Scalado Album – lightning fast & super smooth Gallery app for Android
by Paul Wilks
Jun 7, 2012 9:37 AM –
Install
Scaldo Album is an alternative gallery app that’s simple to use and includes loads of functionality. The user interface is slick, responsive and, while it is an app you pay for rather than your native gallery or something like QuickPic, it has plenty going for it. Check out the review for more.
Price: $0.99
Tested on: HTC One X
Content Rating: Low Maturity
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Very fast and smooth!
- Gorgeous user interface!
- Simple and intuitive navigation!
- Animated video thumbnails!
Cons
- Scalado Album is a step up from QuickPic with more functionality. As you have to pay for it, you might need to determine whether these improvements are worth it to you.
Features:
I’ve never really been a fan of the native Android gallery. In fact, I’ve always quickly sought out an alternative such as QuickPic. QuickPic is a great little application that certainly impressed when we reviewed it a while ago. However, I now think Scalado Album might just top it in terms of performance.
Scalado Album replaces your native gallery and provides a slew of really handy and cool features. Firstly, it’s as fast as lightning in terms of how quick it renders your pictures. I experienced no lag or loading delay and I have a couple of hundred pictures on my phone. Sweeping from picture to picture is also very speedy and responsive, everything is just there plus there is no waiting around for things to load. As much as I liked QuickPic it did slow down sometimes when racing through lots of pictures.
The user interface of Scalado Album is certainly similar to that of other gallery apps, but with a few more options. From opening the app your photos are separated into various categories: All, Camera Roll, Nearby, Places, Months and Folders. Nearby lists the pictures that were taken close to where you are now, while Places give you the pictures by the city or town where they were taken (if they have been geotagged). Powered by Google Maps, you can also click the map icon at the top which shows the locations your pictures have been taken, providing a shortcut straight to those snaps. You can also see the pics in a more chronological fashion by viewing them by Month. The Folders category gives you a view similar to what you have in QuickPic. The extra level of navigation is a real bonus and lets you navigate to pictures easily and intuitively. A great feature of the app is the inclusion of animated video thumbnails. When you sweep down your grid of images, the videos stand out by moving- showing a small GIF-like animation of the video itself. Additionally you can customise your view and even hide folders.
When opening a picture you can double tap to zoom in, or pinch in and out manually. From the viewing screen you can pull up various options; share to cloud, delete and edit (this includes a set-as feature, crop, rotate an detailed picture info). These tabs are all subtle and actually hidden unless you tap the screen, meaning you can enjoy your pictures without distraction. I should also mention that the app works brilliantly whether you are in landscape or portrait mode.
Watch on Mobile
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Scalado Album – Main page
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Scalado Album – Grid view
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Scalado Album – Press and hold to multi-select pictures
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Scalado Album – Places
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Scalado Album – Months
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Scalado Album – Easily delete pictures
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Scalado Album – Map view
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Scalado Album – Portrait view
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Scalado Album – Crop
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Scalado Album – Landscape view
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Scalado Album – Landscape view with menu
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Scalado Album – Photo details
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Scalado Album – Set as options
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Scalado Album – Share options
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Scalado Album – Settings
Usefulness:
Scalado Album is very useful, especially compared with the native Android gallery- and even the likes of QuickPic. While the app isn’t free it offers a number of features- as described above, which makes the experience of exploring your photo gallery far more intuitive and rewarding.
Ease of Use:
The app focuses on speed and usability, placing emphasis on creating a user experience that is pretty much second to none. Navigation is discreet yet intuitive, your pictures are categorised in a number of ways that make it easier than ever to find what you are looking for.
Frequently Used:
This will obviously depend on the individual user, but I find myself using the gallery app on many occasions- certainly on a daily basis.
Interface:
The interface is beautiful, black inlays and 24bit colour support in full screen view. It’s fluid, responsive and incredibly fast. As gallery apps go, it’s second to none in this regard.