[Review] Strawberry Weather – A Beautiful Way To Weather For Windows 10

Imagine a situation where you have to travel down to a distant relative’s town for a full measure of unforeseen vacations and you are not sure about what all clothes to pack up in your suitcase. That’s when you run for your Mobile or PC to check for the current weather in that specific town. You can easily realize if you need to carry your raincoat or your sweaters by casting a brief glance on the current weather info. This is how life is made simple with use of these weather apps. Gone are the days when you would have to tune into the radio to have a listen at current weather situation across the country. There are so many weather apps available for each platform which delivers the latest weather figures right on your mobile screen.

With Windows 10 out in the open, several developers are showing their interest in developing UWP versions of their existing weather apps or to create an all new app from scratch. There are numerous high-end weather apps available in Windows Store with extensive features and functionalities. However, sometimes users might stand in need of a minimal weather app to show just the required info and brush aside the deep dive statistics.

Today, we are going to review Strawberry Weather, one such minimal and beautiful weather app available for Windows 10 Universal Platform. The app has been released for both PC and Mobile divisions blending the UI in an adjustable manner. With a slight tinge of horizontal scrolling, as was in Windows 8.1, the app offers a distinctive fuse of UWP principles with the power of Windows 8.1 style UI. With a nominal and user-friendly interface, the app exhibits the current weather as well as next 5 days weather forecast in quite the details. Let’s plunge down into more details on what this app has to put forward.

Introduction

The idea of a minimal app is not wrapped around the virtue of having little features, but its rather subject to the usability and an intuitive presentation of the information. Having said that, a simple weather app could be the one which focuses on present rather than hurling down much into forecasting for the future. Strawberry Weather does just the job with its to-the-point weather information and an intrinsic display.

Developed by Strawberry Corp., initial version of this app was released in April this year and being periodically updated hitherto, it presently sits at version 1.4.11.Tied closely around with UWP postulates, Strawberry Weather offers a straightforward approach to deliver latest forecast information. You can just jump right in and take a glimpse of current weather situation right on the topmost layer. The app is loaded with several option to configure it the way you want, delivering a personalized weather experience.

Design

Strawberry Weather bears a minimalistic design with a well-organized look. On the very first leaf when the app is launched, you can see the current weather conditions (including Temperature, Humidity, Wind Speed and Air Pressure) for your present location. In addition to that, you can see weather for various cities around the world and pin specific tiles on the front page. You can switch between horizontal and vertical scrolling for the current forecast view of the cities that you’ve added to your timeline.

App controls are provided on the command bar present at the bottom. You can configure the command bar style between Compact (Icons remain visible) or Minimal (Icons remain hidden). Also, app settings can be launched from the command bar. With a Windows 8.1 style navigation, Settings page provides a multitude of options to customize the look and feel of the app. You can sync your settings across devices. Live tiles and toast notifications can be configured to alert you with latest weather info at pre-defined intervals. Smartly cutting on the excessive elements, the app has procured its place among several other high-end weather apps.

Features

A minimal app is not defined by its feature amount but still, it should render the basic features that are expected out of its line of operation. Strawberry Weather is crammed up with many features that are reckoned out of a simple weather app. Below is a brief outline of the features included in Strawberry Weather app:

Adorable Emoji Icons

In my opinion, this is the signature attribute of Strawberry Weather app which makes it look much attractive and appealing. The emoji icons faultlessly force you to explore the app a bit further. For any weather condition, there is a delightful emoji icon which is shown along with the climate info.

You can even configure these weather icons between simplistic, minimal or emoji symbols as per your requirement.

Personalize It With Unique Themes

Strawberry Weather comes packed with a native theme engine which allows you to create app themes from an abundant amount of color alternatives and sync them between your devices. You can set the app color to match your system theme or choose it from a wide array of predefined color options.

Even so, you can add your custom theme as well, from among hundreds of available color options and calibrate the color brightness to fine tune it as per your comfort.In order to give it a more personal touch, you can even rename your custom theme.

Smart Weather Alert Notifications

The app offers a unique way of notifying about weather alerts. A feature called Smart alerts can be turned on to inform you about just the important weather conditions. For instance, the app will notify you in case of potential chance of clear skies when it’s raining but it won’t bother you if the raining continues. In this way, you can get a clear idea of any weather change which is likely to happen in the near future.

However, if you want to be notified about current weather condition every now and then, you can turn on Generic alerts which sends a toast notification in case the current weather condition is likely to persist.

Bouquet Of Benefits

Various other significant features are also bundled in Strawberry Weather app which includes:

• Nearby Places: You can see weather for the nearby places/cities without having to manually search for them. However, to use this feature, you need to purchase True Experience which costs only around $1.
• Choose Preferred Units and Time Format: You can choose between Metric or Imperial units to customize it per your necessity. Also, you can switch the time format from 12 hours to 24 hours or vice versa.
• Lock Screen Notification: You can add Strawberry Weather to your lock screen for detailed weather status. Additionally, you can also choose to be notified of warnings related to the current weather.
• Troubleshooting: If you are facing any issues with the app interface or features, you can try resetting the app using an in-built option in core settings.

Wrapping It Up

Strawberry Weather has its own charm with its simple design and is being loved by a lot of users. With a rating of 4.4 in Microsoft Store, the app certainly has embarked upon its journey towards a sublime yet minimal weather app. Standing tall among the other biggies, the app has concrete potential to attract a large user base, provided the fact that it’s being updated once in every fortnight.

On the contrary, the app can add on more to its feature set and align better with UWP standards to unify the user experience across devices. Looking at the past track record, the developer has continuously engaged with its active users to evolve the app into an Ultimate and Truely Personalized Weather Experience.

You can follow its publisher Strawberry Corp. on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to provide feedback and stay updated with the discussions regarding the latest Evolve Versions, as the developer Abhi Khose likes to call it. You can also mail your feedback or queries to [email protected].

Check out the below gallery for more screenshots of Strawberry Weather for Windows 10 in action:

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