I tested ColorOS 17 on the OnePlus 15. Here are 3 things you need to know

I’ve used OnePlus phones since day one, and the clean, lightweight take on Android that OxygenOS offered, with useful additions that didn’t get in the way, is a big reason I stuck with the brand for more years than I can count. That identity has been fading for years as OnePlus moved its software closer to OPPO’s ColorOS, so the current switch over to ColorOS shouldn’t come as a surprise.

With ColorOS 17 on the OnePlus 15, OnePlus is finally cutting the cord. The new software brings a fresh visual overhaul, smoother animations, and more AI features, but it also leaves the company’s OxygenOS roots behind.

With the stable roll out kicking off in India, global rollout to follow soon, I spent some time with it. Here are my thoughts on what works, what has changed, and what longtime OnePlus fans might miss.

It looks nothing like OxygenOS

The first thing you’ll notice about ColorOS 17 is how different it looks. Transparency and background blur are everywhere, from the Settings app to Clock, Notes, and File Manager. These effects were previously limited to specific parts of the interface, but the new version extends them across the system. The Liquid Glass inspiration is clear.

I don’t mind a bit of transparency in an interface, but ColorOS 17 takes it much further. Menus and other elements now sit against blurred backgrounds, giving the software a more layered look that’s a big departure from the understated approach of the original OxygenOS. The Quick Settings panel and notification shade also get a major redesign: toggles now have glowing borders and more prominent transparency effects, while notifications use lighter cards.

Behind the new look is Living Flow Design, along with an updated rendering engine that handles the interface and its animations. That’s marketing speak for fancy new animations that can at times feel overbearing.

The idea is to make the software feel more responsive, with interface elements stretching and bouncing as you interact with them, and notifications expanding and collapsing with an elastic feel. I’ll be real here: It gives the software a more animated feel, which some users might like. But coming from the more minimalist experience of the Pixel 11 Pro and a Niagara Launcher setup, I got tired of it pretty quickly.

You’ll find a few options to adjust the speed of the animations, but there’s no way to disable them. If all that liquidy goodness is a bit too much, you can tone down the transparency dramatically using the theme settings. Still, OxygenOS this is not, and you’ll invariably have some adjusting to do. As playful as they are, the transparency and glow effects can, on occasion, make text harder to read than it needs to be.

That said, for all my reservations about the direction of the software, ColorOS 17 feels good to use. The OnePlus 15 is a powerful flagship, and, predictably, swiping through menus, switching between apps, and navigating the home screen all feel smooth and responsive.

Mind Pilot’s agent is the real upgrade

AI is the other big focus this time around. ColorOS 17 introduces an AI agent mode in AI Mind Pilot, powered by Manus and ChatGPT, that can help with tasks like organizing photos, creating collages, and sorting downloaded files. Instead of manually digging through your gallery, you can describe when or where a photo was taken to find it.

That’s just scratching the surface, though. This agentic framework can interact with all files on your phone, depending on how comfortable you are handing an AI agent access to your private data. I tested it with a folder full of invoices and asked it to tally them and rename the files based on a schema I defined. It did precisely that.

While using the ChatGPT app would allow you to do the former as long as you uploaded the files one by one, it lacks agentic capabilities to directly manipulate files, giving Mind Pilot a leg up.

Elsewhere, Live Alerts for Mind Pilot’s agentic tasks let you track these tasks even when you’ve switched to another app. It’s a handy addition that makes sense given the prosumer leanings of the OnePlus brand.

How useful that turns out to be will depend on how often you need these features. I, for one, am always around a computer and don’t depend on my smartphone for filing invoices, but it’s a more interesting use of AI than some of the features we’ve seen on smartphones lately. Just keep in mind that Mind Pilot usage is token-based, and tallying a folder of invoices and generating a travel itinerary for a diving holiday blew through 40% of my daily quota. You can, however, connect your ChatGPT account if you’ve got a Plus subscription to continue using it beyond the quota.

The AI push won’t suit everyone

ColorOS 17 completes OnePlus’ move away from the original OxygenOS experience, and while there’s nothing wrong with a unified visual identity, it’s fair to ask what sets OnePlus apart when so much of what made it distinctive is gone.

My bigger concern is the growing number of AI features on the phone. AI agents and contextual suggestions might be useful, but not everyone wants their phone to constantly suggest new ways to do things or track usage habits so closely. I’d rather have these features available when I need them than feel like they’re being pushed into every part of the experience. Mind Pilot in particular comes across as a double-edged sword. It can be useful for a specific set of users, and there are safe guards in place with ample alerts and confirmations when you’re uploading files and folders. However, a system like this undoubtedly comes with the potential for unfettered access to the file system that opens up the possibility for rogue behavior. Perhaps I’m being overly cautious, but when it comes to agentic AI, my stance is to err on the side of caution.

ColorOS 17 is good software, but it’s a whole new OnePlus

Put together, ColorOS 17 is anything but bad software. It’s fast, polished, and packed with features that work well. With ColorOS 17 on the OnePlus 15, the company has completed a transition that has long been in the works.

It also makes it clear that OnePlus isn’t trying to be minimal anymore. Love it or hate it, the restrained approach is gone, and instead you get an operating system that is loud and busy with glassy menus and bouncy animations — which, to some, might feel like too much. Tools like Mind Pilot add genuine utility as long as you’re on board with AI everywhere and have an actual use case for it. If you’ve been on the fence about ColorOS 17 on the OnePlus 15, there’s a lot to like here as long as you’re open to a bit of adjustment.