According to latest Mobile Operating System Market Share Worldwide Analysis Android has whopping 76.03% share, which is really a huge number. Thanks to Google, It’s open source and almost free. Due to a lot of manufacturers, android comes in a number of “look or feel factors” known as Skin or User Interfaces (UI). Software needs to be as good as hardware to build a successful phone. We’ve compiled a list of User Interfaces that are really good, take a look below:
1. Oxygen OS (OnePlus):
Oxygen OS is best android skin. It feels like stock android but with major optimizations and features included. The icons looks refined version of stock android icons. With the existence of app drawer it becomes simpler and convenient. OnePlus uses tagline “fast and smooth” which is really true, animation looks smooth and fast at the same time. OnePlus even provided latest Pie update to the OnePlus 3 which was released in 2016. The features like inbuilt Screen Recorder and editor, Zen Mode (customized Do Not Disturb Mode) and Fnatic Mode (Which is OnePlus’s gaming mode) makes the experience more pleasing. In this era where the companies making their skins more flashy this neat and clean UI really stands out. There is no bloatware, comes with system apps and Google apps.
Conclusion: Overall Oxygen OS feels like there’s no compromise, it’s fast, smooth, on-time software updates and security patches leads to a well optimized, beautiful UI.
2. Android One / Stock Android (Google):
Google’s Android One Program was started by Sundar Pichai in September 2014, this initiative allowed even budget and mid-range devices 2 years of software updates/patches. One of the best example can be seen as Mi A1 which is one of the most sold smartphone with android one. Redmi A Series, Nokia, Motorola, Asus have been participating this program. However it is different from Stock (Pure) Android which is exclusive to Pixel devices, but for other manufacturers it would be great choice who doesn’t want to spend massive time and money in the custom User Interface development. It doesn’t have any bloatware, it comes with Google apps and camera 2 api is also supported.
Conclusion: Both of these User Interfaces are great, light weight, receives fast software updates, Secure but there’s some stability related issues, Pixel 3 faced poor RAM Management issues.
3. One UI (Samsung):
Samsung Experience UI or TouchWiz UI was one of the most criticized skin due to its slow animations, heaviness, force stopping system applications and stability related issues. Samsung came up with One UI along with Galaxy S10 launch. It’s massively improved, the main purpose is to make long screen phone usable with single hand. It has unique large depth rounded corners. The icons are also redesigned and honestly they looks cool with the rounded corners. The Night mode is still one of the best implementations for dark mode yet. This software update is also released to existing phones like Galaxy Note 9, Galaxy S9/S9+ and some mid-range phones like A series, few J Series*, M Series phones. It has also improved stability, animation speed and smoothness of the UI. This is not only limited to smartphones, the update is also been pushed to Samsung Galaxy watches.
Conclusion: One UI is fully loaded, It looks beautiful on AMOLED screens specifically night mode, the RAM Management done very well, but the animations are still slow that can be improved using developer option. The skin is still heavy but well optimized. Always On Display, theme (and wallpaper) store is one of the best in One UI.
4. MIUI (Xiaomi/Redmi):
MIUI is used in almost all Redmi (except A series), Xiaomi and Pocofone phones. The colorful icons, iOS inspired brightness slider works fine, and looks cool too. The dark mode is also been pushed to some smartphones via OTA. It is optimized well, performance is top-notch. There is also a theme/wallpaper/icon store however it needs some improvements.
Conclusion: MIUI is feature rich, which is well optimized, offers good performance with some trade-offs such as ads in system apps, spam notification, lack of app drawer, heaviness of skin, lags, notifications and security issues etc.
5. Color OS (Oppo/Realme):
Initially it was launched in 2013, at that time it wasn’t that great, with the time it improved a lot, Color OS 6 offers good performance, RAM Management is also very good. The skin is heavily inspired by Apple’s iOS. It has some game specific features and has camera 2 api support by default. Oppo heavily promotes term AI. User Interface has app drawer that can predict which app you’re going to open next using your usage patterns.
Conclusion: Color OS still need improvements to look appealing, the icons are too flashy, It is heavily apple inspired some users may not like that, however there is no doubt that the performance is really good, face/fingerprint recognition is very fast. With the night mode coming via OTA Update, you can feel it’s improving.
