New York Post for Tablet

Review by eFreeware

The New York Post for Tablet is the Android tablet app from NYP Holdings, the company behind the newspaper itself. It sits in the News & Magazines category and is free to download, but a subscription is required before you can read anything inside it, and there is a 30-day free trial to start with.

The main reason to consider it is the pairing of two distinct reading experiences in one app. One is a straight replica of the printed newspaper, and the other is a continuously updated digital edition built for the screen. If you already read the Post and want it on a larger display than a phone, that combination is the appeal.

Two ways to read the same paper

Each day brings a fresh issue that mirrors the printed paper exactly. The previous 15 days of issues stay available, so a missed morning is not a missed paper. You can download issues to the tablet and read them offline, and anything you save stays in your library for as long as you want to keep it.

The digital edition works on a different rhythm. It is described as a live experience, published and updated around the clock, so it carries breaking news as it happens rather than waiting for the next day's press run. The developer says it includes hundreds of stories that never appear in print, along with videos and photo galleries.

The two sit side by side rather than one replacing the other. The replica gives you the paper as edited and laid out, page by page, while the digital edition gives you the rolling version of the same newsroom. Which one you open first will depend on whether you want the finished product or the running story.

Searching the archive and following the day

The digital edition can be searched across the full archive of content, which is the feature I would expect to matter most over time. A story you half remember from months ago is findable rather than lost. For anyone who follows a team, a market or a running news story, that searchable back catalog is the part that separates this from simply reading the website.

The coverage itself is broad by the developer's account: breaking news, sports, business, opinion columns, local news, entertainment and celebrity gossip. That is a general-interest newspaper mix rather than a specialist one, and the app leans on the same editorial voice as the paper.

Videos and photo galleries round out the digital side, so not everything is text. The app has been rebuilt from scratch for tablets, which the developer presents as a way to get the best performance possible out of the format.

Offline reading and saved issues

Offline access belongs to the print edition, where you download an issue to the tablet and read it without a connection. That is a useful arrangement for a flight, a long drive as a passenger, or anywhere the signal is unreliable. Saved issues remain in the app indefinitely, so you can build a small personal archive of particular dates.

The digital edition, by contrast, is a live feed by design. Its value comes from being current, and it is updated continuously rather than packaged for later. The two modes therefore cover different situations: one for reading on your own schedule, one for keeping up as things develop.

The app requires Android 5.0 Lollipop or later, which covers the great majority of tablets still in use. The download itself is free, and the app contains ads alongside the subscription options.

What a subscription costs and how it renews

Reading requires an app subscription. Three terms are offered inside the app: one month at $15.99, six months at $87.99, or a year at $159.99. Each comes with a 30-day free trial, so the first month costs nothing if you cancel in time.

Subscriptions renew automatically unless auto-renew is switched off at least 24 hours before the current period ends, and canceling during the trial has to happen at least 24 hours before the trial finishes.

The pricing puts this in the same territory as a paid news subscription rather than a free newsreader. Whether that is reasonable depends on how much of the Post you actually read. Someone who dips in a few times a month will find the monthly rate steep, while a daily reader who would otherwise buy the paper is comparing it against a familiar cost.

A tablet app for committed Post readers

This is built for people who already read the New York Post and want it on a tablet. The replica edition in particular assumes you like the newspaper as a finished object, with its front page, its columnists and its layout intact. If the Post's mix of news, sports, business and gossip is your regular reading, the app packages all of it in one place.

The digital edition extends that to readers who want the news as it breaks rather than once a day, and the searchable archive helps anyone who follows a subject closely over months. Between the two, most reading habits are covered.

It is a narrower proposition than a general news aggregator. The content is one newspaper's output, and access depends on an ongoing subscription. Readers who want to sample many outlets, or who only need occasional headlines, will find the commitment here heavier than the coverage warrants.

The store rating sits at 2.9 from 240 ratings, with more than 50,000 installs since the app first appeared in April 2012. That average is the kind of signal I would weigh before committing to an annual plan rather than starting with the monthly option.

A considered pick for daily Post readers

The New York Post for Tablet does one job: it puts a single newspaper on an Android tablet in two forms, one frozen and one live. The replica edition with its 15-day back catalog and offline downloads is the strongest part of the offer, and the continuously updated digital edition with its searchable archive is the part that keeps it useful between editions.

The trade-offs are clear from the developer's own terms. You need a subscription to read at all, the plans run from $15.99 a month to $159.99 a year, and renewal is automatic unless you cancel in the required window. The app also carries ads on top of that cost.

My recommendation is for regular Post readers who want the paper on a tablet and will use it most days. Start with the free trial and the monthly plan rather than committing to a year, and decide from your own reading whether the annual rate makes sense. Anyone looking for broad, multi-source news coverage will find this too narrow to justify the price.

What's new in version 4.2.1

Bug fixes and other performance improvements.