On Thursday, the popular phone developer and hacking site XDA-Developers launched another official app for their forums, this time for Windows Phone 7.
Why should you care? Well as I said, the website is quite popular among the geek crowd in the tech industry and the forums are an excellent place for discussion. Plus if you want to know how to get the most out of your phone, the site has forums dedicated to specific hardware so you can interact with others who own the same phone you do. In addition to that, because the site attracts a large number of developers you can also participate in beta tests of apps before anyone else gets the chance to try it.
As you can see there's plenty of reasons to check out the site. The app promises to translate the experience over faithfully but does it live up to its word? Find out after the break.
In short: yes and no.
Allow me to elaborate: XDA currently supports a lot of mobile platforms. You'll see new (like WP7) and old (like Windows Mobile) platforms that already have a staggering amount of participation from a number of users. Also, as previously mentioned, the sheer amount of content and possibilities the site provides is extremely attractive even if you only have a passing interest in tinkering with your device. So the idea of an XDA app could sell pretty much any geek-at-heart.
It's the execution part that's a little shaky. Upon opening the app, you'll see more than just a passing resemblance to the also-very-popular Board Express Pro app on Windows Phone 7 which works with a number of forums across the web that have the Tapatalk plugin installed. It seems that XDA decided to take advantage of Board Express offering rebranded versions of their app and so that's probably how we managed to get the XDA app we're seeing today. That is most certainly a good thing; the strongest quality of the XDA app is the excellent design Board Express offers that makes it the ideal way to use the forums on the go.
That being said, the biggest issue with the app is something that apparently did get lost in translation: performance. While Board Express Pro performs beautifully with several different forums supported, XDA does not despite only having to handle one. Even during the most simple of tasks like swiping between areas of the app, I constantly ran into freezes and hangs that eventually led the app to crash. Indeed, you are getting an app that matches the theme and style of the site more so than the blue-and-white of the original app. But when you have to sacrifice general usability.
The XDA app in its current form is undoubtedly a disappointment. Despite having a familiar and truly excellent design that fully utilizes the Metro UI's strengths, the performance simply isn't there. It's hard not to look at the app as a version 1.0 product and there isn't much you can do about it now; but then again it promises to expand and improve over time. XDA-Developers is still a site worth supporting, which is why I even bothered buying the app when I knew I could've picked up Board Express instead, so $0.99 isn't asking much. But if you'd rather have an XDA app that really works you may want to wait.
Not Recommended
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| Click the tile to get the app! |
XDA-Developers
MobileDevices.ch Verein
$0.99 (no trial)
Version 1.0
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