UberMusic for Android review

UberMusic is a third party replacement music player for Android platform. It is developed by Federico Carnales, the man behind the popular LauncherPro replacement home launcher for Android. The default skin is inspired by the Windows Phone 7 Zune music player clone (with very subtle differences), and that doesn't mean it is a bad thing. Considering that people are willing to pay for something like this is a proof that Microsoft has nailed down the UX for WP7 and, more importantly, the default Android music player is just that bad.

 Unfortunately there isn't a demo for UberMusic, yet, but ever a person who is always willing to try out new a music player (I breath and live music), I decided to give it a shot on my Samsung Galaxy S II. Starting it up for the first time will bring you to the library menu where you can swipe sideways to choose between Artists, Albums, Songs, Genre, Playlists and Folders. This works similarly to how the Zune player works. Selecting an artist will bring up a sub-section which includes their albums and a biography. Further more, the app will download a picture of the artists to use as a background during playback. Music can be scrobbled through either the official Last.fm app or ScrobbleDroid/SLS.

The app has built in support for skinning, but so far the other skins available are merely variations of the Zune player. Not a big deal as the default skin is great anyway, but yes, UberMusic can be customised to your liking. Six widgets of varying sizes are included - and these can be skinned as well. I expect more skins to be made available on the Android Market in the near future, including those that mimic iTunes on iOS. Unfortunately, UberMusic's features is pretty sparse at the moment in comparison to other paid-for replacement music players like PlayerPro and PowerAmp. It lacks a built-in EQ, the ability to change album artwork and ID3 tag edits - features that shouldn't be missing from a paid-for commercial apps..

UberMusic costs US$3.49, which is a lot of money to pay for a music player. Personally I think it is worth it because not only do you get a music player with a slick UX, but it also performs fantastic. Yes, it is a bare bones player features wise, and there are many more players on the market, both free and commercial, that are more powerful and decent alternative to the default Android music player. I do urge you to check them out. In the meantime I highly recommend UberMusic for people looking for a minimalistic and easy to use Android music player.

Download UberMusic here.