Oppo ColorOS 11 Review: Features, tips, and tricks

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Oppo started rolling Android 11-based ColorsOS 11 on the very same day when Google unleashed its latest Android version. The new interface not only integrates most of the popular Android 11 features but adds several refinements to ColorOS making it more user-friendly and customizable.

We have been testing Android 11-based ColorOS 11 on Oppo Find X2 for about a month now. In our ColorOS 11 review, we will talk about a few exciting ColorOS 11 features, tips, and tricks and sum up our experience in a verdict towards the end. Let’s proceed.

12 Cool Oppo ColorOS 11 hidden features, tips, and tricks

1. Manage notifications

Notifications have a huge impact on our well being. In the current digital era, all apps are constantly vying for your attention and it’s important that you let only the most useful few distract you.

Android 11 and ColorOS 11 give priority to conversations and lists them at the top of the stack. Then come alerting notifications, followed by silent notifications. While conversations are sorted on ColorOS 11, if you see a useless app pushing alerting notifications, you can long-press the notifications and set the priority to ‘Silent notifications’.

2. Turn on Notification log

The notification shade is often so cluttered that we end up swiping away useful notifications only to regret a few microseconds later. We have all been there and Color OS11 addresses this by adding an option to save Notification history. The option is buried deep, though.

You can turn on Notification log on from Settings >> Notification & Statusbar >> Manage notifications >> more>> Notification History. This is also where you may check all notifications received in the last 24 hours.

3. Always-on Display and Personalization

A well designed Always-on mode can save you from unlocking your phone several times a day. Interestingly, ColorOS 11 has a very elaborate Always-on mode that lets users finetune aspects like clock style, background pattern or image, text color, and more.

You may access it from Settings>> Personalization.

4. Personalization: Change Accent color and Icon styles

ColorOS 11 brings together all relevant customization options including Always-on display, Edge lighting, System fonts, theme, wallpaper, and even ringtones, under one ‘Personalization’ sub-head in Settings. And to be able to customize the look and feel of the phone from one place is very convenient.

Using the ‘Colors’ icon you can choose an accent color or a combination of ascent colors for the entire UI. You may also change icon style for quick setting tiles or for app icons in the drawer.

5. Pull down Icons

Oppo has added a nifty pull-down icon gesture that lets you pull down app icons towards the bottom of the screen using a simple swipe-up action on the edges from near the bottom.

This works remarkably well for single-handed usage. The option can be turned on from launcher settings. Long press any empty place on the home screen >> go to ‘more’ and enable ‘icon pull-down gesture’.

6. Pin apps in the Direct Share menu

Android’s direct share menu gets better with Android 11. The ColorOS 11 integrates these improvements and allow users to pin apps they frequently like to share through.

So, if you often share images over Slack, you can pin the Slack app to the top of the list and won’t have to scroll in the Share menu to locate the app. You can similarly Pin all your other favorite apps.

7. Smart home Dashboard

You can now access and control all your connected smart home devices directly from the power menu (long-press power key). This is an Android 11 feature and only works if you are invested in Google’s smart home ecosystem and the dashboard only shows up after you download and install the Google Home app.

8. Sort apps and quickly find them

An efficiently stacked app drawer can make life a lot simpler. Oppo adds all the necessary tools you’d need to organize and quickly find your apps in ColorOS 11.

You can sort Apps based on ‘most used’ and even turn on App recommendations in the drawer. You may also sort apps by ‘Install time’ if you wish to see a bunch of apps you just installed at the top.

Also, app recommendation and app search can be accessed with a simple swipe down on the home screen.

9. Open Apps as Bubbles or floating windows

ColorOS 11 lets you open messaging apps as overlay bubbles or mini windows for effective multitasking. For instance, if you are watching a video and need to drop a message, you can pull the messaging app from the sidebar and tap open the messaging or WhatsApp app in a mini window. You may then squeeze and collapse the app to a bubble.

10. OPPO Relax

As the name suggests, Oppo Relax helps you unwind and relax. It includes peaceful white noises, light, stress-busting games, and virtual tours across a few cities. The Sound-mix feature that lets you combine natural and city sounds is actually quite cool.

11. Customizable Dark Mode profiles

Inky blacks in dark mode are very alluring but they also make reading text harsh on the eyes. ColorOS 11 includes three different dark mode profiles – Enhanced, Medium, and Gentle and a few more options to help users make the most of the dark mode.

12. Click and share

ColorOS 11 adds several camera enhancements like inertial zoom (smoother), level and grid feature to help with composition, and a shortcut to quickly edit or share photos.

As you click an image, an arrow appears above the thumbnail within the camera app. You can swipe up the thumbnail and direct share the image via the direct share menu or press the edit button

Other Improvements:

  • Performance improvements: Oppo has worked hard to improve the performance of the UI. ColorOS 11 brings in a 45% improvement in RAM optimization and CPU utilization by 30%.
  • Tone tunes – when you get a bunch of notifications simultaneously, ColorOS11 melds the notification tone into a more musical and less annoying tone.
  • Immersive mode toggle in ‘Game Assistant’ that blocks interruptions like incoming notifications, alarms, calls, etc.
  • Battery Guard halts overnight charging when the battery capacity reaches 80 percent. The rest of 20 percent is covered right before its time for the user to wakeup. This helps protect battery health in the long run.
  • Black Screen Quick setting tile dims the display and blocks touches to avoid accidental presses.

ColorOS 11 Review: Verdict

Oppo further refines the ColorOS experience with version 11. Settings menu options have been rearranged which makes the OS a lot easier to navigate, several nifty customization options have been integrated that add value and thanks to Android 11 users get notification management, user security, and privacy get a whole lot better.

So, overall ColorOS has gradually evolved into an interface that shall appeal to the global taste and is pleasant to live with. Having said that this is not a light interface and the version we are testing isn’t entirely stable. These are, however, kinks that most probably will be ironed out with subsequent updates.

Deepak SinghDeepak Singh
Deepak has more than 8 years of experience in covering technology for several eminent publications in India. He currently leads an enthusiastic team of young writers at Smartprix and tries to uphold the highest quality standards.

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