Back in the age of the Siemens SX1, file managers for S60 devices were dime a dozen. When S60v3 came along, many manufacturers stopped to maintain their applications due to Symbian refusing to certify file managers for the ‘allfiles’ capability giving access to system folders. Lonely Cat Games’s X-plore is one of the few file managers still around – can it beat Nokia’s included one?

After starting up X-plore for the first time, the product displays its tree view interface. Unlike Nokia’s included file manager, X-plore always shows the full directory tree….a big plus:
1a X plore review the file manager for your S60 3rd Edition phone

Most ‘advanced’ operations are launched from the main menu accessible with the left soft key:
2a X plore review the file manager for your S60 3rd Edition phone

X-plore truly excels at handling zip archives. Zip archives are treated as ‘folders’ – and can be created easily on the go:
3a X plore review the file manager for your S60 3rd Edition phone 3b X plore review the file manager for your S60 3rd Edition phone

The program can also search for files(it always searches the contents of the currently selected folder):
4a X plore review the file manager for your S60 3rd Edition phone 4b X plore review the file manager for your S60 3rd Edition phone

An unique concept called ‘Favorite folders’ allows you to define folders that you frequently use. You can then visit them via the menu – without having to traverse the entire file system:
5a X plore review the file manager for your S60 3rd Edition phone

Incoming files can be analyzed by using the ‘messaging’ option:
6a X plore review the file manager for your S60 3rd Edition phone 6b X plore review the file manager for your S60 3rd Edition phone

Hidden/System files can be masked or shown:
7a X plore review the file manager for your S60 3rd Edition phone

Last but not least, the program features Lonely Cat’s classic scalable user interface – changing the size of the font affects the whole application:
8a X plore review the file manager for your S60 3rd Edition phone 8b X plore review the file manager for your S60 3rd Edition phone

This review looked at version 1.20 of X-plore on a Nokia N71. The program needs 416KB of memory and can be installed to an external memory card.

In the end, X-plore is an excellent file manager and can be considered a must-have for power users. The zip support alone is worth the small price of 10€; the additional features and excellent UI make managing files pleasant. Get this app now – you will not regret it!


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