eWeather HD – Great weather app with lots of features and widgets

Summary

If you're the type of person who doesn't particularly enjoy winding up wearing moon boots on a day which has turned out to be unexpectedly balmy, then a weather app is just the thing for you. Today we're taking a closer look at eWeather HD, an application that caught our attention with promises of tons of features and widgets. Read on to find out what we make of eWeather HD.

Test device: Samsung Galaxy Note
Android version: 4.0.3
Root: No

The file is 5,72 MB and the permissions seem transparent enough.

eWeather HD is more than a mere weather app: it provides users with a tremendous amount of weather-related information and includes over 130 000 locations world wide. The main functions include:

• 20 different widgets of the weather, radar, time, moon phase, barometer, geomagnetic index, and UV index
• Black ice and freeze warnings
• Barometre with headache indicator
• Goemagnetic storm forecast
• 10 day forecast
• 24 hours with hourly updates
• Chances of rain
• Full tablet support
• Option for sending a weather forecast via email

Aside from the key features (which, as mentioned, are a'plenty) there are also a lot of options for adapting and tailoring the application. This includes making changes to the measurement units, the widget, program details, font size, icons for the status bar (e.g. Temperature, moon phase, barometre, etc.) and more.

While many users will be pleased to know that they can tinker with the app to their heart's content and read up on a lot of weather details, what's more important is that the information and forecasts are correct. So far, I've only been able to test one of the 130 000 available locations, and have yet to try out the 10 day forecast, but so far I found the app to be accurate and reliable.

Upon first starting up the application you will see the 24 hour forecast. This shows the current weather situation, as well as hourly details regarding the weather of the current day. It provides eight different parametres. Click on the middle of the clock to change the clock and get details regarding on the windchill factor, humidity, chance of rain, air pressure, wind speed or the geomagnetic and UV indexes for the next 24 hours.

Check out the menu options beneath the clock for more eWeather HD features. On the far left there's a button to update infos. The 24 hour button changes the parametres, similar to when you tap in the middle of the weather clock. The button in the middle harbours the 10 day weather forecast. One button over and you can see all current weather conditions and details. You can swipe through these different view modes, which works rather nicely.

The button on the right hosts all of the other features: adapt settings, send a weather report via email, read up on earthquake updates, switch to radar overview, check severe weather and storm alerts and add more locations. All of these functions can also be accessed via your own device's menu function, which I actually prefer, because I find this easier than dealing with the internal menu's icons.

The menu button itself can also be adapted, meaning you can select from six pre-settings or else deactivate it.

My least favourite feature is the map view because the control elements are not easy to see due to the light grey background (check screenshot). The classic map view is much better, but, again, the app struggles with the satellite view.

Widgets

eWeather HD has a lot of widgets, 20 to be precise, and they come in all different shapes and sizes. Tailor your widgets according to your preferences and add details to the weather clock: hourly updates, the radar, earthquake info, the map or the 10 day overview.

The font and text size may also be adapted, as well as the overall look (background colour and transparency).

When creating a new widget you can check out a preview of what it will look like in the top part of the display.

Bottom line:

eWeather HD is more than your classic weather application. It provides users with a very generous amount of features and settings options, as well as a lot of relevant information.
That said, very dense and in-depths apps come with a downside in the sense that they can be labyrinthian; I found certain key features such as adding another location to be too hidden. However, once you've gotten used to navigating the app and know where all of the features and options are located, you will find that adapting the application and using it is simple enough.

Aside from the aforementioned satellite view issues we found eWeather HD to perform well. There were no crashes and the transition between all of the menus is very smooth.

eWeather HD usually costs EUR 2,42 when you purchase it from the App Center, but seeing as it's our app of the week it can be downloaded for only EUR 1,19 for a limited time only.