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I recently decided to review nine different Android image editing applications to decide which ones are best suited to use on my Asus Transformer TF101, currently running Honeycomb version 3.2.1. All of the apps in this review were running on this tablet with the same memory and OS configuration.

I can say with certainty that not all apps still run with this configuration – some have been gratefully uninstalled from my tablet and hopefully from my neocortex and hippocampus in the near future.

The “Gang of Nine”:

BeFunky

First in this veritable tome of Android tablet photo editor app reviews is an application known as BeFunky. Although this editor with the funky name has an incredible looking interface – it is definitely more suited for mobile uses as the application steadfastly refuses to accommodate users that prefer using their tablets in landscape mode.

As this splash screen illustrates, BeFunky performs best whilst holding your tablet in a portrait orientation:

The BeFunky main menu. The sideways view is getting a bit annoying…

BeFunky supports a rich selection of image filters:

A great strength of BeFunky is is the vast collection of picture frame effects:

Other than the lack of accelerometer support for tablet users, you don’t have much to lose if you choose to install BeFunky on your Android tab as it is extremely easy to use, stable, and the cost – free – can’t be beat.

Verdict: Get BeFunky from the Android Market here. Be sure to keep your seat back and your tablet in a full upright position.

Second in the our series of apps is named Little Photo. The main strength of Little Photo is its ability to combine the steps of photo taking and editing inside a single application.

Little Photo

Main “menu” screen of Little Photo. Tapping the camera immediately places the tablet in a “lets take a photo like a tourist” mode of operation. The camera “shutter” is placed on a three second delay after given a tap to start, as to give the user a bit of time to properly frame the shot, a view of which takes up the entire screen.

A list of Edit options appear after the photo is taken:

Special effects can be applied to photos, such as a movie film effect:

Although one can’t complain about the $0 cost of Little Photo, the app lacks a “finished” feel. For example to start the three second photo timer, the instruction text is displayed sideways instead of landscape. Controls such as textboxes can appear in odd locations on the screen, as it does whilst entering words to overlay on a photo using the text effect.

Verdict: Little Photo is a decent photo editing application, but it is probably much better if used on a mobile or future version more suited for tablet use. Download from the Android Market here.

PicSay

To round off the first of this three part series is an app named PicSay. I must say that I had loads of fun using this app and as a programmer and developer myself I can tell that the person or people that wrote this app cared about the quality and usability of their product. You can choose to read further if you want – but if time is critical I suggest you hop to the end of this app review and click the download link.

Picsay “main menu”. Tap the Get a Picture button to select an image from the Gallery or using the File Manager:

Load an image to edit with the File Manager or Gallery applications.

The Word Balloon menu presents virtually endless permutations of balloon shapes and predefined styles:

PicSay has many ready pieces of clip art available via the Sticker menu, grouped by category. The screenshot below shows a small sampling of the images available in the Signs & Symbols sticker category:

The effects menu. Only half of the available options are shown. Additional features include Saturation, Brightness, Colorize, Hue, Dizziness, Rainbow, Sepia Toning and Invert:

PicSay is free, a pay version is also available with even more features added. I consider it among the best image and photo editor applications that currently exist for amateur uses on Android tablets.

Verdict: Get PicSay from the Android Market here.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow for the next three apps in the series; find out which two I wish I had never bothered with.