If so, you’ll need a great media player to go along with your collection – and where else to turn but to Poweramp, one of the oldest and most trusted music applications available on the Play Store. While you might know exactly what you’re getting into with Poweramp, especially if you were an early adopter of Android, there’s always the possibility you don’t know exactly how feature-packed this app truly is.
POWERAMP ANDROID APP SAME AS TRIAL DOWNLOAD
So, sit back, throw on some quality headphones, and download Poweramp’s free trial. It’s time we take a look at one of the most robust music apps available on Android. The stock look of Poweramp is, in all fairness, pretty dated. Most modern music applications feature some type of material design, the central theme that Android has centered around since 2014. In comparison to an application like Google Play Music or Pulsar, the app feels like it generally belongs back on Gingerbread. The good news for those of us who prefer design-focused applications: Poweramp also happens to have a theming engine built into the app.
POWERAMP ANDROID APP SAME AS TRIAL INSTALL
Personally, I didn’t wait too long to install a free material-focused skin onto my player. The skin I chose offered both material light and dark options, and did a good job making the app look and feel a lot more modern.
It’s not perfect-you won’t find any sliding navigation menus or other material options-but the colors and icons in Poweramp were both upgraded and certainly looked better than they had previously. A quick search on the Google Play store will reveal dozens of free or low-cost themes available for the platform, and I couldn’t be happier. The majority of themes don’t do much beyond recoloring the application, but that can go a long way in making Poweramp feel like an app made for 2017. It’s also worth noting that Poweramp 3 is currently in alpha-testing, and you can download the newer version inside the settings of the current Poweramp app. While it does feature a bunch of new features, including a reworked audio engine and support for third-party plugins, the actual visuals of the app largely remain the same. Unfortunately, I found navigating the application to be a mixed bag.
For one, the app seems to disregard one of the cardinal rules of Android: the back button should always send you back to the previous screen. In the case of Poweramp, however, the back button is frustratingly inconsistent. On the Now-Playing screen, pressing the back button sends me to my home screen. To get back to my library of songs, I have to click the far left of four buttons in the top right corner of the screen. Once I’m there, the app gives me the choice of selecting music from either a file browser or from my library, a more iTunes-esque look at all of my albums. If I’m on this screen, pressing back does take my back to the Now-Playing display. Likewise, clicking back from inside settings works as intended. I have no doubt that spending a couple weeks with Poweramp as my sole music player would give me time to grow used to the functions and navigation of the app, but readers should know the first couple hours exploring the app may result in some frustrating navigation experiences.