MX Player is a free media player that specializes in film clips and video on demand. It has support for almost every video format and has subtitle functionality. With a clean interface, it’s easy to control the main functions such as volume, brightness, and play progress.

What is MX Player for Android?

MX Player is a video streaming and video player app that has a free version as well as a paid, ad-free option. Since its launch in 2011, MXP has risen to be one of the top free video players across Android, iOS, and Windows platforms. It’s particularly popular among Android users.

Yes. The app is well-maintained and has been in the Google Play store for many years. In this time, it has gained a solid reputation for being malware-free and reliable to use. Regular security and function updates indicate that the developers are incredibly attentive to safety.

Here are a couple of features that make MX Player a go-to- software:

MX Player now does some tech magic with its HW+ decoder, making more videos run smoothly.

This cool feature means better video performance on different devices.

MX Player is the first-ever Android video player that can use multiple cores at once.

After some serious testing, it turns out this can make your video experience up to 70% better on devices with more than one core.

Doing a pinch-zoom or a simple swipe lets you zoom in and out or move around the video easily.

You can also zoom and move using the options, giving you control over how you want to watch.

MX Player makes subtitles easier to deal with using simple gestures.

Swipe to move forward or backward in the subtitles, swipe up or down to move the text, and pinch to change the text size.

Got videos you want to keep to yourself? MX Player's Privacy Folder keeps them safe and sound.

It's like your secret hideout for videos, making sure no one accidentally stumbles upon them.

Worried about your little ones messing with your phone? MX Player has a Kids Lock to keep them entertained without making calls or poking at other apps.

Parents, you can relax a bit while the kids have their fun.

In terms of performance in playing and streaming videos, both apps are excellent. MX Player is updated with new features more frequently than VLC, so users have extra tools at their disposal.

While VLC isn’t updated as frequently, the on-screen ads are far less obtrusive than those in MX Player.

Yes. It does support 4K. It also supports Full and Ultra HD, although whether you can get that performance depends on your device. The player also supports all the other main video formats, including (but not limited to) MP4, MKV, AVI, 3GP, RMVB, MOV, and FLV.

Let's talk subtitles – MX Player supports a bunch of different types, making sure everyone can enjoy their videos hassle-free.

DVD, DVB, SSA/ASS subtitles

SubStation Alpha (.ssa/.ass) with full styling

SAMI (.smi) with Ruby tag support

SubRip (.srt)

MicroDVD (.sub)

VobSub (.sub/.idx)

SubViewer2.0 (.sub)

MPL2 (.mpl)

TMPlayer (.txt)

Teletext

PJS (.pjs)

WebVTT (.vtt)

MX Player Pro removes the annoying on-screen ads and adds several extra features, including the ability to recolor and move subtitles. Kids Lock Mode prevents the app from being minimized. Kids can watch videos but can’t access any other apps on the phone.

Our take

The free version is a top performer for quality video playing and streaming, but the on-screen ads are too intrusive for our liking.

Although MX Player specializes in videos, it can also play audio.

MX Player doesn’t currently support Chromecast, so if that’s a requirement for you, XPlayer can provide that.

Yes. If you can tolerate annoying ads on the free version.

If you’re happy to have a simple, high-quality video player without intrusive ads, then VLC Player is the app for you. The compromise is that you won’t receive feature updates as often.