It’s the Poweramp vs Playerpro vs Neutron Android app battle, and hopefully this will help you understand exactly which music listening experience is best for you. Just a quick note before we get started below: Each of these music player apps offers a free trial in order to get used to the apps and understand whether or not you want to buy it. I listed the links to the Free Trials, because I believe that no one should pay for these apps until you test them. This review is a great place to start your research, but they all offer different capabilities and features, so I would recommend trying out the trials, then locating the paid versions on the same page when you find the one you like.
Our Ratings:
Poweramp: 4.0 out of 5 stars Playerpro: 4.8 out of 5 stars Neutron: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Google Play Ratings and Links:
Poweramp: 4.5 out of 5 stars Playerpro: 4.6 out of 5 stars Neutron: 4.1 out of 5 stars
Poweramp – Smooth Player, But Cluttered
The Good
Starting off, the Poweramp interface is smooth for playing music. You can quickly skip to the next track, pause and fast forward without any problems. I enjoyed that it includes looping and shuffle buttons right on the main screen, so you don’t have to go searching for them. This interface also includes the name of your track right at the bottom of the screen. Poweramp also features a strong support team, with a nice website and options to call or email the support team if you have any questions. The best part is that you can go onto their forum and chat with other users who are are having the same problems as you. From the looks of it their standard support teams aren’t the most realibile, so use these forums to your full advantage. Poweramp is perfect for categorizing your songs. Once I downloaded a few songs on my tablet, it took just a few seconds for the Poweramp app to recognize that I had new media. This then dropped the music in the proper genres and artist categories. You’ll also notice that the Playlists are easy to create, and you can always reference the playlists from the settings tab on the primary track screen. You can always rate the songs as you play them and then click on the top rated area to listen to the stuff that you enjoy most. The Poweramp mobile app also includes a Queue option, which makes it easy to place a bunch of songs in order for a party or other gathering. Sometimes your playlists won’t cut it so you need to create a queue within just a few minutes. Use this feature for last-minute adding. Another nice thing about Poweramp is the security. The app doesn’t take any of your information and use it for profit or for sharing with other companies. You don’t have to worry about your email or contact information being taken.
The Bad
The primary reason Poweramp is not for everyone is because the extras are overwhelming. The initial interface is just fine, but once you start looking at the settings and mixing options you can see what I’m talking about. The app has buttons and knobs to adjust things like bass and tone. The only problem is that the average user would never touch this. They might even play around with it for fun and end up screwing up their sound quality. It’s best to leave these features to professionals who might use it for their jobs or as a hobby. The second problem with Poweramp is the presentation of songs. I tried to import ten songs, and none of them included album art. Each time I just saw the boring Poweramp logo, making for a less pretty experience. Obviously this doesn’t have anything to do with the way the app plays music, but in my opinion the album art is part of the overall experience. And since another app on this list includes striking album art, Poweramp fails in this respect.
The Bottom Line
Poweramp is a suitable music player for anyone who wants to carry around their music collection. If you plan on storing your collection in the cloud, you might want to opt for another solution. The Poweramp app is great for listening to music, but you don’t always see the album art, which is a deal breaker for me. The app is also great for people who want to mess around with the equalizer and the many other setting modifications possible. It’s not my cup of tea, and I’m certain plenty of people will skip these features entirely, but it’s worth it if you really know things about sound.
Playerpro – Our Top Music Player
The Good
Playepro is the most intuitive music player app for the average user. It pulls all of your content on your phone and immediately categorizes it so you don’t have to worry about a thing. The app also offers support for videos, beating out some of the other high-profile music player apps on the market. You’ll notice below that the app navigation is sleek and stylish, pulling all the album covers and placing them next to each other so you know exactly what is playing next. I like the app’s menu setup more than the other two music player apps, since it’s placed right at the top of the page, and you can jump from tab to tab without being navigated away from the menu. Playlists and folders are supported in the Playerpro app, making it easy to place songs in different areas in case you need to create a road trip playlist for your ride out to California. Playerpro doesn’t have any privacy concerns, making it safe to store your personal information on your phone. Some apps reach into your contacts or access your email address, but this app doesn’t do any of that.
