XMPlay

XMPlay is a basic media player that allows users to play audio in a variety of formats. Although it works well enough, some aspects of the design could stand to be improved, as could the creators' attitude.

XMPlay's interface isn't awful, although its compact design also means small buttons and sliders, which can be a bit tedious to use. Because the program generally follows the usual conventions of media player design, it's fairly easy to figure out, especially with mouse-over tooltips that provide labels for each button. Still, we couldn't help but feel annoyed when the program's welcome message suggested that users "RTFM," snarky Internet shorthand for "read the f***ing manual." We were even more annoyed when we did RTFM and found a long, hard-to-navigate text file that didn't even address all of the basic features that are present on the program's interface. The creators of XMPlay certainly don't get points for user-friendliness. Still, the program works well, playing a variety of audio formats, including streaming media. XMPlay comes with a variety of controls that aren't always found in media players, including an equalizer and adjustments for balance and reverb. Overall, we thought XMPlay was decent, but there's definitely room for improvement where the interface is concerned.

XMPlay is free. The program comes as a ZIP file and is accessible after extraction with no need for installation. We recommend this program with reservations; it works fine, but it's definitely not the most accessible media player we've ever seen.