VideoGrade Review

I’ve never really been one for taking video with my phone, mostly because of storage space. I also like to mess around with the videos that I do take, and straight-up iOS video doesn’t really give me that opportunity. With an app like VideoGrade, however, I might start using the feature a lot more often.

VideoGrade is probably easiest to describe as Instagram for video clips. Users can make all sorts of adjustments from Brightness to Vignettes, and even cut down their video if they so desire. They just have to allow access to their Camera Roll, pick what they want, and start editing. Most values are adjusted via sliders that can be set back to the default at any point if a mistake is ever made and once everything is good to go users just have to save the new clip and they’re done.

I was impressed with how easy it was to jump right in to VideoGrade. There’s no real need for an explanation as most of the options are self-explanatory. Experimentation is also worthwhile since none of the changes are permanent until the project is saved, and even then the original clip can always be loaded up again. It’s also just an incredibly easy app to use thanks to all the large icons and sliders, which allow for more control over incremental changes. The option to split the preview clip down the middle to show the Before and After effects is also a great help when fine-tuning any video.

However as easy as VIdeoGrade is to use and as effective as it might be, it’s missing a rather significant feature: the ability to take video. Granted I have no idea how complicated something like that would be to program but having to take a video using the default camera app, then open it in VideoGrade to tweak it, just feels clunky. My inability to shoot video from inside the app itself certainly doesn’t make it irrelevant, but it does make it a tad unwieldy.

Lack of in-app video capturing aside, VideoGrade is still a robust and comprehensive video editing tool. It’s full of color values to adjust and saturations to play with. Anyone who uses their iOS device for capturing video frequently should definitely consider getting their hands on this unassuming (but very effective) editor.