Review: Google Play Magazines

Just in time for Christmas, Google have announced the launch of Google Play Magazines in the UK. Now you can use your Android device - predominantly, one would imagine, tablets like the best-selling Nexus 7 - to read the latest glossy magazines. (You can also use your web browser, as long as it's Google Chrome).

Media reports suggest that the store has been stocked with "more than 100 popular magazines". Media UK lists 1,970 magazines, so it's fair to say that this is not the most comprehensive selection. Nevertheless, there are titles from publishers like Future and Condé Nast, to name just two. You can flick through all available titles on the Google Play Magazines website.

The pricing

.net magazine is £4.99 in Apple's Newstand software on iOS; £4.16 on rival software Zinio (though that price is "subject to VAT", which looks as if the final price would be £4.88); while in a newsagent you'd spend, it appears, £5.99. The newsagent price for this magazine sometimes includes cover-mounts CDs, which the digital version lacks, of course; though this issue doesn't come with anything similar.

When we tried in Google Play, .net magazine comes up as £3.99 in an initial search; but when clicking on into the detail page, the price changes to £4.99. This pricing mismatch is undoubtedly a mistake, and of dubious legality.

Readers' reviews for .net magazine in Google Play are fairly unanimous in their view of this pricing strategy. Gavin Barker says "no incentive to go digital at all at this price"; Mike Standing says "too expensive for a digital copy"; Christian Oliff says "Good magazine - too expensive though"; Chris Gare says "I love the magazine but I think £1.99 would be fair for a digital copy"; and Graham Mills says "far too expensive for a digital copy". This isn't selective quoting - these are, at the time of writing, the latest five reviews.

The experience

So, what do you get for your money? We bought a subscription to ShortList magazine, a free magazine normally given out outside tube stations, and offered on Google Play Magazines as free as well. The magazine cover appeared instantly in the Play Magazines app; and it downloaded fairly quickly. Of note, the system won't automatically download anything unless you change a setting, which appeared odd.

Clicking into the magazine gives a fairly rudimentary interface: simply a view of a page (too small to easily read on a Nexus 7's screen). Double-tap on the page, and it either zooms in to be at the correct size, OR it skips a page (which is rather frustrating). Single-tap, and you'll see a filmstrip of pages at the bottom of the screen, and a button which, I guess, is supposed to give the contents, but which doesn't (in ShortList, anyway).

The help text says that you can flick between layout view and text view, to make it easier to read long articles. Once again, this feature wasn't supported in ShortList, so I was reduced to scrolling up and down the page to read an article. This is not the easiest, best way to read a magazine article, and I found it slightly frustrating. The size of the text helpfully resets itself whenever you change a page, so you need to zoom in again to read the next page.

Some magazines are apparently "interactive", which are specifically laid-out for tablets, and which should overcome the above issues. I couldn't find any advertised as such though.

Overall

The drawback of magazines? For some, they're bulky. And for others, it's a drag to get to the newsagent. But, Google Play magazines seems to me - on a 7-inch device, at least - to considerably downgrade the magazine experience. And, at prices that in many cases are simply not competitive with a heavily-discounted print subscription, I'm not sure that Google Play Magazines delivers.