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Add to SafariWhen comparing Spotify vs Solid Explorer, the Slant community recommends Spotify for most people. In the question“What are the most useful Android phone apps?” Spotify is ranked 15th while Solid Explorer is ranked 25th. The most important reason people chose Spotify is:
Spotify has over 20 million songs and arguably the largest collection out of its competitors and usually has the fastest access to new music. The Spotify desktop client allows local music files to be imported with the option of syncing with a mobile device which largely mitigates the issue of missing artists.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Huge collection of music and fast access to newly released songs
Spotify has over 20 million songs and arguably the largest collection out of its competitors and usually has the fastest access to new music.
The Spotify desktop client allows local music files to be imported with the option of syncing with a mobile device which largely mitigates the issue of missing artists.
Pro Related artists
Helps to find new authors based on your previous picks
Pro Client's functionality can be extended via third-party apps
Spotify desktop client allows for third-party apps. They extend the functionality of Spotify and many of them offer new ways of discovering music. Noteworthy apps include Moodagent, Last.fm, Swarm.fm, ShareMyPlaylists, The Hype Machine, We Are Hunted, Shuffler.fm.
Pro Curated playlists
Public playlists on Spotify created by other people are great for finding new music.
Pro Has a free version
A free, ad-supported account allows streaming from an extensive library of music.
Pro Weekly Discover playlist uses a great algorithm
A playlist generated by Spotify based on your listening habits and released every Monday. The algorithm used by this playlist is great and stands out from its competitors.
Pro Easy to use
With the amount of functions as well as the two pane browsing, Solid Explorer is very easy to use.
Pro Two panel browsing
Solid Explorer allows for two separate panels to be browsed simultaneously, allowing for easy copy past functions as well as drag and drop.
Pro Beautiful material design
Pro Connects to cloud services
Add Google Drive, One Drive, Dropbox, and more, all natively through extensions.
Pro Ability to read and extract ZIP, 7ZIP, RAR and TAR archives, even encrypted
Pro Rich customization options: icons sets, colour schemes, themes
Pro A perfect implementation of Material Design
Pro Multi-Platform Versatility
Solid Explorer has efficient, productive, and fluid interfaces customized for each users' specific platforms. Versatile, intuitive, and productive on small mobile screens, and capitalizes on larger mobiles (tablets), increasing functionality with added screen real estate.
Pro Cloud file manager: Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, Google Drive, Sugarsync, Copy, Mediafire, Owncloud, Yandex
Pro Ability to create password protected ZIP and 7ZIP archives
Pro FTP, SFTP, WebDav, SMB/CIFS clients
Pro Root access makes Solid Explorer a fully functional root explorer
Pro Detailed file information with storage usage statistics
Pro Native picture viewer (SE Image) and music player (SE Music Player)
Allows quick opening of images and audio files to preview without opening another app.
Pro Useful tools: hiding unwanted folders, FTP Server (plugin), bookmarks, Chromecast support, media browser
Pro Batch rename: change names of multiple files at once using regular expressions and variables
Pro Indexed search finds your files in a couple of seconds
Pro Protect individual files &/or folders with a password
If your device has a fingerprint sensor you can use it to open encrypted files without a need to provide the password. The same applies for cloud storages, which can now be accessed with the fingerprint as well.
Pro Extensibility: more features in separate plugins available in Google Play
Cons
Con Free account have lots of ads
If you hate commercials, you would buy Premium or go on using something else.
Con Discovery is terrible
The discovery algorithm is poor and does not learn fast enough. Not obvious how to train it.
Con Poor audio quality
There's a high range of bitrates and most of vary from average to bad.
Con Costs money
There is a 14 day free trial, but for those that would like to use the app longer, it will cost money to unlock.
Con Slow SMB connections
Connecting to a Samba server can take 30 seconds or longer.
Con No native Office document viewer or video player
There is no native document viewer, except for the plain text editor (SE Text Editor), nor is there a native video player, with the exception of a video casting app (SE Video Cast). The video casting app appears to require a Chromecast device.
