REVIEW: Netflix fans should add PhoneFlix to their smartphone queue

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly feature, Yay or Nay. Every week we’ll review a new wireless application or service from the user’s point of view, with the goal of highlighting what works and what doesn’t. If you wish to submit your application or service for review, please contact us at rcrwebhelp@crain.com.
Application: PhoneFlix, an application for Netflix users developed by Next Mobile Web
Running on: G1 using T-Mobile USA’s 3G network
Yay: A simple, clean user interface that allows Netflixers to browse categories, check out new releases and manage their queues.
Nay: Members can’t perform basic account tasks like editing their billing information or upgrading accounts, and cinephiles will be disappointed that titles in their queue aren’t flagged as they browse through the library. A few other online features – like the ability to rate movies, or search for anything other than movie titles – aren’t offered, and a few menu options occasionally resulted in dead ends.
We say: Nitpickers will find some legitimate reasons to turn their noses up at PhoneFlix, but when it comes to the most obvious and important use cases, PhoneFlix delivers. A keeper for Netflix subscribers who carry the G1.
Review: We love Netflix. Our subscription fees are a small fraction of what we used to pay in late charges at brick-and-mortar outlets, and we’re big fans of its ever-expanding list of titles available for on-demand, online viewing.
But just as we rarely managed to return our Blockbuster movies on time, we’re miserable failures at managing our Netflix movie queue. We forget to update the thing to include new releases, and it’s not unusual for us to receive a Netflix movie in the mail that we’d just seen on cable a week ago. D’oh!
That’s where PhoneFlix comes in. We discovered the free offering through the G1’s Android Market (it’s also available for the iPhone, and a BlackBerry version is in beta) and downloaded it in a matter of seconds.
First-timers are immediately greeted with a clean, simply-designed home page that will quickly become familiar. Five tabs are presented across the top (My Netflix, Search, Browse, Popular and My Account), with submenus revealed as the tabs are accessed. Clicking on My Netflix prompts users to log into their accounts to access a handful of options: My Queue calls up an impressively-rendered mobile version of the online listing, offering all the titles in my queue with an image of the movie poster and the first few words of a summary. Drilling down a screen, users can access the entire summary as well as other vitals including user ratings, and members can reposition the film simply by typing in a new position. (The familiar drag-and-drop from Netflix.com isn’t available; trying to move a title up or down scrolls the entire list.)
The Search offering left us wanting, however, providing results only for movie titles – not for directors, actors or any other subject. A search for “Bergman” brought up neither the legendary director nor the acclaimed actress but only the documentary “Bergman Island.” But typing in “Seventh” proved more successful, delivering Ingmar Bergman’s classic “The Seventh Seal.” The choices populate as letters are typed in, although network latency was hurdle – the feature probably won’t help you much if you’re looking for “Jaws,” but could prove useful if you’re trying to search for “The Unbearable Lightness of Being.”
But the understated – and frustratingly limited – search feature also proved to be PhoneFlix’s most useful component. We’re not likely to browse through movie titles on the phone very often, but it allows users to quickly enter the name of a film they’ve just learned about, add it to their queue and then move on instead of jotting down a note and waiting until they reach a computer. Impressively, clicking search results brought up not only more information about the film and the movie poster, but a banner ad inviting us to “Search for The Seventh Seal” on Amazon.com – presenting a simple and impressive opportunity for ad revenues.
The app also allowed us to browse Netflix’s titles in 20 or so standard genres, and titles are listed with user ratings although they don’t include our personal ratings for films. A “Popular” offering presents a top 100 as well as new releases and the top 25 titles across a host of genres. Clicking on the titles calls up more information and an invitation to add to the queue, and a second option allows users to move it to the top of the queue as well as presenting other related titles “You Might Enjoy.”
To be honest, we weren’t planning to review PhoneFlix for this piece, but attempts to download two other applications from Android Market ushered us into interminable download mode, so we opted for the Netflix app when we stumbled on it. We’re glad we did.