Our Review:

MoboPlayer is similar to MX Player, our top pick in the Android video player category, in many ways. It plays music and videos, and comes supplied with extra codecs. However, it isn't without its problems.

Finding your videos is odd - it displays a list of folders - except it just shows all the folders on one level, ignoring the folder structure. That means that every folder that has a video or audio file that Mobo has scanned appears in the list. It makes for a confusing mess if you've got a lot of videos organized in folders - Mobo won't recognize that they're in subfolders. When it comes to the way the videos are presented, you can either have them in a list or in a grid. The only option you have to help you find what you want is a "new" banner for newly added (or scanned) files and options for sorting the list by date, name, length, or size.

You do have the option of choosing which folders MoboPlayer scans, but some things there are pretty mysterious. I spent about five minutes trying to figure out how to tell Mobo to scan my SD Card, with no results - the contents of my SD Card were definitely not being scanned by Mobo, and I couldn't find my SD Card's directory. Then, I realized that the folder that my camera puts its pictures and videos into wasn't being scanned, either, so I added that, rescanned, and suddenly, all the stuff from my SD Card popped up. Weird. However, ever since then, the contents of my SD card have been included in the list.

One thing you'll see right away is a button for a manual. I tried it three or four times, even waited a couple of minutes for it to load (although it shouldn't have been necessary, being on a fiber connection), and it simply didn't work. Then, I accidentally clicked on a link to the manual in the settings menu, and voilà, it suddenly worked. I have no clue why. Now it seems to work without any problems - but I don't know if that has to do with an update or if it just started working at some point and didn't stop working. It also doesn't provide a huge amount of help, but it's definitely better than nothing. It has some troubleshooting tips, and some pointers on how to use the app. Interestingly enough, the screenshots look like they're from an iPhone. What? The first time you'll use the app you'll have some in-app tips as well, although for me half of those were in Chinese (or some other language with characters I can't read) - although the ones in english were useful.

The now playing screen has a slew of options, and the controls aren't too shabby - mind you, some options are only available in landscape mode for some reason. You have the basics, and you also have the option to seek by dragging your finger along the video - on the bottom for fast seeking, in the middle for a medium speeded seek, and on the top for finer control. You also have the option to stream what you're watching or listening to to a DLNA player, but I tried streaming some music to my Denon AVR, and while the AVR reacted, it didn't play anything. You also have some pretty advanced options for looping and audio channels, as well of the option to switch between the hardware decoder (with which you can play videos that your device would normally be able to play) and the software decoder (with which you can play a much broader range of videos, although it will propably eat up your battery quicker). For videos, it generally used the hardware decoder if my phone supported the video natively, and used the software decoder for everything else. For audio, for some reason, I wasn't able to get it to use the hardware decoder - and the software decoder plays some of my FLAC files an octave lower. I mean, it's pretty hilarious to listen to Jesus of Suburbia an octave lower, but it's not really what I was looking for. You also have the option to take a video snapshot, or to create a gif or another video out of the video you're watching, although I haven't been able to get it to work. There's also a lock that will prevent the player from doing anything else until you unlock it. Oh, and watch out - even when the video is paused, this app will keep your phone awake as long as there is a video open. I was just proofreading this article when I looked down at my phone only to realize the screen was still on, about five to ten minutes after I had last used it.

This player also has a floating video player - which, when it works, seems to run fairly smoothly, but it doesn't always work. It's happened fairly often that when I go to the home screen, the video player will appear for a moment, then disappear. But, assuming it does work, you have some basic controls on the player, as well as controls to resize the player or go back into the app.

If I understand correctly, there's even a built-in torrent downloader, although that falls outside of the scope of this review.

This is an app that has plenty of potential, but it's just way too half-baked. Even with some of the most basic features, such as seeking, the app behaved strangely, for example switching videos when I told it to seek. The fact that they've added a help menu is commendable - but for heaven's sake, make sure it works, that it's in legible english, and that it actually helps... All in all, if the features would work, it would be a pretty good media player, but this isn't something I can easily recommend.