When comparing Material Files vs Sliding Explorer, the Slant community recommends Sliding Explorer for most people. In the question“What are the best file explorers on Android?” Sliding Explorer is ranked 6th while Material Files is ranked 12th. The most important reason people chose Sliding Explorer is:
Sliding Explorer is designed following Google's Material Design guidelines.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Open Source
On GitHub with GNU General Public License v3.0
Pro Material Design
Sliding Explorer is designed following Google's Material Design guidelines.
Pro Root access
Sliding Explorer has root access support for editing root files on a device.
Pro ZIP support
Sliding Explorer features ZIP file support for compressing and extracting .zip files.
Cons
Con Enhancements desired
As this is still relatively new, there are a number of enhancements to make this feature parable with other file managers
Con Has trouble reading external SD cards
Sliding Explorer has users reporting that there is trouble with it reading external SD cards.