We have seen an explosion of Microsoft Band Apps landing in the Windows Phone Store and Band Pro is one of the latest to join the genre of apps.
The app will let you customize the Band's wallpaper and insert an image icon into the mix. Band Pro comes pre-loaded with a handful of wallpapers and icons to choose from as well as the ability to use your own images. It makes a nice impression and overall, Band Pro has the potential of being a quality addition to the Windows Phone collection of Band apps.
Band Pro's interface is centered around, for the most part, one screen. Along the bottom of this screen you will find options to view the About screen, the Help screen, synchronize your wallpaper, rate the app in the Windows Phone Store and like the app's Facebook page.
Center screen you will find a preview of your wallpaper. Above the preview image will be your choices of wallpapers and icons and below the preview image are two control buttons to add round tiles or icons to the image.
Navigation isn't the cleanest with Band Pro and involves a series of taps to toggle between customizing your wallpaper and the round tiles, as well as deleting the round tiles. If you tap on the wallpaper, you will be able to choose one of the several pre-loaded wallpapers or one of your own images.
Pre-loaded wallpapers includes a series photographs, solid colors and abstracts. If you choose your own image, a crop window will appear on the image that you can position over the portion of your image you want to use. Once in position, double tap the crop frame to send it to the preview image.
Just remember with full images, you lack the ability to reduce the image size to fit the crop area. To use the full image, you'll need to resize the image to 310 x 102 pixels with a photo editor before selecting it in Band Pro.
Band Pro has support for two round tiles and when you first launch the app, you'll see two already in place. To edit the round tile image, just tap on the tile to pull up a collection of pre-loaded images that currently includes the logos from the major sports leagues (NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL). You also have the ability to use a portion of an image from your Windows Phone Pictures Hub.
If you only want one tile or no tiles, double tap on the round tile you want deleted. You can reposition the tiles by touch and if you ever want to restore a tile you deleted, tap the + button below the preview image. Tapping the + button will send you to your Windows Phone Pictures Hub and if you want a sports logo, just hit the back button, select the logo and it will be added to your wallpaper creation.
When the dust settles and you have your wallpaper ready to go, you can save the wallpaper for future use (it will be stored under the Save tab on the wallpaper menu) and send it to your Microsoft Band.
Overall Impression
While I liked Band Pro, I also see it as a work in progress that has a lot of potential. While it has a nice selection of wallpapers and gives you the ability to use your own images, the interface is a little cumbersome and the round tile images are a little limited.
It is our understanding that more images are in the works for Band Pro, which will help the app's appeal. And while you do get used to all the tapping around to build a wallpaper, the interface could be more fluid, especially with the round tiles.
The only other issue that some may have with Band Pro is the lack of a trial version. It would have been nice to have seen a time limited trial or maybe a trial version where you couldn't save wallpapers available to let Band owners try things out before buying. Maybe even put ad-support on the trial version to make that option available.
While the overall feel is one of a work in progress, Band Pro lays a nice foundation for a customization app for the Microsoft Band. If you give Band Pro a try let us know what you think in the comments below. You can also head over to this Windows Central Forums Discussion and chat it up with the developer.
Download Band Pro for Windows Phone ($1.29)
