App Review: Screenshot and Best ScreenSnap
Screenshot and Best ScreenSnap are free utility applications for the N97 and other S60v5 devices. Screenshot also supports S60v3. Screenshot is developed by Antony Pranata, while Best ScreenSnap is developed by Smartphoneware.
Features
Both applications allows you to capture the current screen by pressing a hot key and saving the result as an image. Different image qualities (and thus sizes) are supported by both applications, and Screenshot also allows for a series of pictures to be captured automatically.
Fair enough, but which one should I get?
Hm, I’ll get to that… Both apps produce images of good quality and behave roughly the same. Capturing the screen and saving the resulting image is obviously a hard task to perform for the N97 hardware, since it’s common that the process takes several seconds from start (pressing the hot key) to finish.
Before mentioning some annoyances, let me point out that both these apps are freeware and works nicely overall, so the negatives are definitely something you can live with. Screenshot is not even made for S60v5 but developed for S60v3, so it’s really just a bonus that it works on this platform.
Best ScreenSnap is more suited for the N97 with all defined hot keys working as expected. However – it doesn’t support landscape mode! Well, it sort of does, but it clips the screen, which of course is not acceptable. Also, I’ve found that in a few cases (with specific applications) it doesn’t work at all. Most of the time though, if you use portrait mode it works just fine.
Screenshot does work in landscape mode and I haven’t found any application where it doesn’t work. The default hot key – the camera key – doesn’t work however! Since the defined hotkeys are adjusted to the keypad found on S60v3 devices this poses a problem. I’ve found though that if you select “Edit” and “Ok” as the hot key, this can be triggered by pressing the shift key and the D-Pad button at the same time. This in turn of course poses an even bigger problem if you want to use Screenshot in portrait mode…
In general, with time you learn to work around most of the mentioned quirks. My solution is to use Best ScreenSnap for portrait mode and Screenshot for landscape mode or when Best ScreenSnap doesn’t work. Still, you can’t get the needed functionality from just one of these apps, so it’s no coincidence that I’ve reviewed them together; if you take screen shots from your N97 on a regular basis you really do need both!
Summary
Pros
- Free
- Good image quality
- Easy to use and configure
Cons
- Heavy on system resources when activated
- Captures are not always instant
- Well, it would be nice to only use one app for one purpose…
Overall, a must have if you work with screenshots! To find out more and to download, visit our forum:
Download Screensnap and Screenshot
3 Comments on “App Review: Screenshot and Best ScreenSnap”
I read this tip elsewhere, and I’ve just confirmed that it works: ScreenSnap can take pictures in landscape mode, but you have to start it while in landscape mode. It probably won’t work then for portrait screenshots, but it’s still better than having to install two applications.
Hey guys..
It’s funny, I JUST downloaded the Screenshot app yesteday and thought that it should be mentioned on this blog. I used it on my E71 before and now on my N97 and in both cases had a problem with the hot key button to use. However, if you assign the backspace button as your default hot key capture button, it works like a charm!!
Just thought I’d add my two cents to your review…
Yeah, that does seem to work (thus the problem really being that the program can’t switch screen orientation while active) and for regular use it might be enough to re-start ScreenSnap if you need to change orientation, but I’ve also found occasions when it just doesn’t work, whereas Screenshot did work. (E.g. some N-Gage game if I remember correctly.)
But it should be pointed out then that for most users ScreenSnap will be enough and cover their needs, so thanks for the tip!