As we near the official stable release of Android 12, which is rumored for early October, smartphone OEMs are readying up their fresh new software skins to go along with the latest Android version. After Samsung recently rolled out the One UI 4 beta, Oppo has taken the wraps off its much-awaited ColorOS 12 skin based on Android 12 at an event in China today. ColorOS 12 brings updated design aesthetics, Omoji, and other multi-tasking and privacy-centric enhancements across the board.
ColorOS 12 Features
OPPO has packed a ton of design changes in ColorOS 12. The company has overhauled the UI based on the Infinite Design concept, with redesigned icons, new animations, avatar emoji, and more. The Android skin now features squircle-shaped acrylic icons that have a consistent shape across the board, unlike the ones in ColorOS 11. The icons use softer colors but retain enough detail and texture to avoid any issues.
ColorOS 12 comes with a couple of new features, in addition to the ones Google introduced in Android 12. The company has improved the FlexDrop feature to encourage multitasking, and it now allows users to drag an app with a simple gesture and switch between full-screen view, small window, and mini window modes.
A new addition is Omoji, an avatar emoji feature that uses 20,000 unique markers to create a personalized avatar. The feature builds a high-precision 3D model based on those markers, and you will be able to use the avatar for video calls, as a profile photo, and more.
OPPO also brings a free floating window function to ColorOS 12. You can suspend the window by sliding up through multitasking. You can switch small windows with one click, switch to full screen by double-clicking and side-slide to move it to the edge of the screen, drag corners to resize, and works even with one hand operation.
OPPO is touting a new Quantum Animation Engine that aims to deliver life-like animated effects throughout ColorOS 12. The brand says that it is “imitating the physical habits of resistance, inertia and rebound” to deliver intuitive animations across the interface.
ColorOS12 brings cross-screen interconnection that lets you connect your PC and mobile phone when they are close to each other for cross-screen collaboration. You can simply drag and drop between the two screens to achieve extremely fast file transfer, seamless document editing, shared clipboard, shared document editing, shared screenshots.
As officially confirmed by Oppo, the ColorOS 12 update will be released for a total of 50+ phones, including Oppo and OnePlus models. The rollout will start with the flagship Oppo Find X3 series and OnePlus 9 series sometime next month. The skin will continue to make its way to more flagship OnePlus and mid-range Oppo devices in 2022. We also know that it will also reach Realme phones in the form of Realme UI 3.0, so stay tuned for more developments on that front.
