Smart Office 2 – Easy access to your office

Summary

Being able to access one's office quickly and efficiently is a must in today's world. The only downer is the actual physical weight of one's own laptop computer. Smartphones and tablets on the other hand weigh decidedly less, without skipping any of the features one might need in order to get work done on the go. But—the right app is key to make this scenario a reality. Smart Office 2 promises to deliver on this front, including providing a full fledged mobile printing feature. Does the app deliver? Find out in our review below.

Views

Finding documents is easy using the file explorer or timeline feature. The timeline (history) displays all files and documents that have been worked on.

File format

Smart Office 2 supports a plethora of file formats including Microsoft Office file formats since Office 1997 (doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx). The app can also display and save documents as PDFs.

Displaying, creating and editing documents

The viewer displays all formats as well as additional information for each document. Another useful feature: it also displays the number of times an existing document has been printed and shared thus far.

Documents can be created from an empty doc or one of the templates which include CV, presentation, invoice and expenses. I found these templates to be great as they save a lot of time by helping create documents much faster than if one were to set them up from scratch.

There is a useful search function that locates keywords within seconds, as well as an undo/redo feature that I find to be invaluable.

A few drawbacks: there is no option for deleting objects in presentations. And the notepad, while a useful tool in itself, is only able to save one element at a time when used within the app. The notepad may look like a block of papers, but it isn't possible to scroll through it.

Existing documents may be edited in their integrity within the app and the text format may be formatted (font size, style, etc.).

When setting up a presentation you will find a number of useful and familiar features such as playing elements on various levels and integrating images (even photos taken then and there).

All standard formulas may be used for calculations. Changing the data base in regards to diagrams is also an option and a rather efficient one at that.

Export & Sharing

All documents can be shared from within any menu, though I don't quite understand why sharing is only possible via email, Skype and Google Drive. I would like to see more options become available in the near future.

Integration with Google Drive and Dropbox

For those who tend to organise their docs in a cloud, Smart Office 2 will be a godsend. Connecting to Google Drive is a cinch and the only thing that made me hesitate for a moment or two was introducing my Google account logins into the app, and I do think that this could have been circumvented using options such as OpenID or a sound Google/Android integration.

Mobile printing

This is one of Smart Office 2's nicest features, which can really help cut a few corners—in theory. The app promises to help render additional printing apps superfluous, but during my test runs I wasn't able to benefit from this feature in the way I would have liked using a WiFi printer (HP Officejet J4680) and the Galaxy Nexus or Galaxy Tab 10.1. I kept getting “print error” notifications. On a brighter note, the printer within the WiFi network (FritzBox WLAN 7270) was picked up without any issues.

Should you be experiencing issues with printing we would be happy to hear from you in the comments section below.

3D feature

This function can be used when creating presentations and charts in order to achieve a stereo 3D effect. In order to appreciate it, you will require a pair of 3D glasses.

Permissions

The application requires the following permissions, all of which strike us as being straightforward:

• Full internet access
• View network status
• View WiFi status
• Modify/delete SD card contents
• Write owner data

Bottom line:

The app comes with a lot of features (printing options, 3D feature, easy set up and editing of docs), but the usability falls short on some levels. Icons are too small on the Galaxy Nexus and the scaled resolution on the tablet failed to impress us.

However, the menus are set up both smartly and with an eye for design and detail, but, again, the resolution is just not up to par. We also didn't appreciate the pop-up for the newsletter.

On the whole we do recommend Smart Office 2 and feel it's just the ticket for users who are on the lookout for a highly functional but also lovingly designed office tool.

Smart Office 2 leaves me with mixed feelings when it comes to this category. Controls are incredibly simply and intuitive (and it come with some of our favourite gimmicks including zoom per long press and other little features that make life easier).

Furthermore, it's quite obvious that a lot of thought went into creating the application's design. There are a lot of movable elements that slide across the display smoothly. However, what we didn't appreciate so much is the size of the icons, which are much too small on the whole. This makes them hard to select or even read. The menu texts are also displayed in a font that is much too small.

When used on a tablet the icons are larger and easier to read, but the menu resolution is weak and overall the tablet resolution seems merely scaled up from the smartphone resolution. There's room for improvement here.

Smart Office 2 performed very well throughout our test runs and strikes us as being as an absolutely reliable application.
The app managed to open documents on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus like nobody's business and everything else runs very smoothly also, including scrolling.

Smart Office 2 is our app of the week and is available for only € 4.99 instead of € 9.66 from the App Center.
Smart Office Lite, a free version, is also available and can be found in Google Play.