Apples touchscreen devices managed to raise a huge ruckus due to their excellent YouTube integration. This was hardly surprising, as the mobile video application was preinstalled onto each and every device and was furthermore optimized to the devices hardware. Windows Mobile just got a native client – can in stack up?
After starting up for the first time, the product displays a disclaimer and a terms-of-use agreement. As of this writing, very few countries are covered:
YouTube Mobile’s home screen is pictured below – searching videos can be done via the text field. Unfortunately, the generation of the home screen can take up to 20 seconds, thereby defeating the idea of the mobile client in the first place:
The display of search results could literally be taken from a book of bad GUI design:
Finally, a look at video playback. The controls are hidden most of the time, and pop up only when the screen is touched:
Just in case anybody of you is asking himself about settings or options: there are none. Deleting search history and/or “private data” must be done from the Help menu:
This review looked at version 2.0.2 of YouTube Mobile on a Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 running its stock distribution of Windows Mobile 6.1. The program needs 1506KB of memory and can be installed onto an external memory card.
In the end, YouTube for Windows Mobile excels in nothing but eating up memory: the 1500KB can definitely be used more efficiently. The program is slower than the dedicated web site, and doesn’t offer significantly better video qualiĊ£y. Fail!
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