The Bad
In terms of the average user, I really couldn’t find anything to badmouth the Playerpro app. It’s sleek and effective, and the features are all present so that you don’t have to go searching for anything. The one thing I noticed is that Playerpro offers heavy-duty features for modifying the audio and using things such as an equalizer. If you want to use these more powerful features it takes a while to figure out where they are. I think Powerpro really wants to be an app for the average user, and they just threw in the more advanced features in case others wanted them. The only problem is that they did a great job of hiding them from the interface.
The Bottom Line
Playerpro is by far the best option for the average music listener. The app presents album cover art flawlessly, presenting it throughout your experience to remind you what you are looking for. Along with various other features such as lock screen controls, headset modifications and an intuitive library, Playerpro tops this list as the best music player in the business.
Neutron – Just Fine, But Privacy is a Factor
The Good
The Neutron music player app provides lossless playback for those interested in the perfect listening environment. Unfortunately this playback depends on your hardware. You receive powerful features to set times, clocks and output methods. The equalizer and cross feed settings are easily accessible for those who want to find that perfect sound. The app is nice for audio nuts who enjoy playing around with sounds and settings. In terms of categorization, the Neutron app puts all of your media within a few seconds. You don’t get video support, but the app supports just about any file type for songs and audio clips. Move around songs to your queue or build a playlist for your upcoming trip. You can also scan your device at any time with the quick scan button located at the top right corner. Background playing is supported, so you can jump around on your phone and do whatever you want while listening to your favorite tunes.
The Bad
Neutron plays music just fine, but that isn’t all that surprising in today’s day and age. Unfortunately the interface is not that intuitive, since the buttons on the top have no explanations and you simply have to click on them to discover what they do. This is often the case in many apps, but these buttons don’t even seem to correlate that well to the page that they lead you to. The main player interface also looks cluttered in my opinion. It’s actually quite similar to Poweramp, but this app has more buttons and the album and song title test is too big, so you can’t even see the whole thing when listening to music. The Neutron app randomly pulls album cover art, but I’d say 90 percent of the time it failed to do so. This makes for a bland looking interface since you can’t see what you are listening to or understand what the artists were thinking stylistically when making the song. Another reason Neutron is probably the worst player on this list is because it is the only one that has privacy concerns. The app can reach into your accounts and find your email. This means that your email might get sold to other companies so they can market to you in the future. There is no reason a music player needs to access your email address, so I would assume they are indeed making money on selling email addresses.
The Bottom Line
Neutron is my least favorite of the music player apps for Android, but it offers plenty of features for those interested in a powerful player. The only reason I place it in last place is because the interface is cluttered. All the features are there, but it just doesn’t look all that great. The app includes two large arrow buttons that are obviously designed to help people quickly move from one page to the next, but it looks like the buttons are from the 90s. Not to mention, a tabbed menu at the top is always going to be easier than flicking through five pages to get where you want to go.
Conclusion
That’s it for the Poweramp vs Playerpro vs Neutron Android app battle. I hope you are starting to see why each of these apps are leaders in the music player app market. Playerpro is the best option for those who want a beautiful interface and acceptable playback. All of the players are just fine when it comes to playing music and skipping around to find your favorite tracks. Playerpro gives you the added benefit of playing videos, so if you enjoy this feature then go for that app. Poweramp is filled with advanced features that make it a little too confusing and cluttered for my style. However, I would assume that most people who want these features would choose Poweramp over the other two options. Neutron is pretty similar to Poweramp, since it has trouble pulling album art and it just looks like a standard music player. I personally think the interface is less attractive in Neutron, so I would choose this music player after the other ones. Let us know in the comment section if you have any questions about the Poweramp vs Playerpro vs Neutron Android app battle. We use music players all the time, so it’s essential that we review the best ones to see which are best for average and power users. Hopefully, this review helps you out.
