Vivo or iQOO devices run on Funtouch OS (outside China). Both vivo and iQOO has lately released a number of devices that looks and feels really good from the outside. But what about the UI experience.
iQOO phones usually offer great hardware for the price, but you have to sacrifice the IU experience. I have been using the Funtouch OS 14 skin (based on Android 14) on the iQOO Neo9 Pro (my review) for over a month now. The overall UI experience didn’t meet my expectations.
However, if the design, camera, and performance are important to you and you do consider a vivo or iQOO smartphone with Funtouch OS (outside China), here’re some easy steps to improve the UI experience.
Upon completing the setup and landing on the lock screen you come across several games or pre-installed apps most people don’t use. Fortunately, you can (and you should) uninstall all the bloatware that you can. The app drawer looks a lot cleaner after it.
Disabling notifications:
Still, there will be some services from the manufacturer itself that may show notifications you don’t care about, such as the ones seen in the screenshots below. Apps and services like this may sometimes clutter the notification panel and make you scroll for the ones you do care about.
Whenever you see such a notification, you can just tap and hold on it and click on ‘Turn off notifications’. While it’s a very simple step, it makes a massive difference in the overall user experience.
You can also go to the app drawer for once and disable all the notifications and review the app permissions for the apps you are not allowed to uninstall. You can even disable some of the apps.
An investment of just five minutes in it may offer you a much better user experience in the long run.
You can try changing the “Color and style”
I didn’t particularly like the default app icons and the overall look of the theme. By pinching the home screen, you’ll see a ‘Color and Style’ option that lets you change the color of UI elements and most app icons based on the wallpaper. It offers a new look and more precisely, changes how the app icons look, which made it one of the few UI features I like about this phone.
Lastly, I also noticed a “Simple Mode” inside settings in Funtouch OS 14 on the iQOO Neo9 Pro, which I found really helpful in eliminating distractions. You can also add your apps here.
For those curious about the performance of this device, the video below should give an idea.
