ColorOS 13 design and UI updates leak ahead of the Android 13 skin's official global launch

OPPO did not debut ColorOS 13 with the new OnePlus Ace Pro as one just might have expected, but did confirm that the upcoming major Android system upgrade would get its own event instead. In fact, as it turns out, it will get 2: the global live-stream previously set for August 18, 2022; and a separate, Chinese market-specific presentation scheduled for later on August 30.

In either event, the prominent leaker Digital Chat Station has posted some purported detail on the updated UI in advance, occasionally demonstrating the changes made compared to the preceding ColorOS version in the process.

OPPO's app icons, for example, have allegedly undergone a very subtle, iterative revamp in that, while they are still squircles, are now more vibrant in color and 3D-curved than before.

They fit in well with what OPPO will apparently reveal as Aquamorphic Aquatic Design: a departure from ColorOS 12's "Acrylic" theme replete with a hydro-dynamic esthetic and graceful, gelid wallpaper shapes that may or may not move in response to a user's interaction with their screen.

On that note, ColorOS 13 is also now touted by a second Weibo design leak to launch with a 4th-gen "Quantum Animation Engine", allegedly rated to improve UI behaviors such as homescreen-to-app transitions (and vice-versa), as well as to generally employ more "intelligence" in anticipating and responding to multiple gestures.

Then again, those touches might be lost on users with those newer high-refresh-rate screens, or those who don't like to have animations on. On that note, ColorOS 13 is still projected to debut on devices such as the Find X5 series, Find N and non-international versions of the OnePlus 10 Pro.