The hp ipaq rx4240 is sold/advertised as a mediacentric handheld. However, its included photo viewer never really worked for me(a source of endless frustration)… . Resco’s Photo Viewer for Palm OS scored a rave review at TamsPalm’s – so my expectations for the PocketPC version of the program were high. Can it stack up?

After installing Resco Photo Viewer, the program asks for permission to become default viewer for a variety of file types. The screenshot below shows all supported file types:
0a Resco Photo Viewer for PocketPC   the review 0b Resco Photo Viewer for PocketPC   the review

Navigating around the memory card is easy – the program allows you to either switch to a folder-only view or displays a folder bar on top of the images:
1a Resco Photo Viewer for PocketPC   the review 1b Resco Photo Viewer for PocketPC   the review

A feature called albums allows you to group together pictures from various sources for more comfortable viewing. You can, for example, create an Album of the best pictures on a memory card:
2a Resco Photo Viewer for PocketPC   the review

Images are shown in four different view modes(list, three iconic modes). The program transparently creates thumbnails in the background – you first get a small version, which is then resized for optimal fit:
3a Resco Photo Viewer for PocketPC   the review 3b Resco Photo Viewer for PocketPC   the review 3c Resco Photo Viewer for PocketPC   the review 3d Resco Photo Viewer for PocketPC   the review

Multiple images can be selected by either tapping and dragging or activating multiselection mode explicitly. These images can then be moved and sent as a group:
4a Resco Photo Viewer for PocketPC   the review 4b Resco Photo Viewer for PocketPC   the review

Tapping on an image opens it for viewing. Images can be zoomed, rotated and panned freely in real-time:
5a Resco Photo Viewer for PocketPC   the review

Images can be cropped, resized and color-corrected on the handheld:
6a Resco Photo Viewer for PocketPC   the review 6b Resco Photo Viewer for PocketPC   the review

Resco Photo Viewer also allows you to convert images to JPG, BMP or PNG types. This can be very handy for compressing screenshots on the go and is a feature I have never ever seen before in a handheld image viewer…kudos to Resco on that one, if only it supported GIF.
7a Resco Photo Viewer for PocketPC   the review

Handwritten notes and doodles can be scribbled onto an open image(and saved into a new image). Unfortunately, the color selector didn’t work on my ipaq – I was limited to black:
8a Resco Photo Viewer for PocketPC   the review

Resco’s image viewers have always had an outstanding slideshow module that can be used to show images. The transition effects are really well-done – try them out yourself!

Last but not least, Resco Photo Viewer ships with a cool screenshot program that will be covered in a seperate review!

Overall, I am shocked and awed by Resco Photo Viewer – this product is truly insane! I have seen a lot of image viewers, but none has offered so much flexibility when image processing and editing is concerned. Combined with Resco’s traditionally well-done image viewing and slideshow modules, we have yet another must-have product for every PocketPC… Tune in soon for a look at the screenshot tool that ships along as a free bonus!


Related posts:

  1. Resco Photo Viewer 7 – public beta starts
  2. Resco releases Photo Viewer 7.0
  3. Resco Photo Viewer updated, color selector bug fixed
  4. Resco Screen Capture – the best screenshot tool for PocketPC
  5. Resco Photo Viewer 7 – beta drops tomorrow

Leave a Reply

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Subscribe without commenting

© 2012 TamsPPC - the Windows Phone Blog Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha