This review will be covering three particular Android ballistics applications for ballistics testing. Ballistics Calculator, Shooter and another app called Ballistics Calculator.
Overview
This review will be covering three specific Android ballistics applications. All of these applications can be found on the Android Market for download onto an Android capable phone. For my testing I will be using an HTC Hero smartphone running Android 2.1. The purpose of these applications is for determining the path, trajectory, and fall of a fired bullet.
Ballistics Calculator, Author: jki275 (3 out of 5)
The first application is also the only one that is free of charge on the Android Market and it’s called Ballistics Calculator (author jki275). This application is very barebones and requires a vast amount of knowledge of the source material to make proper use of. Unlike the other applications I have tested I could not get the table function to work when evaluating the application. Additionally the application is slow to compute and calculate results once input has been made, usually taking around 15 seconds for calculations to be completed, a pop up message states “this will take awhile” while computations are being done. This is the only free application for ballistics available at the time of this review.
Shooter, Author: seankndy Price $9.99 (5 out of 5)
The second application being reviewed today is Shooter (author seankndy) at a price of $9.99 also available on the Android Market. This application is much more well rounded than Ballistics Calculator, using dial menus for some input such as distance, wind speed and wind angle. Furthermore I had no problems running the table and graph options on my smartphone and computations were much faster at only a few seconds per computation. As a personal note using this application to me simply felt better and easier as I worked with it, Shooter is simply the best of the Android ballistics applications that are currently available.
Ballistics Calculator, Author: M STAR LLC Price $2.99 (1 out of 5)
The final application is Ballistics Calculator (author M STAR LLC) with a price of $2.99 available on the Android Market. I had a large degree of difficulty working with this application and crashes were frequent with my HTC Hero. Likewise when I did get the application working an advertisement bar popped up on the bottom. I find this to be a little confusing, considering that I just paid for this application why do I need an advertisement bar? I wish I had more to say about this application but no matter what I tried this application simply did not work.
Conclusions
While there are a severely limited number of applications for ballistic calculations available at this time it is my opnion that the addage “you get what you pay for” is what is most appropriate here. Shooter is by far the best and the fact it is the highest rated on the Android Market is also telling. If you need an Android ballistics app choose Shooter.
