Review: Classic Notes lite

Notes are extremely important, even if you don't realise it. Whether it's jotting down telephone numbers or making shopping lists, notes are an essential part of our lives. Thanks to modern technology the days of carrying around bundles or papers, filo faxes and jotters are long gone - replaced by smartphone and tablet applications.

Classic Notes may not be a name you have heard of before and on first glance it doesn't appear to be any different to the many other notepad applications on the Android Market. The appearance is simple and clean which does give the impression that it doesn't do an awful lot, but once you start using the application you will notice that surprisingly it can do so much more.

Standard notepad applications simply just allow you to save a piece of text and allow you to access it at a later date. A simple function for a relatively simple task. But what if you want to save more than text? How about a photograph? With Classic Notes you can do exactly that.

The application also provides a built-in translation function to allow you to translate your notes into other languages and use the text to speech engine to read your note out loud in the translated language. And for those that prefer speech over text you can record a voice note to the application.

Other useful functionality includes the ability to secure your private notes with a password, a built in spell check function and the ability to share your notes by email, SMS and various social networking services provided you have the applications installed. One thing I would like to see is the ability to export notes with images to email as the app appears to only export the text.

After using the application for a couple of days I find it very easy to use. The extra features are clear and easy to locate in the settings and don't get in the way of the general usage of the app. Classic Notes is a wonderful example of a simple easy to use notepad application with advanced features if you want them. If you find applications like Evernote a bit too overpowering then this could be worth taking a look at.

Classic Notes is available in the Android Market in an ad-supported lite version and a paid version priced at £1.21.