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Today Resco released a beta version of their Photo Viewer application. Resco gave MobilityMinded the possibility to review this betaversion. In this artice I will point out the most interesting changes since the last verison of Resco Photo Viewer. Please be aware that this review is about the latest Beta; functionality might change in the final build!

So the first question that comes to a lot of people is: Why do I need an extra Photo Viewer on my Windows Phone, I’ve already got a built-in photo viewer.

To give a direct answer to this question Resco states:

Resco Photo Viewer is a favorite photo viewing program with features far beyond standards of the classic built-in viewer. Users gain functions of complete image management in a modern looking and easy to handle application. Intuitive way of work, outrageous effects and many slideshow and edit features move other image viewing programs to the second line

And from my first impressions I can only say that it’s true; Resco Photo Viewer gives a user far more possibilities managing their photo’s on their Windows Phone than any build-in photo viewer which comes shipped with their Windows Phone.

Lets go through the new features of Resco Photo Viewer 7.00 Beta.
In the press release Resco names as new features for this verion:

3 main User Interfaces
Users operate in 3 main interfaces (Browser, Viewer, Slideshow), each with own rules and options of use.
4 main Image Databases
Browser’s home screen offers 4 main image databases — My Documents, Camera Roll, Favorites and My Albums.
Support for Devices with GPS Module
User is able to add GPS position to any image. The position can be, afterwards, located on map (using Google Maps).
Upload Images straight to Flickr, Facebook, Picasa or Twitter
Along with Flickr, the biggest internet image database, users can choose among other three popular social networks (Facebook, Picasa or Twitter) to upload their photos to.

3 main User Interfaces.

The new Resco Photo Viewer has 3 main User Interfaces:

The Browser Interface.
The Viewer Interface.
The Slideshow Interface.

Compared to version 6.33 the new interfaces look very modern and clean. Everything is “Touch” based and doesn’t need a stylus anymore.

The Browser Interface.

The main screen of the browser has 4 Image Databases. “My Documents“, “Camera Roll“, “Favorites” and “My Albums”. The last option gives you the possibility to browse trough your device and search for photo’s .

The browser interface works really well in this beta version and doesn’t need any improvement at all. Browsing is fast and looks very clean.

When in one of the folders you have several buttons on the very bottom of the screen. The most interesting one is “Actions”.

Actions

Actions lets you select the photo’s in the folder and do something with these photo’s. You can either choose to Send, Upload, Copy, Move, Rename or Delete the selected photo’s.

When you directly do to a folder on your device click the “Browse” buton on the bottom of the screen. You will than see a tree-view of your device and directly go into a folder.

The Viewer interface.

The viewer interface is the interface when viewing a photo. The photo can be viewed full-screen with no controls, but when pressing the touchscreen controls appear for the displayed picture. Depending on the settings different controls can be shown or hidden.

Among these controls are the following:

Rotate the photo left or right.
Go to the previous or next picture.
Return to the album where the photo is in.
Start the slideshow.
Send the photo via IrDA, Bluetooth, Email, MMS or Upload the picture.
Edit photo (like brightness, RGB etc.)
Menu.
A Photo Zoom slider.

Most controls are self-explanatory but there are some controls that might need some extra information.

Send the photo via IrDA, Bluetooth, Email, MMS or Upload.

Several options from this control don’t work yet in this beta. For example I’ve tried uploading the picture to several services (The options are Flickr, Picasa, Facebook & Twitter) and sadly not everything worked as smooth as I thought it would. I am convinced that in the final version these issues are completely gone and uploading to these popular services are fully integrated in this application.

Photo Zoom slider

The photo zoom slider is a great control in the View interface. Scrolling your finger up on the slider zooms in to the picture (at a maximum of 2000%), scrolling down obviously zooms out. What impresses me a lot is the scrollingspeed. You can literally zoom form 1% to 2000% within a second. very Smooth!

The Slideshow interface

The Slideshow interface shows the selected photoroll as a slideshow. The slideshow can be configured with several options like Speed, Slide Direction, Slide Effect, Hide Notes and Repeat.

Just like the other interfaces the slideshow interface look very well. In the slideshow interface I couldn’t find anything that didn’t work the way it should be so I think this interface will be pretty much the same in the final version like it is in this beta version.

Thoughts & Wrap-up

First of all I would like to point out that I think it’s good for you to know with which device I’ve been testing this beta version of Resco Photo Viewer. The device is a HTC Touch Pro 2.

Secondly I think it is not time yet to come up with a final verdict of the new version of Resco Photo Viewer. This reviewed beta however is a great step in the development of Resco Photo Viewer and already has a lot of functionality which should be available in the final version.

As a last point I would like to mention that the name “Photo viewer” is in my opinion a little bit of an understatement. From all the added features that should be available in the final version in my thoughts it became a true Photo Manager in stead of just a Viewer.

Review Resco Photo Viewer 7.00 Beta