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June 23, 2017

OnePlus 5 tips and tricks: The essential guide to the flagship killer

by John_A

OnePlus 5 has just been launched, and while it’s pricier than its predecessors, it’s still a good amount of phone for the £499 price tag. It’s comfortably cheaper than the likes of the Pixel XL, iPhone 7 Plus and Galaxy S8 Plus, and offers a true high-end experience. 

  • OnePlus 5 review: The flagship-killer’s coming of age
  • OnePlus 5: Release date, hardware specs and everything else you need to know

If you’ve bought one recently, or plan to, let us guide you through some of the software features you’re going to want to learn. OnePlus’ OxygenOS system is full of tricks, even though it looks from the outside like it’s just a pure version of Android.

OnePlus 5 home screen tips

Open app shortcuts: Some apps have a list of shortcuts that pop up on the home screen. Press and hold an app icon, and you’ll get those pop-up options above the icon. These only appear on compatible apps. Some won’t respond this way. 

Pin app shortcuts to home screen: When you have the app shortcuts showing, press and hold one that you want to pin to your screen, and drag it where you want it. Now you’ll be able to perform that action just by tapping the shortcut that’s permanently on your home screen. 

Disable app shortcuts: Press and hold the home screen wallpaper, hit “Settings” then toggle “App Shortcuts” to the off position. 

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Add widgets to Shelf: Shelf is a custom screen that sits to the left of your main home screen. By default it has your weather, most-used apps and contacts, but you can add practically any other widget you want to it by tapping the floating action button in the bottom right corner, then choosing your desired widget.

Customise Shelf widgets: In the shelf, you can press and hold the top widget to change the text displayed, or choose to disable the weather information. Press and hold any of the other widgets, then drag them to reorganize, or press the red “X” to delete that particular card.

Disable Shelf: For whatever reason, you might just decide you don’t want the Shelf. To disable it, head to your regular home screen, then tap and hold the wallpaper. Choose “settings” then switch the “Shelf” toggle to the off position.

Swipe down for notifications: You can access your drop down notifications by swiping downwards anywhere on the home screen. This gesture is enabled by default. To disable, press and hold the home screen wallpaper, choose “Settings” and toggle the “Swipe Down” off. 

Change app icon shape: Press and hold the home screen wallpaper and tap “Settings” then “Icon pack”. This lets you choose between three default options: OnePlus, Round and Square. 

Change icon/content size: Head to Settings > Display > Display size, then move the slider along the bottom of the screen until the icons and text are the size that you want them to be. 

Change battery icon: With OxygenOS you can choose what battery information you want to see in the status bar. Go to Settings > Status bar, then tap “Battery style” and choose which style battery icon you would like.

Show battery percentage: Below this option in same screen you can also choose to toggle the battery percentage on or off.

OnePlus 5 buttons tips

Capacitive or virtual buttons: As has been the case with every OnePlus phone since the beginning, you can choose whether or not you want to use onscreen software buttons, or the built-in capacitive buttons. By default, the capacitive buttons are in use, but if you want software buttons simply head to Settings > Buttons and toggle “on-screen navigation bar”.

Custom actions: In Oxygen OS you can assign secondary functions to all three of the capacitive keys on the OnePlus 5. Each button can have two secondary functions, launched by either a long-press or quick double-tap. There are seven options in total, which include opening recent apps, launching search assistant, turning off the screen, opening the camera, voice search, opening the last used app and opening Shelf. You’ll find the options in the same settings menu under the Buttons category.

Backlight on/off: Both the capacitive buttons have a backlight, which light up when any of the buttons (including the home key) are touched. You can switch this off if you don’t want it on just by tapping the Backlight toggle in Settings > Buttons.

Swap recent/back order: By default, the left capacitive button is the back button, and the right button is the recent apps button. If you’re more accustomed to having them the other way around, you can switch those. Just toggle the “Swap buttons” option in the same settings Buttons menu.

Alert slider: The one other button on the OnePlus 5 is the three-position alert slider on the left edge. Sliding down is regular, show me all the notifications mode. In the middle is priority mode which restricts most apps from sending you notifications. The top position is total silence, which practically silences everything.

You can customise the Do Not Disturb option by heading to Settings > Alert slider. Here you can allow alerts from certain contacts to get through.

OnePlus 3T display tips

Enable Reading Mode: Swipe down the quick settings shade and you should see tile to enable Reading Mode. This turns the screen greyscale, slightly increases contrast and kills the blue light to mimic an e-reader type experience. 

Launch Reading Mode automatically: If you don’t want to manually activate Reading Mode every time, you can choose to have specific apps launch it automatically. Go to Settings > Display > Reading Mode then add the apps you want to have in this mode every time you open them. 

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Adjust colour temperature: How good the colours on screen look to an individual can often be a point of debate. A perfect balance to some is too cool (blue) or too warm (yellow) for others. Thankfully, OnePlus includes the option to manually adjust the colour temperature. Head to Settings > Display > Screen Calibration and you’ll find a colour balance slider if you select the “Custom color” option. Sliding right makes the screen warmer, sliding left makes it cooler.

Choose sRGB or DCI-P3:  In the same settings menu as the colour temperature customisation you’ll find the option to choose from two additional colour profiles. These are sRGB and DCI-P3, both offering different colour accuracy for people who prefer those. 

Lift to wake: With the OnePlus 5 you can have the screen wake up just by lifting the phone. To activate this feature, simply tap the “Lift up display” toggle in the display settings.

