Germany
Very
good
 |
WikiDroyd – Wikipedia for Android
Tested version: 1.4.9
Latest version: 1.4.11
Requires Android: from 1.6
|
Summary
For those of you who were shaking your fists in anger and outrage at not having access to Wikipedia when there’s no internet connection—rejoice! Yes, I’m talking to ALL Android users, be it with or without flatrate plans for their smartphones, because today I’m pleased to bring you a review of WikiDroyd, an app that lets users access all of Wikipedia, even when you’re not connected to the internet. Want to find out more? Read on!
Features & Use
Section rating:
Test devices:
-HTC Desire with 2.3.7 (Root and Custom ROM)
-Acer Iconia A500 with 3.2
Whoa, what do you mean, download all of Wikipedia and save it locally? It sounds crazy, but it’s true: minus the images, all of Wikipedia (over 1.300.000 articles to date) is only 2,24 GB, meaning it can easily fit on the SD card.
The first time you open WikiDroyd a pop-up appears telling you that you haven’t get downloaded the data base and should do so now. Hit OK; you will then see a selection of Wikipedia data bases in different languages. I choose to download the English version, and I choose to have it download to my computer (it’s either that or have it download to the Android device itself), and then pull it on to my device’s SD card. The app then recognises the available Wikis, which are located in the WikiDroyd folder.
The app’s main page yields one of the most important functions, namely the search function. As soon as you enter a few letters the app starts spewing forth suggestions, from which you can select the term you want to look up, should it be among the suggestions (it usually is).
More neat functions: articles can be displayed randomly – a great way to learn something new – and there’s a button that links to the online version of Wikipedia.
The articles look pretty much the same as what you will be used to if you’ve ever read an online Wikipedia article. Oh, the comfort of familiarity! The menu yields a few more useful functions: there’s another ‘Online Article’ option, a text search option, and an option to add article to the ‘Favourites’. Hit ‘Home’ at any time to return to the main page, or view your search history.
There’s also an option that lets you manage the data bases, and another one that lets you add more books (i.e. Wikipedia in more languages).
Go to settings to make changes to the font size, missing links, the number of random articles or the way in which search results are displayed and sorted. You can even change where the data is saved to.
Bottom line:
WikiDroyd is amazing, especially for those (admittedly few) Android users who don’t have a flatrate plan. Like most Android users out there, I do have a flatrate plan, but I use WikiDroyd nonetheless, because I find it comes in handy whenever there’s no internet connection.
The application functions more or less in the same way as the online website, plus it has a few extra functions (I especially like that favourite articles can be bookmarked).
Drawbacks: the data base is 2,24 GB, and the app does not download images. Missing pictures can nevertheless be uploaded via the ‘Online Article’ function whenever you are connected to the internet.
Screen & Controls
Section rating:
Using WikiDroyd is easy, seeing as articles are displayed in the same way as on the website. They can also be enlarged using pinch-to-zoom. Searching for articles is made super easy with the app’s functions (such as the display search history function).
The app’s design is perfectly fine and looked good on both the Desire and the Acer Iconia on which I tested WikiDroyd.
Speed & Stability
Section rating:
WikiDroyd runs very smoothly indeed: search suggestions pop up within seconds and articles are displayed within 2 seconds (that’s faster than on the website itself!).
WikiDroyd did not lag or crash during the test run.
Price/Performance Ratio
Section rating:
WikiDroyd can be downloaded for free but with ad banners from the Android Market. That said, the ad banners are displayed on the homepage alone, and thus didn’t prove to be a nuisance whatsoever.
Comparable Apps
No comparable apps are currently known to us. If you happen to know one, it would be great if you could get in touch with us.
Report comparable or similar apps
Developer
Top App:
MapDroyd
MapDroyd - offline maps for the whole planet With MapDroyd, you can explore maps for the (...)
MapDroyd - offline maps for the whole planet With MapDroyd, you can explore maps for the (...)
You must be logged in in order to become a fan of CloudMade Deutschland GmbH.
Features
Screen
Speed
Price
Market Rating:
AndroidPIT User Rating:
Own Rating:
Log yourself in!
Ad
Bookmark / E-Mail
Click on an icon to bookmark this test report. » Send this article via e-mailScreenshots
All Test Reports
- Applications (590)
- Games (392)
Market Comments
A Google User, May 9, 2013
Amazing Amazingly good! Love it.
A Google User, May 8, 2013
Cumulative updates The wiki file updation should b cumulative, as u cannot download 6gb every while. Please add option to select extsdcard vs sdcard to work with samsung devices
A Google User, May 5, 2013
Excellent Very good app, thank you for making it free, I use it everyday, please keep up with the work.
A Google User, May 4, 2013
Please update the databases Whats the problem?
A Google User, Apr 30, 2013
? Tough ui
A Google User, Apr 3, 2013
ajay ias very nice aplctin for those who are eagare to know about facts,gather knowledge .
A Google User, Feb 1, 2013
good... great app...only thing missing for me is the ability to pick the target directory for the database just like in mapdroyd...
A Google User, Jan 9, 2013
No so helpful The data erases itself each i download the data. Tired of downloading the database.
A Google User, Dec 18, 2012
Great! It's super fast! Also great that it's possible to download books directly in the app without using a PC.
Dr.Vaska, Oct 29, 2012
Georgian Language Please add support of Georgian Language
Umer, Oct 26, 2012
Not working offline How to download data base..plz help me ?
Sayed Jaffar, Oct 16, 2012
Excellent Thanks for this programme
bas, Oct 1, 2012
Werkt feilloos Echt handig, zo'n offline wikipedia: sneller en goedkoper dan online opzoeken!
David, Sep 22, 2012
Bad layout The principal problem with this app is that the files are very large. This cannot be helped but when scrolling through books it is exceptionally easy to mark books not required and delete ones that are. The app may give total to be downloaded but it gives no confirmation of which books are to be added/deleted and at 1.2Gb at a time this is extremely dangerous.
, Sep 22, 2012
~~uninstall~~ won't download DB and constantly look for update
Rambutan, Sep 8, 2012
Good Very useful, but would like updated wikidumps.
Diam, Sep 6, 2012
Very nice Nice an usefull. But eng base need to fresh up.
Tom, Aug 29, 2012
Arnova 10g2 Works perfectly Such a nice app
goska, Aug 22, 2012
too old version Books need updating. You gat 5 stars then
J, Aug 11, 2012
2 year old database is a BIG drawback. Also needs more options such as inverted colors which is.good for amoled. No jelly Bean support
| Go to pg.: | 1 2 3 ... 7 » |