To play from my local library. It would be good if I don't have to remake my playlists when I switch between devices

Introduction

I have bought a new Android phone with the intention to put my music on it, coming from a dedicated Sony Walkman digital player that I bought new in 2020. The Walkman has served me well but my new Android phone is pretty nice and I intend to use it as my music player now. Of course that meant searching high and low for a good quality music player. I have downloaded about 20 music players and tried each one out, and in this post I'll be sharing my opinions on each. Note that I'm not audiophilic. My main need in a music player is one that is well-made with an easy to use user interface that lets me browse through my music library with ease. I pay particular attention at the UX quality (for example I don't want wasted white space, or oversized elements making it hard to browse). Bonus points for lyrics support and design. Here we go!

Quick reviews

Black Player: this is a very solid player and looks great on an AMOLED screen. It uses its own font (for better or worse) and has many customizable buttons. The user interface consists of scrolling to get between artists/albums/etc which is ideal. However the font on the now playing screen was way too small, and I couldn't find a way to change it. The Android widget is simple though not customizable. Overall it's a decent one. - there is however the paid version called EX that provides additional color customizations and other things.

Retro Player / Oto Player: I grouped these together because they're almost identical. The navigational categories are at the bottom, with a nice accent color. Overall the UI looks great, including the now playing screen, and I liked the Android widget too. Browsing through artists can give a customizable grid (with artist pictures automatically downloaded), a condensed tracklist, and even a bio that gets downloaded from Wikipedia. However, there is no left-right scrolling to go between categories, the artists browsing is difficult, and the real kicker is that it was the only player in my test that actually lagged - probably because of the downloading of artists images. That turned it into a no no. It's a nice player overall held back by some flaws.

Gonemad Music Player (GMMP): This player has a Google Material design. It has easy left-right scrolling between categories and you can choose any accent color that would fill the top navigational bar of the player, making it look nicer. The skin can also be AMOLED black which looks great. Gonemad has fantastic browsing, with a nice and decently condensed grid of albums, and a good condensed list of artists and songs. The now playing screen looks decent as well. Nice customizable widget as well. Overall, a brilliant one.

Foobar2000: The user interface in this one is very old fashioned and somehow looks unfinished. The text in the now playing screen is also a bit too large and isn't neat. Nor is there any lyrics support. I tried to like Foobar2000 as it stands out in this test as a player with a reputable history, first released on Windows in 2002, but it simply wasn't suitable. However it does have some strengths: browsing through albums/artists/songs is actually really good, especially the songs, because it's very compact showing a lot on screen at once, while still showing lengths and art. It's quick and easy, and the most compact of all in my test. A shame that only album artists can be browsed though instead of all artists. I think this player has real potential, if the devs actually work on it they can turn this into a quality Winamp style player.

AIMP: A player that has some pre-Android history on PCs, I wanted to like this. The interface is nice, no doubt, and the widget too. However I was confused while using it and soon discovered it does not feature a music library. To me and I imagine most music listeners that's an essential. So AIMP definitely wasn't for me. Though if you're only playing a few tracks in folders, and don't need a library, it's worth trying out.

Sony Music (not Sony Music Center!): This is the only player that isn't on an app store. I downloaded the APK from XDA as it is a few years old. Anyway it's Sony's official player for the Xperia. The UI looks nice, with great easy scrolling. The now playing screen is decent but nothing special. There are no customizations, no lyrics support, and the main weakness is that browsing through albums is only 2 columns and can't be increased. Overall, a disappointment, simply no match for my Sony Walkman player software.

Nyx: This player probably has the most "fun" and coolest UI of all, it's very nicely made. It has its own font instead of the system's. Browsing through albums and songs is decent with a clear layout and moderately condensed. However browsing through artists wasn't the best experience thanks to an uncondensed list. Like Retro Player, this one also downloads art for artists automatically and a Wiki bio - however the downloaded art for artists was pretty inconsistent and some were weirdly pictures of objects. Nyx does have some good strengths though: the now playing screen looks really nice and fun and even has a waveform seeker. As for lyrics, my embedded lyrics in a song was not recognized by Nyx - the only one that failed to in my tests - however it is able to download lyrics directly there, which is a real cool feature. Additionally it also has the unique features of "tags" and "moods". I think this is a very well thought out and designed player, but it has a couple of flaws though.

Samsung Music: The default player for Samsung Galaxy (albeit one that didn't come preloaded on mine), this is actually a very decent player. It looks good and provides easy scrolling left and right. The now playing screen is decent, it has guided lyrics, and browsing through songs provides the alphabet letters on the side to quickly head to the letter - the only player in my test to do so. (EDIT: someone has mentioned PowerAmp also has this feature) The artist browsing was one of the best in my tests: it shows the no. of albums and tracks for an artist and a well condensed, nicely designed list of songs. The only disappointment is that the album browsing is only 2 columns and can't be changed. Overall, surprisingly very impressive.

Musicolet: The entire navigation is on a bar at the bottom of the screen: it is quick and easy to use. The black theme looks great on an AMOLED display. Browsing albums is very clearly laid out, with a good showing of its tracks. The artists browsing is even better - a clear list and a very good interface filtering the tracks by each album, in a way that no other player did (at least from what I was able to do). Browsing the songs is also a very clear, well designed list. Now playing also looks great with many buttons there if you're not a fan of menus, yet without making it look cluttered. Overall, I could not find a weakness at all.

