Cyanogen OS 12 vs Oxygen OS:Fight for OnePlus One

Cyanogen OS 12 vs Oxygen OS comparison: the fight for your OnePlus One

OxygenOS has arrived, heralding a new direction for rising smartphone manufacturer OnePlus - which has already announced that its new in-house OS will come pre-installed on the eagerly-anticipated OnePlus Two. However, Cyanogen OS remains the default operating system for the OnePlus One, and it too has just received a major update in the form of Cyanogen OS 12.

Why are OnePlus and Cyanogen splitting up?

On the face of things, OnePlus' desire to have its own in-house operating system makes sense in terms of ensuring the OS integrates smoothly into the OnePlus hardware, delivering faster updates, and so on. Yet overshadowing this PR-friendly story is a bitter dispute between Cyanogen and OnePlus which is more likely the real reason behind their split.

A key part of the agreement between the companies was that OnePlus had non-exclusive rights to ship Cyanogen with their devices worldwide. However, when OnePlus tried shipping devices to India last year, it turned out that Cyanogen had already made an agreement with Indian manufacturer Micromax which gave the company exclusive rights to the Indian market.
This meant that the OnePlus One wasn't released in India with Cyanogen OS as planned, and that OnePlus had to come up with an alternative operating system to run on the OnePlus One in that market. Suffice to say, OnePlus wasn't pleased, while Cyanogen defended its agreement with Micromax, stating that it didn't expect it to affect the agreement with OnePlus.
And so, OxygenOS was born. It is set to become OnePlus' stock OS for the OnePlus Two, and is now widely available for the OnePlus One.

How do I get Cyanogen OS 12 and OxygenOS?

Cyanogen OS 12 is now widely available as an OTA (over-the-air) update for the OnePlus One. Despite the well-publicized falling-out between the two companies, a Cyanogen spokeswoman told AndroidPIT that, "there are no plans for changes as of right now. We are continuing to support OPO devices running Cyanogen OS".
OxygenOS, on the other hand, needs to be installed manually on the OnePlus One, and you can find it on the official OnePlus website.

You can now download OxygenOS from the OnePlus website. / © ANDROIDPIT, OnePlus

What's the difference between Cyanogen OS 12 and OxygenOS?

At first glance, both operating systems look quite similar, staying fairly loyal to the stock Android Lollipop interface. But dig a little deeper, and the differences between the two start showing.
Cyanogen OS 12 is all about customization, letting you tweak everything from the navigation buttons and battery icons, to the settings and status bar. It's also packed with hundreds of themes you can download, which can make Cyanogen look like a completely different operating system to Android Lollipop within seconds.

Cyanogen OS 12 has some great features lacking in OxygenOS, like Audio Maxx and a powerful camera app. / © ANDROIDPIT

OxygenOS is a bit more 'stock', and isn't as customizable as Cyanogen. While it has a selection of Lollipop and OnePlus wallpapers, it's not designed to be tweaked as much as Cyanogen, so may be more fitting for the casual user. It's only flourish of customizability is in the Quick Settings menu, where you can rearrange the buttons however you please. This is a nice touch, but certainly won't be enough to satisfy the more tinkery OnePlus One owners out there.
Cyanogen OS has some pretty powerful apps onboard, including Cyanogen Mail, the audio enhancement app Audio Maxx, and its own camera app which is capable of 4k recordings and RAW photos. OxygenOS has none of these features, though this is to be expected from a newcomer. Aside from that, both of the OSes come with the usual array of Google apps.

OxygenOS is Android Lollipop through and through, with only minor changes and few extra features. / © OnePlus

Which one should I get?

We're still playing around with both Cyanogen OS 12 and OxygenOS, though at this point it seems like the more established Cyanogen is the better option. It's more customizeable, more feature-packed, and there is little that OxygenOS offers at this point that makes it seem worth the hassle of manual flashing.
However, Oxygen has just arrived and is likely to improve with time, so we'll give it some time and dig deeper into it before making a final judgement on which we think is better.
In the meantime, if you've tried both Cyanogen OS 12 and OxygenOS, let us know what you think about them in the comments. Which one's your favorite?