessed quickly from your home screen. It looks good and is fluid to use, so I think that with some tweaks to make it more usable across the system, it could be really good. I think that it could do with taking some inspiration from MIUI‘s Control Centre, as that’s a lot more useful.

Automatic screenshot pixelation

Have you ever wanted to take a screenshot of a conversation and quickly share it online? Typically you’ll want to scrub out the details of the sender, and maybe even their profile picture, depending on where exactly you’re sharing it. That takes time, and I’ve found myself having to edit my screenshot and draw over it, which can be annoying. ColorOS 13 adds a feature to automatically pixellate these identifying elements of your screenshot, which in turn saves you time.

Currently, the feature is fairly primitive. It only works in Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp for the moment. It uses AI to identify elements that need to be blurred out. It’ll wipe out a contact’s name and profile picture wherever it’s shown — when it works — though I find myself still needing to do it manually sometimes. It’s not completely consistent in Facebook Messenger but works most of the time.

Always on display changes

ColorOS adds a few things to the always-on display. Not only do you get new additions, such as one that is meant to demonstrate global warming, but you also get extra ones like “Insight”… again, another OnePlus-like display. However, one that’s all new to ColorOS (and will be coming to OxygenOS) is always-on display integrations. Food delivery apps will be able to make use of it, but currently, Spotify is one that works right out of the box.

How it works is pretty simple. You’ll get a little Spotify widget on your always-on display that you can actually interact with on your phone’s display. It’s a lower frame rate, but you can use it to see more music information and even change the currently playing playlist. It’s a bit of a gimmick, but it has a lot of potential use. I can definitely see how it could be useful for food delivery for instance, as that kind of real-time information on your display is useful.

Blossom wallpaper

ColorOS 13 adds a new Blossom wallpaper, and it’s a pretty interesting way to measure your phone usage. You can set a maximum length of time to use your phone during the day, and as you use your phone, a plant will grow on your wallpaper. Once you exceed the time that you have chosen (which defaults to three hours), the plant will start to wither and die. It takes on the color of your most used app, though from our usage, also seems to default back to blue for Material You colors.

Multi-Screen Connect

Multi-Screen Connect is a feature that sounds cool in practice but is kind of broken at the moment. I can connect to my phone from it by scanning a QR code, but the network detection support is iffy at best. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, and not everything works, either. Even when I do get the screen sharing and remote control aspect of it working, stuff like clipboard sync and file transfers still don’t work. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m using beta software, or if it’s going to be like this in the future. I’ll reserve judgment for now, but it’s not a good sign at the very least.

When I did get it working, I was amazed at the fact that I could open individual apps in their own windows on my PC. I could open Google Chrome into its own window that was still controlling my phone, while then swiping and navigating other apps, too. It was surprisingly versatile, and I could see it being useful at times if you do a lot of organization on your smartphone. These features often turn out to be gimmicks, but I think things like live notifications and instant transferring of screenshots and pictures from your phone to your computer could be useful.

More customization options with wallpapers

You can create your own wallpaper from an image stored on your phone, using colors from the image that you select. Once you set that photo as your wallpaper, you can then select colors from the wallpaper to use throughout the system. The color-theming engine is basically just Material You, except with a unique spin that allows you to create your own wallpaper in the first place from an image you may like that has colors you enjoy. The wallpapers it creates aren’t all that unique as it uses the same geometric shapes each and every time, but it’s a cool gimmick that you can pair with Material You to have a bit of a unique take on your phone’s look.

All the other Android 13 changes

ColorOS 13 also packs all of those other Android 13 changes you know and love. That includes app language preferences, app notification requests, automatic clipboard clearing, and more. It’s an update that primarily focuses on security and usability, but Oppo’s improvements in ColorOS 13 ensure that there’s something for everybody. It looks even better than ColorOS 12, and in my opinion, looks a lot better than stock Android 13, too.

ColorOS 13 is a smaller upgrade filled with improvements and cool features

Android 13 is a lot more of an iterative improvement over Android 12, and there’s nothing wrong with that. There are no big overarching changes that redefine what we know Android to be, and that doesn’t have to be the case every time. There are a ton of usability improvements and security changes that are more than enough, and Android 13 polishes some of the rough edges that Android 12 had.

ColorOS 13 is its best iteration yet

In that same vein, ColorOS 13 accomplishes the same thing. Oppo has been improving its ColorOS for a while now and brought it quite close to a more stock-Android look versus how it used to look years and years ago. Since then, it’s now begun to branch back out with unique visual tweaks and changes that look good, and ColorOS 13 is its best iteration yet.

If you have an Oppo phone, the company has also announced when you can expect a beta to pop up for your device. The availability timeline is as follows.

• August 2022: Find X5 Pro, Find X5
• September 2022: Find X3 Pro, Reno8 Pro 5G
• October 2022: Reno8 5G, Reno7 Pro 5G, Reno7 5G, Reno7, Reno6 5G, F21 Pro, K10 5G, A77 5G, A76
• November 2022: Reno7 Z 5G, Reno6 Pro 5G, Reno6 Pro 5G Diwali Edition, Reno6 Z 5G, Reno5 Pro 5G, Reno5 Pro, F21 Pro 5G, F19+ Pro, K10, A96
• December 2022: Find X5 Lite, Find X3 Neo 5G, Find X3 Lite 5G, Find X2 Pro, Find X2 Pro Automobili Lamborghini Edition, Find X2, Reno8, Reno8 Z 5G, Reno5 5G, Reno5 Z 5G, A94 5G, A74 5G
• From H1 2023: Pad Air, Reno8Lite 5G, Reno7 Lite 5G, Reno7 A, Reno6, Reno6 Lite, Reno5, Reno5 Marvel Edition, Reno5 F, Reno5 Lite, Reno5 A, F19 Pro, F19, F19s, A95, A94, A77, A74, A57, A57s, A55, A54 5G, A53s 5G, A16s

It’s expected that the stable version for your smartphone should release a little while after the company starts beta testing an Android 13 release.

The post ColorOS 13 Hands-on: Oppo’s take on Android 13 is packed full of new features appeared first on XDA.

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