London Review of Books

Very lazy. No problems with the content, but the app doesn't add any kind of convenience when compared to the website. Doesn't have a search function, doesn't remember your place in an article, and you have to download an issue to read an article in it rather than just clicking on an article. Deleting and sticking with the website. LRB deserves a better effort.

I am sorry, but this app is dreadful. A magazine of this magnitude has to do better. I can understand the attempt to simulate the feeling of reading an actual magazine. But, why? It's not. If you have the technological capacity at hand to produce something beyond a paper magazine, don't settle for a copy. Provide the users with an experience that the analogue magazine can't provide. For example, search capabilities or the option to save the progress of reading an article. It's lazy, do better.

A nice simple basic app, but a bit too basic. As others have said it really should remember where you had previously read to in an article. I would also like some more accessibility options, as well as changing the text size I'd like to change the text colour, or at least select a night viewing mode with light text in a black background. In fact on that point this app is not as good as a simple Hermit Lite app pointing at tge LRB website.

Great magazine but terrible app. Issues I have downloaded randomly disappear and I have to redownload them (not easy in the tube). Pages in issues I have previously downloaded disappear. Sometimes the app gets stuck on the splash screen and won't budge (I have to block mobile data and try again). And of course it doesn't remember where you got up to in an article. Needs more work.

Very good content but app feels so 2015. I prefer web app to app now. Would love it if we can have a better feel for tabs and mobiles. Please have a look at libby app to get inspired a bit. What can make it 5 star: 1. Add search 2. Add audio for all article (could be initially through AI) 3. Save where I left. 4. Propose related articles at end which have been published in past. 5. Better interface for tablet : please use the extra space rather than just increasing font size and over margin.

As others have said, it's disappointing that the app doesn't save your place in an article. Other enhancements like better access to the archive would be welcome but saving your place should be a minimum requirement for an app of this sort. Not really worth using in its current form.

This app does not allow you to save your progress, and to state the obvious, this function is vital on a platform that hosts long essays. No search function is available either from what I can tell. Users should use the website instead.

A great app to read the LRB. I wish it had dark or night mode so it was easier to read with lights off.

You have to download a whole issue and there is no search function for articles. Poorly designed and not at all fit for purpose.

Please change the name of the app to LRB. The current name is too long to be displayed on an Android home screen, even across two lines. Horrible.

I really appreciate how straightforward and intuitive the app is. The one thing I would ask for is a dark mode.

Great app, having current & back numbers instantly available offline is a real plus.

I don't have any problem with the app, but I do miss seeing all the ads for the great books for sale.

A quality app in content and in form

Simple to use app, but as mentioned by other reviewers, the inability to save progress is a significant inhibitor to utility.

Good-reliable and effective

Looks good, but very bare-bones in terms of functionality. Doesn't keep your place in articles, which is maddening - sometimes you have to scroll back down through a long article after you've just briefly switched to another window. And as others have noted, the lack of an archive search function is a shame.

Yes, it would be a great app if it had a search function or a drop down selection for the year and issue. Also it might be useful to be able to download individual articles without having to download the whole issue, but that's less of an issue than the lack of search function.

The inability to bookmark a place in a long article to enable one to return to it is particularly unfortunate given the length of the Grenfell Tower article.

It's not obvious how you can just purchase single issues without a subscription,which you can do in the iOS version.

UNABLE TO USE ARCHIVE EASILY

The new LRB app is nice enough in its own right - good looking, elegant and uncluttered interface, lovely typesetting - but aside from the ability to download issues, it is ultimately inferior to the website. Any web browser will allow you to search for text within an article, and multitask with other apps without losing your context (position in page). The LRB website also offers archive search. It's annoying, because none of the glossy design features here mandate an app per se - aside from the ability to download issues, this experience could've been achieved on the site.

Nice clean app overall, would be better if the navigation didn't obscure the headline when scrolling to the top of the article. However, being able to download issues on demand and the improved layout and fonts makes it a superior experience to the mobile site. A great way to consume your issues of the LRB.

Better as a result of the update, but it still lacks the feature would make it really great - the ability (as there is on the website) to search the entire archive for a writer or topic. As it is, it requires endless scrolling back through issues represented by their front covers and their volume number (no dates!). Even a drop-down list allowing selection of a particular month and year would help.

I may have missed something but I can't see the point of this app. I have now uninstalled it and saved the website so I can search articles. I can't do that on the app. I can't do anything on the app.

It works!

Love the LRB. My only bugbear with this app is that it allows you to download issues for offline reading, but requires an internet connection to launch (which isn't great if it crashes whilst you're one hour into a plane journey).

Just updated it, and now it repeatedly crashes without opening. Why bother?