Ambient display: You can also set your OnePlus to wake up whenever you receive a notification. Activating it is very simple. Like the proximity wake option, just switch on the toggle in the settings menu. Rather than have a fully active screen, Ambient display mode is a black screen with white text/notifications.

Night mode: As with most phones with the feature, night mode strips the blue tint from the screen, making it warmer, more yellow and easier on your eyes at night time. Just like the colour balance option, there’s a slider to adjust how deep you want the yellow tint to be.

Change font size: Half way down the list of main display settings is the option to change the font size. Here you can choose between small, default, large and largest.

OnePlus 5 camera tips

Double tap power button to launch: By default, the OnePlus 5 camera can be launched by quickly double-tapping the power button on the right edge. If yours doesn’t have the feature switched on, or you want to switch it off, head to Settings > Buttons and then hit the toggle next to “Press power button twice for camera”.

Quick capture: You choose to have the camera take a photo when you double click the power button. Open the camera app, then open the sidebar menu and hit the settings cog in the corner. Here you’ll find a toggle that enables quick capture. 

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“Shot on OnePlus” watermark: In the same settings menu tap “Shot on OnePlus Watermark”. Here you can enable a feature that automatically applies the watermark, which you can also customise to include your name. The end result is a photo which has a “Shot on OnePlus by [Your name/handle]” in the bottom corner. 

Pro mode: Go in to the main sidebar menu in the camera app to see the list of shooting options. Pro mode is in that list and selecting it enables you to manually control a number of important settings. Tapping on ISO will then let you change the brightness/gain, the next one along lets you set the white balance to counteract any artificial (or natural) lighting. You can also manually set the shutter speed to take long exposures up to 30 seconds, and manually focus.

Adjusting each of these settings is pretty easy. Once the manual mode has been selected, you just need to press on whichever setting you’d like to change, then you get a semicircle control on-screen. Adjust the ISO, shutter speed, or focus by rotating this onscreen “wheel” clockwise or anticlockwise.

Remove histogram: By default, the Pro mode has a histogram on screen. If you don’t want it there because it’s blocking your video, you go back in to the camera settings and switch the Histogram toggle off. You can do the same for the horizontal reference line.

Shoot straight photos: When you launch Pro mode, you’ll see a line in the middle of the screen, it turns green when your phone is level. 

Immersive mode: In Pro mode, by default there’s a lot of information and many control options on screen. You can clear it all away by activating Immersive mode. Go to the camera settings as before, toggle the “Immersive mode” option, then whenever you’re in Pro mode, you can clear everything from the screen by swiping upwards. 

Save custom preset: Still in Pro mode, you can save a specific preset by tapping the “C” in the toolbar, then adjust your settings and tap “save C1”. If you need to create a second, you can follow the same process, and hit “save C2”. It allows two presets in total. 

Portrait mode: To switch to the depth effect mode, swipe from right to left in the regular camera view. This launches Portrait mode and uses both cameras to create a bokeh/background blur effect behind your subject. 

Save regular photo in Portrait mode: If you want a copy of your Portrait mode photo without the depth effect added, head back into the camera settings and scroll down to the Portrait section. Toggle “save normal photo”, and each time you take a depth effect shot, it’ll save you a normal version as well. 

Add grid lines: Back in the camera settings, select “Grid” and then chose between a 3×3, 4×4 or Golden Ratio grid.  

Change image ratio: In the main camera view, in the toolbar, you’ll see a “4:3” icon. Tap this and you can change the shooting ratio to either a 1:1 square or 16:9 widescreen shot. 

Save RAW photos: Launch Pro mode, then tap the little “RAW” icon in the main toolbar. 

OnePlus 5 other tips

Dual SIM options: Just like the OnePlus 2, 3 and 3T, there’s a dual SIM tray which means you can have two SIM cards in the phone at once. If you have a work and personal line, or have a SIM for two different carriers, it can be an invaluable feature, especially if you know one network in your area is better for data speeds than another.

Heading into Settings then “SIM & network settings”, you can choose which SIM is the preferred option for mobile data, calls or text messages. So if one SIM has a higher data allowance, you could set that as your main data SIM.

Reorder quick tiles: In Android N, Google is introduced the ability to move around quick settings tiles in the drop down settings panel, but OnePlus has had that feature in Oxygen OS for a little while now. Drop down the panel as usual, then tap the little pencil in the top right corner. Then you can reorder the tiles on the screen to suit your preferences.

OnePlus 5 gestures: Like many modern Android phones, you can enable a number of gestures for launching apps or functions. Go to Settings > Gestures then you then activate the ability to flip the phone over on its face to mute a call, swipe with three fingers to take a screenshot, double tap to wake the phone or draw II  on the lock screen with two fingers to play or pause music. 

As well as that you can choose apps to launch by drawing an O, V, S, M or W on the lock screen. 

Take a long screenshot: When you’re on a long page, you can capture all of it by taking a long screenshot. Press the volume down and power button together as usual, then you’ll see a row of four actions on the bottom of the screen. There’s a rectangle icon, press it, and it’ll start taking a long screenshot of the page you’re on. 

Markup screenshots: Once you’ve taken a screenshot, choose the pencil from the row of four actions. This takes you to an editing screen where you can adjust image properties, as well as being able to edit the image and draw/write on it. 

Easter egg: Last but not least, head to the preinstalled calculator and type in “1+=”. See what happens.

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