Hello
everyone.
Basically, if you run stock Android on
your smart phone, you will likely encounter a time when you need to get down
with the file structure of your device. Sure, apps can access your storage
space in many ways, but sometimes the best choice, the easiest choice is a
plain old file explorer that allows you to dive into those folders, sort, and
modify some stuff.
What’s amazing in it is not all smart
phones have a file explorer by default. Device manufacturers develop their own
file managers, but in reality they aren’t always that much wonderful.
Surprisingly, there is a huge amount of alternative file management software
available in the markets that are really stunning and I picked some of them
that seemed best in file manager category. Join us; let’s start analyzing the
BEST of the BEST.
1) ES FILE EXPLORER
ES File Explorer is probably one of the
best Android file explorer apps ever. When you see ES File Explorer, you just
assume that it’s just another typical file management app similar to most of
the stock file management apps. But in real, what’s more in this application is
that you can do so much more such as sharing files with other ES File explorer
users. For example, if you have a friend using ES, then you both can share
pictures, videos, music or any sort of files between the devices with ease.
ES
is also an application manager that helps you uninstall a BUNCH of applications
rather than uninstalling one by one at a time. Even, you can backup those apps
to your SD card too. You can also manage files that are on your home computer
from this application as well. There is no additional software to install on
your computer and it works both ways as you can manage your phone files from
your computer. ES Explorer is completely customizable with a huge collection of
different themes and colors. You can even manage files from your network
storage such as Drop box tool, Google drive, Sky drive etc.
2) ASTRO FILE MANAGER
Astro file manager is yet another file
manager app appreciated for its simplicity. It has the ability to install
applications from the SD card. The added bonus is the filter options that help
you filter documents, pictures, videos, music and other files. Other goodies include the advanced search
option that helps you search your file on the basis of location, size, date and
even sub directories.
What I loved most in this application is
the ‘recent’ function that shows all the recent photos and videos in a single
place. You can slide from the edge of the screen to access recent, bookmarks,
your searches and locations. Astro developers definitely tried to minimize
listing many options and made it simpler which is definitely a plus.
Astro has fully customizable settings. The
tools in Astro include app manager, task killer and SD Card usage. The built in
task killer display CPU and memory usage. App manager depicts clear information
about the files or folders consuming more and more memory and also support’s
taking back up too. Astro supports locations like cloud, local storage, local
network, FTP server, SFTP server and SMB.
3) FX FILE EXPLORER
What’s next is one of my favorite tools
for managing my files and is none other than FX File explorer. To tell you,
basically it has nice User Interface, pretty much more model design. Coming on
to the variety of options available in ES, those are endless. You can even
split screen to drag the stuffs across.
Bright, colorful icons on the home screen
of the app indicate the various sections of your file structure, which you want
to browse. Of course, you get all the standard locations like documents, main
storage, download etc. Main storage is for navigating the whole directory in a
more traditional way. Any action you want to take on a file or folder happens
by a way of tapping and holding on the file which then pops up expanded menu
actions.
Gestures and pinch to zoom feature are
also awesome. Settings are packed with full customizable options, security
settings, and themes. Cleaning tools is another important feature that helps
you remove duplicate files which is a nice space saving feature. You can see
those largest spacing hogging files too.
Jumping into some of the advanced sections
like apps which give a detailed view of your installed apps, cloud storage,
Bluetooth, FTP capabilities is only available to upgraded users.
4) SOLID EXPLORER
Solid Explorer is a dual panel file
manager application. In landscape view, Solid explorer shows both panels and in
portrait view, you can just swipe to switch panels. These dual panels help file
transfer ease. Just hold on and drag
your file from one panel to another. DONE! J This is the main area where Solid
Explorer outshines the others.
The bottom of the app contains menus such
as jump, filter and actions. The menu goes pretty quick. Coming to jump, it
allows easy access to all your photos, downloads, etc. Filter, the next option
is self explanatory. It just allows you to search your files using keywords.
Action, the next feature contains actions like copy, paste, delete and so on.
Another important function coming under actions is 'properties' and it is another
area where the app shines. Just press and hold a file and go down to properties.
It has a nice Windows look. It actually helps to understand its attributes and
the ability to calculate the MD5 and provides all other additional information
of the chosen file. You can examine what eats up your memory.
5) X-plore FILE MANAGER
X-plore is another gem under this
category. The very first time I started using this app, it felt so awkward the
way it does things, the way it looks, but day by day, I became more and more
thrilled with this app because of its efficiency and highly customizable
options. For a newbie it’s not easy to quickly understand the dual panel view during
first glance, but once you come up with
it, transfer files to and fro from the device and clouds are just mesmerizing.
Added to these are the custom keyboard
shortcuts providing faster experience. You can simply swipe between the two
panels to do all actions such as cut, copy, rename, etc. X- plorer features
FTP, LAN, Wi-Fi sharing, managing files from PC and cloud storage.
Multi selection tool helps select multiple
apps or files. It also has a built in viewer for images, videos, audios and
text.
Advanced options are available only to
rooted users. If rooted, you can even make necessary changes to system data.
If you are addicted to themes and other
customization, X-plore lacks much option, just dark and light themes. It also
has a list view only.
WRAP UP
After using
many file manager apps to review, Atlast I tried my level best to shorten my
list to 5 BEST of the BEST apps. So these are the best Android file manager
apps that I found for you. Hope, you find one of your choice. Further, if you
feel that I missed any apps that you feel better and are to be included in
these articles, please recommend those apps in the comments J
Ganesh Sankar is the founder and owner of digipan. He loves sharing whatever he knows in the field of technology including how to guides, tip and tricks and much more.
data-lang="en"> Follow @ganeshsankar97
Enter Your Comment.. ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon