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Does a decent job, but only decent at best. I really want to like this and I’ve been trying, but lots of little tedious items make me wonder why I’m not using something that just works ,ore effortlessly, like Chunky. For example, I can’t alphabetize my library because it insists that the manual order and alphabetical order are the same arrangement, even though my collections are clearly not in order. Also, you have to back out to the main library in order to select the next book and advance to that issue. In both comic rack and Chunky you just simply tap the side of your screen and it’ll take you to the next issue. But what’s really annoying about this is that they want you to pay to be able to tap to the next issue. I understand having pay options for improved features, but this seems bit like nickel-and-diming. There’s other little things, too, but I just want to give a snapshot of my impressions. If I can’t make it more enjoyable I’ll be switching back to Chunky within the next few days.

This is one of the better readers from a basic UI standpoint, but probably one of the worst from a technical one. You can add files through iTunes, but not whole folders. As for retrieving them from the app, you might as well forget it. You must create the folders in the app separately, either to import into or add to later. These folders also become part of the app and cannot be managed anywhere else. It’s an overly tedious design that hints at poor development or excessive attempts to force subscription without first building the trust that it will be any less tedious. Subscriptions meant to cover the cost of services make sense. After all, some do charge the developers. Lumping in services that the developers don’t pay a dime to maintain should be a separate, one-time fee to cover the cost of publishing the app. I can’t see paying Panels monthly to cover the cost of using my local server, unless they plan to send out techs to maintain it. After my experience importing files, I wouldn’t want to pay for that experience again. There is almost no animation to reading beyond the generic slide. For one of the most expensive apps to own, it is sad to fall short of the stock Books app included by Apple. Overall, I like the basic look of the UI and hope that one day the functionality catches up. Until then, I will continue to sync with Chunky and import the files here to organize when I get to it. If not for the UI, I probably wouldn’t bother at all.

Update: 2.4.4 - the last few versions I’ve had trouble other comic names. I’m importing via airdrop to my iOS device (latest software) and two comics had the end of their file names cut off. File names are the exact same length of other comics in the series that did not have naming issues. When I use the “rename” feature and save, the file name reverts to what it was and never changes. // Update: 2.2.2 - I’ve updated my iOS device hardware and am on the latest softwares for my device and the app. I’m unable to airdrop directly to the app (was able to do this in ver. 1 and iOS 12) and my Files app recognizes CBZ files to share with Panels, but it does not recognize CBR files as sharable with the Panels app. // Update: 2.02/3 fixed the crash upon app start. Comics read fine now as they did before. Tested the search feature and THAT crashed the app 3-for-3 when I tried it. Good thing the app loads up and reading comics is normal, not good that standard features still cause app crashes. Also, I liked starting at the Library page in the old app. I recommend letting users choose their landing page upon opening the app. As someone who uploads comics on devices with smaller storage spaces, all the “READ NOW” features are pretty useless for me as I keep no more than 20 comics loaded in (usually less). // Old: App doesn’t even load up now. It just crashes. Should have waited to move to version 2 until after testing was complete.