Review: SymbianWare FileMan vs FExplorer

A file manager is probably one of the first application you would need on your device. Two of the most known ones for the Series 60 platform are:
  FExplorer, a freeware application by Dominique Hugo
  FileMan, a commercial application by SymbianWare

Is FileMan worth its price compared to the free FExplorer? This is the question we will try to answer in this article.

The match will be made of four round:
  main view
  file display
  file manipulation
  misc.

The opponent are FExplorer v1.10 and FileMan v1.0.

Round 1: The Main View

The main view is the most important for a file explorer: it is where the file and directories are listed. Both applications are very similar on this point:

You can navigate in the directory tree using the up/down/left/right keys and open a file with its default application using the OK key in both cases. FileMan can customize the right softkey ("Operation enu", "Mark/Unmark", "Select menu", "Send as", "Back/Exit") while FExplorer can just use it as exit key.

The association between the file and its associated application is made by a file recognizer on FExplorer while you can also use a data recognizer on FileMan : this is quite interesting since file recognizer is not a documented feature of Symbian OS.

And finally, FileMan can sort displayed file by Name, Extension, Size, Date or Type, while FExplorer always displays results by name.

FileMan wins ths round:
FileMan: 1
FExplorer: 0

Round 2: File Display

A second important usage of a file explorer is its ability to display the content of a file. The minimal requirement is to be able to display a file content in text format. A very useful requirement is also to be able to display it in hexadecimal format.

No surprises for the text view, both applications use the default NS60 Notes application. This is a little bit limited from my point of view but is enough to read simple text files:

FExplorer also has a very simple built-in text viewer which allows more text to be displayed on a single screen. Nice for log files. Even if the start of this viewer is very slow on big files and produces some really strange displays (which disappears once the text is on the screen):

It's a pity that none of the two can display the content of a binary file. I sent some code for this to Dominique Hugo a few monthes ago and I got a preview version of FExplorer with Hex display enabled, so this will probably come out soon (Dominique, are you still there ?).

FExplorer wins this round thanks to its built-in viewer:
FileMan: 1
FExplorer: 1

Round 3: File Manipulation

Both applications propose same options for basic file manipulation:
  Copy/Cut/Paste
  Rename
  Delete
  Send via Email, MMS, Bluetooth and Infrared.

FileMan is slightly easier to use since you can have direct acces to this operation through the right softkey.

Search options is the first real differentiator between the two applications. While both of the support file name search (with wildcard support), FileMan adds an advanced mode which also combines:
  File date (search file modified during a specific time period)
  File size (specifiy min and max file size)
  Search path restriction (whole device, current dir only, current dir and subdirs,...)

And finally, FileMan has another very nice feature which allows to display file characteristics (size, last modification date, UIDs, mime type,...):

FileMan is a clear winner of this round:
FileMan: 2
FExplorer: 1

Round 4: Extra Features

Both applications have a few extra features that are quite nice. FileMan can :
  display the content of the "Mail" directory (i.e. the inbox) as a flat list of files. Those who often exchange data using Infrared or Bluetooth will like this!
  bookmark some directories so that you can access them directly from the top level screen.

FExplorer has a totally different approach and offer:
  a screen capture tool (most of the screen capture presented in this article have been made using it)
  a phone and network information tool which present : phone IMEI and firmware version number, visited network name and MCC/MNC, cell id

Difficult to differentiate between the two applications. I am a heavy user of FExplorer snapshot feature but I really like FileMan inbox list and the bookmarks. One point for each.
FileMan: 3
FExplorer: 2

Conclusion

FileMan is the winner of this software review because most of its features are really well implemented. And despite its poor ability to display text file content and the incredible lack of binary file dump, it is a great tool. You can download an evaluation version or buy a copy from our sofware shop.

FExplorer is also a very good file explorer. It was mine before this review. It's however a bit behind FileMan. But is the difference worth the price of SymbianWare's application ? It really depends of the usage you will have of a File Explorer. You can get the full version from our download section.