REVIEWS / APPS / AVIARY, INC

Editors' ChoicePhoto Editor by Aviary Review

12 Dec, 2012, 9:29 am IST | by Roydon Cerejo | Apps

Apps


Easy to use interface
The final result

PRICE IN INDIA

Free

TECH2 RATING

9.0

AVERAGE USER RATING

8.5

How we test

CONTACT

Aviary, Inc

Finding a well-designed photo editing app for Android is not the easiest thing to do. While there are many functional apps in the Play Store, more often than not they lack the polished feel of an iOS app. Photo Editor by Aviary is one such exception for Android and it’s easily one of the best free photo editors available for multiple platforms.

User interface and features
Aviary uses a minimalistic design for the interface and automatically loads the most recent picture from either your gallery or any other folders you specify. You also have the option to capture a picture using the camera button or browse through your gallery for a specific image. The settings icon on top lets you customise the app starting with the order of the effects and customisation options available for an image. For instance, if you have the habit of just cropping and adjusting the brightness and contrast, then you can group them together so you needn’t scroll through the ones you don’t use. You can select your output folder as well as mark certain folders to be monitored so images will be pulled automatically from it. Finally, you can even select the size for your final saved image. Currently, Aviary supports an image size up to 12MP. You even have the option to edit the EXIF data for your final image if you have to.

Easy to use interface

Easy to use interface

 


Despite being a free app, the UI is designed very well and finish and attention to details, like the animations between menus, add to the polished feel of the app.

Performance
There’s a plethora of options available for tweaking your photo starting with an Enhance option that basically lets you correct the lighting of the image. You can choose between options like Night, Backlit etc. Moving on to the effects, you get only one batch of thirteen free filters while more can be purchased for Rs. 54 for a pack like Grunge, Nostalgia and Viewfinder. The same goes for Stickers. There’s a free pack that you can download off the Play Store while the rest can be purchased. Prices vary depending on the pack you choose. There are a lot of fun effects that you can pull off with stickers to jazz up your photo. The next few are pretty straightforward like orientation, crop, brightness and contrast. In the crop tool, we also have a 16:9 aspect preset that many photo editors don’t have, including some paid ones. You can even adjust the saturation, sharpness and warmth of the image very easily by simply turning the dial. The process is simple and the interface is very intuitive.

The final result

The final result

 


The next bunch of tools lets you draw, add text to your image, remove red eye, whiten parts of the image and even create a meme of your image. We tested the app on a Galaxy Nexus and it runs smoothly without any lag. Even applying effects does not take a very long time as the processing is done very quickly. Saving an image even at its native resolution is pretty quick. A feature that we wish were present is a colour splash tool that lets you colour in parts of the image you want. Perhaps we’ll see this in a future update.

Verdict
If you live to Instagram and are looking for a free yet powerful photo-editing app, then Photo Editor by Aviary is an excellent place to start. It packs in many useful photo editing tools including filters. And best of all, it’s completely free. One final feature that makes it stand out from the rest is that the developers also offer their SDK for different platforms, so you can embed this inside your own app. The app is cross platform and avilable for iOS, Android and Windows phone 7.

 

You can download Photo Editor by Aviary for iOS here.

Download Photo Editor by Aviary for Android here.


Tags:

Photo Editor by Aviary , Photo Editor by Aviary review , Photo Editor by Aviary download , Photo Editor by Aviary features , Aviary review , aviary ios , aviary android , aviary apk , aviary twitter , aviary , photo editing app , app , ios , android

Would you buy it?




 


How We Test

The Tech2 Labs receives many products every single week and each of them is tested with the utmost care and highest level of objectivity. There’s a constant effort to reduce and totally eliminate subjectivity. Each product is tested according to set test processes so the same test scenario is used.

Verdict
The ratings awarded to a product are derived from a number of tests and calculations, keeping certain important factors in mind. These factors consist of features, performance, quality and value for money. In case of software and some other categories, build quality might be replaced with ease of use or ease of installation. Products are compared with other products in a similar price range or product category.


Features
The features component of the score is rated based on the kind of features present on a particular product. Features are a big part of what people look for when they’re buying a new product such as a phone or a camera.

Performance
The performance score is derived from the benchmarks and tests run on the product. In case of the subjective scores, an average of the scores given by the group of reviewers is considered.

Build Quality
The build quality of a product is important so that it doesn’t fall apart after some use. The build quality scores from the way the product is designed and the kind of materials used in the product.

Value
Value for money comes from the fact that a cheap product is able to provide most of the performance of a higher priced product. Once again, value for money is judged by comparing pricing and performance of products in a particular price range or category. 

There are many other aspects of the product that are looked at such as the bundled software and accessories. All of these scores are aggregated together to form the final score.

What do the ratings mean?

Ratings are simple - higher the score, the better the product. A brief listing of the features and what they mean are given below.

1 - 3

The product is bad in almost every aspect. We strongly advise against purchasing this product.

4 - 6

An average product that isn't the best you can buy, but isn't the worst either.

7 - 8

Product with this rating is highly recommended because it's priced sensibly, has a good set of features and performs well.

9 - 10

Exceptionally excellent product with features and performance unlike any we've seen in the past. A must-have for everyone!

What is the Average User Rating?

We at Tech2 take product reviewing very seriously and every product is tested with the utmost care and level of objectivity. The end user who buys a particular product and uses it over an extended period of time has his own take on a product and there might be nuances that he or she can shed light on. The Average User Rating is present to help readers get the complete picture of how good or bad a product is. The Average User Rating is calculated by averaging the ratings by the thousands of readers visiting Tech2.com every single day. To record your own rating of a product, simply click on the user rating bar. If you disagree with our ratings or our community's product rating, please don't hesitate from voicing your opinion in the comments section below the review.

Apple Shows Off iOS 5 Update at WWDC 2011

Apple Shows Off iOS 5 Update at WWDC 2011

07 Jun, 2011, 10:05 AM

4.5

Google Maps Navigation

Google Maps Navigation

29 Oct, 2009, 12:28 PM

3.7

BB Biz/Travel Apps

BB Biz/Travel Apps

01 Jan, 1970, 05:30 AM

MORE PHOTOS

Leaked Images, Availability, Pricing,
Specs, Pre-order

Samsung Galaxy S4 Video Review

Samsung Galaxy S4 Video Review

14 May, 2013, 11:30 AM

4.5

HP ElitePad 900 Video Review

HP ElitePad 900 Video Review

14 May, 2013, 11:24 AM

2.5

Samsung Galaxy S4 interface and gestures demo

Samsung Galaxy S4 interface and gestures...

26 Apr, 2013, 02:55 AM

3.1

MORE VIDEOS