Oppo will release ColorOS 16, its custom version of Android 16, on October 15 – the upcoming Find X9 series will run it out of the box, older models will get it as an update down the line. Today, the company detailed some of the key changes in the new OS.
One new element is the Star Compiler – Android apps typically come compiled to portable bytecode, which then gets compiled again to something that your phone’s or tablet’s CPU can actually run. By adding hardware-aware optimizations, Oppo managed to achieve an overall system load reduction of around 14%, with performance improvements reaching up to 26% in some cases.
The Aurora Engine addresses another crucial system, rendering the user interface. This new rendering pipeline reduces tap response times by around 40% and improves frame stability in sliding animations in third-party apps by around 52%.
The Tidal Engine is related to that – it uses chip-level frame tracking to predict when the system would get overloaded and drop frames. The engine boosts the chipset to ensure the next frames are rendered smoothly and dials it back down again. By intelligently controlling the chipset power, it improves animation stability under heavy load by 37% or so and even reduces power usage by around 13%.
It’s not just Oppo, of course, OnePlus also bases its software on ColorOS. The upcoming OnePlus 15 will also arrive with ColorOS 16. Here is a demo:
Oppo also put ColorOS 16 up against iOS to showcase how smooth its animations are:
