If you ask me, the Mount Rushmore of mobile operating systems at the moment is ColorOS 16, OxygenOS 16 and Realme UI, followed by One UI and OriginOS 6. However, after using the Infinix Note 60 Pro as my daily driver for almost a month now, I think there's a surprise entrant to that list I've been unaware of. Infinix's XOS 16 is one of the lesser talked-about Android skins that deserves a little more attention for sure. From a vast feature set to beautiful aesthetics and a solid feel, there's more to it than merely meets the eye.
But I get it. If you told me a year ago that I'd be hyped about XOS on Infinix phones, I probably would have laughed. Historically, XOS had a reputation for being a bit chaotic, cluttered and just a bit of an acquired taste. XOS 16 completely flips that script.
XOS 16 "Glows" Through Beautifully
The first thing that caught my eye was what Infinix calls "Glow Space". It's a complete visual overhaul that plays with light, shadows and transparency. Yes, there are undeniable nods to iOS and ColorOS here, but I have to give credit where it's due, and the execution is gorgeous.
When I pull down the redesigned Quick Settings panel, I'm greeted by a beautiful translucent Gaussian blur. The Wi-Fi and mobile data toggles sit up top as sleep, pill-shaped buttons, flanked by chunky volume and brightness sliders that feel incredibly satisfying to use.
I noticed this layered, 3D floating effect carries over into first-party system apps like the Clock and Settings, too. Even my incoming call screen has a full-screen blur with subtle light effects dancing around the borders. It gives the whole phone a premium, fluid aesthetic that I love looking at every day.
Not to mention that the animations are absolutely stunning. There's this subtle yet sweet jumpiness to the animations that makes it so satisfying to use daily. From summoning the recent apps panel to browsing the UI, there's a surprising level of cohesiveness that XOS 15 just lacked, in my opinion. Moreover, all these animations are beautifully backed by surprisingly well-injected haptic integration.
Customisation on Steroids (And Depth Effects Everywhere)
As someone who loves tweaking their phone's layout, XOS 16 has become an absolute playground for me. The lockscreen customisation has stepped up massively from XOS 15, offering heavy clock styles that I can personalise with glass textures or vibrant colour filters.
But the real party trick, and the feature I've been showing off to everyone, is the depth of field effect. XOS 16 doesn't just let me slide my clock behind a wallpaper subject on the lockscreen but also lets me do it on the homescreen. Having my app icons literally sit behind a portrait wallpaper looks incredibly cool, even if it occasionally forces me to remember what a partially covered icon is by muscle memory.
I've also been messing around with the AI Theme Generator, which automatically matches the system accent colours to whatever photo I set as my background. Additionally, the AI Doodle Note tool is great for generating custom anime wallpapers.
Infinix also made a massive design shift that my thumbs are incredibly grateful for. They moved the search bars in the app drawer, Settings and Notes to the very bottom of the screen, making reachability a breeze. Phew!
An Actually Useful AI Feature Set
XOS 16 features a bunch of AI tools that came in handy for me time and again. My absolute favourite productivity tool has been SnapMemo combined with MindHub. On my Infinix Note 60 Pro, I mapped the physical AI key on the side of the phone to instantly snap a screenshot of whatever article, recipe or image I'm looking at.
So, instead of getting lost in my gallery, the system automatically analyses the text and neatly stores it inside the MindHub portal. Yeah, quite similar to OnePlus's Mind Space.
The best part is I'm not locked into one assistant for this. The OS lets me choose my own backend AI model, so I can swap between Folax, ChatGPT, Gemini, Meta AI and Grok depending on what I'm researching.
Talking about researching, the built-in Visha Player uses real-time AI to generate subtitles for local videos on the fly and made things easier for me as a tech journalist. And in the gallery, the AI Studio has expanded from a basic eraser to include an AI Extender as well, which was useful at times.
XOS 16 Is More Polished and Stable than Ever Before
As someone who tests new gadgets out almost every other day, it goes without saying that I do encounter bugs even on the most stable operating systems. Surprisingly, in almost a month of usage, I have not encountered any bugs on XOS 16. Call it pure luck or just a grand OS design, it just made the experience so much better.
Even the little software quirks I used to tolerate on XOS 15 have now been polished. Take the Dynamic Bar, for instance. Previously, if I had two active tasks running, they would awkwardly crowd each other side-by-side. In XOS 16, they stack cleanly on top of each other. I can just swipe left or right on the notification pill to cycle through my media player, timers or step trackers.
All things considered, are all the system animations as buttery smooth as a top-tier flagship running OxygenOS 16 or OriginOS 6? Is it nearly as feature-packed as One UI? If I'm being perfectly candid, not quite. But by taking the absolute best inspirations from across the industry to scale them into a feature-packed engine for mid-range hardware, Infinix has pulled off a massive win here.
For me, XOS 16 is smooth, deeply customisable and a definitive proof that Infinix is no longer just playing the hardware specs game. They have officially built a software experience that I actually look forward to using every day.
