Netflix: The iPad App Review

Netflix is probably one of the best and most popular Movie/TV Show rental service in the United States. There are countless ways you can watch movies or TV shows from Netflix whether it be by getting DVD’s from the mail, watching it on the web or even on a video game console like the Wii or the Xbox 360. Now, since the iPad was released just over a week ago, Netflix has released their iPad app for free on the App Store. I was especially excited to see this app because I have been a Netflix subscriber for 2-3 years now and have absolutely loved it. However, after using the Netflix iPad app for a while, I must say I am extremely disappointed.

You would think that because of the iPad’s big glossy screen they would design a pretty decent app, but instead they went the simple way. Basically, the entire app is the website with a title bar at the top. Now, since the regular browser website uses Silverlight, they did change all the Silverlight components to HTML5, which does work pretty good. The app does load quite fast, which is nice. One of the thing that bothers me the most is that the website doesn’t have the greatest design and to know that they are incorporating it into an app makes it even worse.

However, cons aside, there is at least one good thing. That would be watching the TV Shows/Movies. The quality is great and it loads fast and it plays flawlessly. Besides playing the video, it is good that you have more options of movies to watch then you do on the console versions of Netflix.

I will continue to use the app, but I really hope they can pull off a decent design rather than using their website. Maybe by the time you’re reading this post, they have already come out with a better version. For now, however, I don’t suggest you go out to buy an iPad just because of the Netflix app because it’s not worth it.

Have you tried the Netflix iPad app yet?  What do you think?