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My OnePlus Phone Has Been Nothing But A Nightmare.

10/29/2021

I’ve been an Android user for awhile. I usually got mid-range phones and never really regretted it, but not long ago I decided to get a high-end one. I went with OnePlus, which is technically a variant of Android called OxygenOS, but essentially Android. And it is by far the worst phone I’ve ever owned because OnePlus forces things on me that are absolute hell to deal with.

The first thing that’s so frustrating is that the fingerprint unlock is intentionally broken. That’s not an exagerration. It will sometimes say, and I don’t know what will prompt this to happen, “Enter PIN for Additional Security”. There is no option to disable this. It makes the UX inconsistent and frustating, and when I’m in a hurry, it causes delays. In case of emergencies, this could actually do real damage. Personal technology should not be unpredictable.

I’m going to be blunt: Only an idiot would think that this adds security. It doesn’t. It means that onlookers are going to be more likely to be able to see you enter your PIN because you can’t unlock your phone without it. The only universe in which this is going to add security is if the fingerprint unlock is itself defective, in which case they shouldn’t be selling it in the first place.

If you search this online, you’ll be brought to OnePlus’s forums. The community just insulted the person that asked it.

The second thing that’s frustrating is “Zen Mode”. This is malware that is always appearing in your notifications. Should you accidentally tap that notification, it enables “Zen Mode”, which temporarily bricks your device. That’s actually what it’s designed to do, and it’s extremely easy to trigger by accident. I have my phone because I need it. What if this triggers during an emergency? This program cannot be removed or even disabled. They had to go out of their way to do that. There is an option to remove it from the notifications– That option is broken. It displays anyway. Even if it worked as intended, it is always, always running in the background. This is malicious behavior.

I was actually able to forcibly remove this with ADB, thankfully.

The last thing that’s made this such a nightmare is something called “Other Notifications”. It takes notifications that it thinks are somehow less important and groups them under “Other Notifications”. These notifications don’t show up on your notification bar, so you can only see them by manually pulling down the bar to see them. I have no idea what the pattern is of what it does and does not think is important, but it’s wrong. I’m missing appointments because of this.

I can’t even create an account on their forum for help. The signup process for making an account on their forum is broken.

I’m planning on installing Lineage on this phone ASAP, but unfortunately I won’t have time to do it for over a week.