YouTube Music: This one is supposed to be a streaming service first, offline player second. As a result whenever you open the app you have to tap on "play local files" or so, which then opens your own music collection. The interface is actually good, really simple. But that's about it - it's a barebones music player that does the job, but there really is no reason to be using this for your own music.

Frolomuse: This one had a great UI, with a nice accent color, a navigational bar at the bottom, and very great left-right scrolling. Browsing through albums and songs looks decent, but artists was pretty disappointing due to an uncondensed list, showing less than 10 artists at once on the screen. However it has a great now playing screen with a colored background from album art on the top side of the screen, while at the bottom there is a waveform. Also it is able to immediately download lyrics for a song which is a great plus. This player was pretty similar to Nyx from my experience.

Phonograph / Vinyl: I grouped these together because they are pretty much identical players. You can scroll left-right between categories and has a panel too if you prefer. The now playing screen is colored fully for a pretty look with its Material design. Overall it is very impressively easy to use and has a really nice interface. The widget isn't customizable though, and the one thing that done it for me, was that is shows the queue on the now playing screen, which can't be turned off. I don't personally want the queue on that screen, so therefore this player wasn't for me in spite of its other strengths.

PowerAmp: I know this one has a very good reputation. Overall I liked this player as it was highly customizable and clearly very well thought out. I don't think I personally gelled with its user interface though, and that's probably the reason I didn't go ahead with it.

Rocket Player: Apologies to fans of this player, but I was turned off immediately by very annoying ads and a clunky, difficult user interface. In the midst of this situation (me trying to find an ideal music player for myself) there was no point really in continuing from there on, so I didn't test any further.

Muzio: This player is very similar to Black Player, like they're related in some way. The navigation and screens are almost the same, though it has a different font. The main difference I found was that Muzio has a colored interface and background, and isn't black. A very modern interface that I liked. Not much more I can say than that - refer to Black Player above.

JetAudio: A player that has history and is created by the South Korean Cowon, I wanted this to be good. And... well it wasn't bad. It's actually got a really nice UI and it's clearly got some stuff in here suited for the audiophiles. However it was quite limited to use and had annoying ads, so there wasn't much I could do with the free version.

Stellio: This player has a panel of categories, but browsing through the artists/albums/songs was a pain as it's not so condensed and hence not many are shown on screen. On the plus side, the now playing screen has a nice simple color accent, a waveform, and overall good looks. The widget is fantastic and fully customizable. Overall, Stellio is brilliant in every way except that browsing the library is so bad. What a shame I must say. If that was improved this would've been a real contender.

Player Pro: This one stands out as having a pre-modern, non-flat (think 2000s) skin. It has a panel which I found easy to use to get between categories, and it provides many customizations but that requires the paid version. Uniquely, Player Pro even has internet radio built-in. Overall I don't think I gelled with this player, though admittedly it isn't a bad one at all. It's probably best suited for audiophiles but correct me if I'm wrong.

Omnia / Pulsar: I grouped these together as they seem to be identical. It features scrolling and a panel and honestly was a joy to use. I liked the fact the now playing screen had playback speed and pitch change buttons right there. The artists category tab automatically downloads some pictures and honestly they were very good pictures, better and more than Retro Player and also close to accurate unlike Nyx. Overall it's a nice player, though for theme customization you need to buy premium.

And that's it. If by any chance I have made some mistake regarding the features of a player, let me know and I will edit my post.

Conclusion

I must admit that overall my tests were disappointing, coming into Android from a proprietary OS Walkman. There are so many players out there but it seemed almost every had some kind of annoying flaw. My Walkman including older ones from about 2010 had no flaws in the interface - it was very well made for both listening and browsing. Oh well... to the point.

There was one player that was both really good and didn't have a single weakness of note, and that was Musicolet. It's a very well designed player from a UX perspective, is not difficult to adapt to, and it performs very well as a player. It also has many additional features for those that want extra, plus it's a free one! I'll be using this one, at least for now.

However, I'm not just going to leave here without giving due credit to some other really nice players in my tests:

Gonemad: A really well designed player, the only reason I didn't adopt it is because of it Google Material look which I am not personally a fan of. This is a subjective matter, so if you do like Material then this could be the ideal player for you. ALSO: Omnia, quite similar to Gonemad with a Material look that wasn't for me but it's a good player.

Samsung Music: The surprise contender because it's just a player made by Samsung for its own ecosystem. It's actually very well made overall with only one minor weakness. Honestly if you own a Galaxy and want to simply listen to music, you won't be disappointed with this. It does the job yes but it's also well designed, plus it arguably has the most credibility as it's made by Samsung Electronics.

Nyx and Frolomuse: I'm putting these together because my experiences with them were very similar. Both of these are well thought out with nice interfaces. They have some weaknesses as mentioned, but it's overall great with potential.

PowerAmp: Admittedly I didn't spend much time with this one as I couldn't gel with the interface, but I could see that it was definitely well-made and you probably already know this gets often mentioned as one of the best players on Android, so it could be ideal for you.

Plus a couple of other decent players that were held back by some flaws - which I hope gets noted and improved. There may be some other good players but which you'd have to pay for it to be useful or have no full on ads (for example JetAudio) - I can't comment on those. If any of those are good as well let us know. Coming from a Walkman (and before that iPod) I was quickly turned off by seeing ads in a music player! I'll probably still use my Walkman on some days depending on mood.

Final note

The point of my post is to share my experience with the community and to help others. In fact I want that this post also help some music players improve because some do have weaknesses that I have called out, but I want devs to acknowledge this and help improve them. I hope they take note of these and that overall all players on Android will get better and better in quality!