IPhone Royal Mail Postage Application review

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We review Royal Mail Postage for the iPhone, an app that calculates the postage cost for any package or letter

Published on Aug 10, 2009

OK, so the iPhone can’t weigh your parcels for you. Nor can it dodge the queue at the post office, but when it comes to sending packages across the country or globe, Royal Mail Postage is plenty capable of sorting out the pricing for you.

Tap in the weight of the item you’re sending, choose how far you want it to go, and which of Royal Mail’s services you’ll use to get it there. One more press, and the iPhone app has figured out how much it’ll cost to ship, depending on the physical size and all your options.

It’s that simple, and takes the guesswork out of mailing large items. But the simplicity of Royal Mail Postage is also its downfall. There’s just not enough here to warrant breaking out the credit card.

With the exception of automatic calculation, the app offers nothing you couldn’t achieve through the web, or with a printed price chart. OK, it’s slightly more convenient to have it in app form, but when was the last time you posted a package on the spur of the moment? We have serious doubts over its long-term usefulness.

Considering it’s a paid-for app, we’d expect to see at least tracking features, or the ability to scan and store receipts using the iPhone’s camera, but Royal Mail Postage forgoes any extra features in favour of a simple interface that sadly under-delivers.

If you’re the sort to post dozens of parcels a month, you’re in luck, this could save you a few seconds hunting for the price chart, but for anyone in search of a more advanced postage partner, Royal Mail Postage falls just shy of being a legitimate option.