Test devices: Samsung Galaxy Nexus 4.0.4 & Acer Iconia A500 with 4.0.3 Custom ROM
Swipe across the welcome screen to get to the main page, where you'll find the first few images and the following options:
- Popular
- Editors
- Upcoming
- Fresh
- Search
- You
- Friends
- Favorites
The stock setting is programmed to “Popular”.
The first five options are pretty self-explanatory, but let's take a look at the rest:
Hit “You” to see your account, provided you've included your details in the application. Browsing through pictures and viewing them full screen is possible, same as in every category. There are also options for slide show, sharing and general information related to the image (title, author, votes/rating, options to add it to your favourites). Pull the bar up to read comments or write one yourself. Swipe horizontally for even more infos. Great design up until this point!
The full screen view is also good and skipping to the next image is a cinch.
The “Friends” tab is also well thought-out, as it displays all of your 500px contacts' photos, and you can comment or vote on them.
“Favourites” is, again, self-explanatory.
Go to the menu to sign off, update your current display and settings. You can also sign in using your Twitter account.
Bottom line:
500xp is good, but could still be improved upon. For instance, it isn't (yet?) possible to view all of the website's views or even look at other users' profiles. If the developers keep tweaking the app, it could go from 'good' to 'great' within a few months.
By the way: if you're wondering why there's no option for actually uploading photos, here's why: 500px users tend to be professionals, and most of them use real cameras to shoot pictures, rather than their smartphones and various vintagy looking apps.
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