What is aCurrency? The name is kind of self-explanatory, but I’ll explain anyways. aCurrency allows you to convert currencies right from your tablet or smartphone with ease. This app is meant for travelers who need to convert currencies on the go, or just anyone who needs to convert currencies. Maybe you want to convert currencies for business, or maybe you are on vacation and want to know how about that new dress will cost, or maybe you’re just curious. It doesn’t matter. aCurrency will get the job done.

What is it and what does it do

Main Functionality

aCurrency allows you to convert currencies using up-to-date exchange rates with ease right from your tablet. You can view exchange rates and more from the past as well, if you need to look at historical information for whatever reason. The best part? Dozens of currencies are supported. Since it can convert such a wide variety of currencies from around the world, you shouldn’t ever run into a currency that you can’t convert. And on top of that, aCurrency Pad for tablet is optimized for the larger screen of a tablet, so us tablet users shouldn’t have too many issues with regards to blurry images.

Take note that aCurrency is for Android smartphones while aCurrency Pad is for Android tablets. For the purposes of this review, dotTech tested aCurrency for Tab but aCurrency has the same functionality and features.

Pros

• Allows you to convert over 180 currencies
• Includes a home screen widget that displays currency conversion information
• Features offline access (but you will only have access to the currency rates as of the last time you connected to the internet, obviously)
• Includes history charts (7 day, 3 year)
• Track multiple currency pairs
• Supports both portrait and landscape modes
• Simple and easy to use interface
• Automatically updates the currency information, whenever you have internet access

Cons

• Is a bit confusing on how to initially get started with the app — when the app is first launched, it displays a bit of information on the app, but it is hard to figure out how to continue to the rest of the app
• Is ad-supported and the ads take up a lot of space

Discussion

First off, aCurrency allows you to convert over 180 currencies so, as I said earlier, you should never run into the issue of not being able to convert a currency. In my opinion, the fact that aCurrency can support more than just a few currencies makes it a very worthwhile solution. Think about it this way. If aCurrency couldn’t deliver on currencies, you could just continue using Google Search for this type of thing.

One of the best parts about aCurrency is offline access. This is one feature that Google Search can’t offer, obviously. With aCurrency you can still convert currencies while you have no internet access because aCurrency actually downloads the currency rates whenever you have internet access. So even if your device is offline, you can still do conversions. This feature is very useful in the event that you need to convert, let’s say US dollars to Canadian dollars, but don’t have data connection and can’t access a WiFi node. With aCurrency, you can actually do that conversion offline. Do take note, however, when doing offline conversions that aCurrency uses the conversation rates it last downloaded from the internet, which may or may not be the most up-to-date (depending on when you last had internet access).

aCurrency allows you to look at historical (past 7 days or three years) information, such as exchange rates. This is nice to have if you pay attention to that type of stuff, which I know some of us do.

aCurrency supports both landscape and portrait mode, so it doesn’t matter how you hold your tablet, aCurrency will work. This is something that I believe should be part of every app, because sometimes I don’t want to use an app in portrait mode, or the other way around. It just depends on the situation. Overall, aCurrency does a good job of switching between and supporting both modes.

Lastly, aCurrency features a very simple and clean interface, which is very good to see. Some currency conversion apps lack in this area. If the UI looks bad and is hard to use, chances are users aren’t going to want to use the app. The application is easy on the eyes, and is very simple to use. It really does a good job in this area.

However…

When you first launch the app, you are presented with some information detailing aCurrency. This is fine, but the problem is it is kind of hard to figure out how to continue to the rest of the app. I was eventually able to do it by tapping in the top left corner. There should be something like a next button, so users don’t get confused right from the start. Sometimes, first impressions are everything.

Take note aCurrency is an ad-supported application, which is fine, but my complaint about this is the ads take up a lot of screen space, which is annoying. The ad size should be a little smaller than what it currently is.

Conclusion and download link

This app is much better that many other apps on Play Store that basically do the same thing, in terms of design, performance, and usability. This app is full of features that makes it very useful and, at the same time, simple to use. I definitely recommend this app to anyone that needs to convert currencies, which is something that you’ve probably needed to do at one time or another.  Other applications like aCurrency generally have poor UIs, but great functionality. In the case of aCurrency Pad, it is able to do both. That is what makes this app so special. And that is what makes it a worthwhile download.

Price: Free

Version reviewed: 5.33 (aCurrency Pad), 4.51 (aCurrency

Requires: Android 2.1 or higher

Download size: 1.0 MB (aCurrency Pad), 898 KB (aCurrency)

aCurrency on Play Store | aCurrency Pad on Play Store