Android N7 Player review

QueBert

Lifer
Jan 6, 2002
22,931
1,129
126
This is aesthetically the best looking music player on Android, and just overall feels pretty polished compared to other apps, and not just music players. As with a lot of Android app's this one has passed under my radar and I just happened to stumble upon it. Here are some screen shots to explain the UI, it's definitely a big departure from anything else I've used on Android.


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This is the main music navigation screen, at least on my Note, it only scrolls up/down. Clicking on an artist's name will do this. And the text in blue is what's currently playing (or paused)

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clicking on an album in this view does this

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If you have multiple albums from the same artist/group and click on an album thumbnail on the right, it animates to become the big image on the left and the track list opens up under it.

You can also pinch to zoom from the main navigation where it shows names, it starts here

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and will zoom this far in depending how much you pinch.

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depending on how many albums you have it scrolls in all 4 directions.

It comes with 2 widgets, I'm undecided on them, I don't like them, but at the same time I don't hate them either.

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I'm too lazy to take a last screen shot, but I forgot 1 for the now playing screen. Basically it zooms in a lot and centers the cd cover with the track title and play controls underneath it. It also has a regular looking up/down scrolling list for albums and artist view.


Pros: Nice looking UI, easy to navigate, has some decent options like Last.FM Scrobbler support. It can retrieve album art for you, and will even make the art it downloads seen with other music apps. Has a cover thumb nail in the notification pulldown, with play/pause/restart. But if I pause it, it vanishes, This could be a pro to others, it has a lock screen widget, I cannot comment on it as I use Go Locker and it doesn't work with that. Also at $2.94 it's not not terribly priced.

Cons: Could just be the under powered GPU on my Note, I'm not even sure if this app is GPU accelerated though. But it's kind of laggy feeling when scrolling around, it's hard to explain because it's not exactly slow. If I flick medium speed it shoots pretty far and doesn't seem accurate. I imagine if this was a WP7 or iOS app it would just feel a lot smoother. Is it bad? Nah, in fact the average person would probably love it's speed, but it's just a tad slow for my liking. Another big con, it doesn't support rating songs. If it supported iSyncr rating I would be uber happy. Perhaps if I buy it after the trial runs out, I'll suggest this to the authors. And the build in EQ is pretty terribad. I use Volume+, which isn't free but next to the Beats app in HTC phones it's the best EQ hands down imho. There's a time trial onthe market, it gives no indication how long it'll run for. But I've had it on my phone for 24 hours, so it's at least a day. Last con, you can't delete/remove songs directly from your library.
Not a con for me, but if you're music collection doesn't have a lot of the cd covers, it will look pretty

This isn't going to replace PlayerPro as my go to music app, but for the creativeness of the UI alone I'll probably end up buying it. As it makes a pretty damn cool show off app, especially if you have a really large music collection.
 
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AstroManLuca

Lifer
Jun 24, 2004
15,628
5
81
First image appears to work.

Looks way too scatterbrained for me. Then again I don't use my music player, I just stream when I want to listen to something.
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
27,730
8
0
Now all the pics are there for me. Looks like crap though, very cluttered. Especially in the first, fourth, and fifth pictures.
 
Oct 25, 2006
11,036
11
91
It looks terrible. Extremely cluttered, critical functions such as the button take up way too little of the screen, words everywhere
 
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Spoooon

Lifer
Mar 3, 2000
11,563
203
106
It looks cluttered, but it's actually kind of cool in practice.

I get what you're saying about how it seems laggy, even though it's not. What it sort of seems like is it skips frames or something. Not exactly lag, but not totally smooth either.
 

QueBert

Lifer
Jan 6, 2002
22,931
1,129
126
It looks cluttered, but it's actually kind of cool in practice.

I get what you're saying about how it seems laggy, even though it's not. What it sort of seems like is it skips frames or something. Not exactly lag, but not totally smooth either.

It might look cluttered, but it's actually not at all, in PlayerPro I have to scroll about 5x as long to get to the bottom of my list. With how N7's left to right alphabetical it's much quicker to find an artist or album imho. It also has the old plain and boring vertical scrolling list for people who don't like it's main UI.
 

TheStu

Moderator<br>Mobile Devices & Gadgets
Moderator
Sep 15, 2004
12,089
45
91
I thought that the music player implementation on WP7 was pretty great, definitely better than it is on iOS.
 

Headcase_Fargone

Senior member
Nov 20, 2009
388
0
0
As others have said, way too cluttered for my taste. I wish Ubermusic was still being developed. :-(
 
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ThatsABigOne

Diamond Member
Nov 8, 2010
4,422
23
81
Wow, talk about cluttered! I will never switch from PowerAmp, as it the best one out there for my needs.
 

makken

Golden Member
Aug 28, 2004
1,476
0
76
yeah, not fond of the UI of this. I've tried a lot of media players on Android, and I always end up going back to Winamp
 

BenSkywalker

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
9,140
67
91
This doesn't read like a review for an Android app, it reads like an iOS app review. All that is acknowledged at all is how the UI makes the reviewer feel- nothing about usability, functionality, features- really a very good review for normal iOS users as it covers everything they care about, unfortunately that is nothing at all resembling useful information.
 

QueBert

Lifer
Jan 6, 2002
22,931
1,129
126
This doesn't read like a review for an Android app, it reads like an iOS app review. All that is acknowledged at all is how the UI makes the reviewer feel- nothing about usability, functionality, features- really a very good review for normal iOS users as it covers everything they care about, unfortunately that is nothing at all resembling useful information.

It's by far the most usable Android music app I've tried. I bought Player Pro & Power Amp, and have used Winamp, Cubed, the Google one, the Samsung, HTC ones & that Zune clone looking one. I can find the artist or album I'm looking for quickest on here. I personally like the UI, but even if I didn't the speed at which I can locate what I'm looking for makes it pretty damn good.
 

Zaap

Diamond Member
Jun 12, 2008
7,162
424
126
I have to say, I do like N7player myself. I bought it for my niece for her Nook Color and have ended up using it myself on my Nook Tablet. (Even though I also have PowerAmp and Player Pro.)

It's hard to explain, but the interface isn't nearly as jumbled as screenshots make it appear because mostly you're generally scrolling through it not looking at it static.

Also, you can set it to view in a very concise list by Artist, Album, etc. or just by tapping the little music note icon.

Despite the jumbled look, I do find that I get to what I want to hear the quickest, and really, that's all I mostly care about.
 

kruxx

Junior Member
May 13, 2013
1
0
0
This is by far the best media player for Android at the moment.

I'm not sure what people are exactly referring to as 'cluttered'. Are they unable to read Artist names that aren't in an exact order?

Excusing that fact, the app does have the ability to sort your library by Album/Artist/Genre in boring list views, like any other boring music app, it just beats all others because it has the normal boring features while boasting some sweet music library eye candy.

I know I'm bringing this thread back from the grave, but this app deserves all the attention it gets.
 

Red Storm

Lifer
Oct 2, 2005
14,233
234
106
It's by far the most usable Android music app I've tried. I bought Player Pro & Power Amp, and have used Winamp, Cubed, the Google one, the Samsung, HTC ones & that Zune clone looking one. I can find the artist or album I'm looking for quickest on here. I personally like the UI, but even if I didn't the speed at which I can locate what I'm looking for makes it pretty damn good.

The quickest way to find music for me is using Google Now/Search. Having to go into the various content (video, music, contacts, etc.) apps to search for things is the stuff of yesteryear.