TechRadar Verdict
Pros
- +
Fast compression utility
- +
Looks like a Mac app
Cons
- -
Expensive given feature set
- -
OS X built-in tool not far behind
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Why would you need a file compression tool in addition to the one built-in to Mac OS X? It's a good question. Well, there are some formats that the archive function in OS X can't handle: RAR, for example. WinZip is an archival tool that's brand new on the Mac.
The application itself is a port of a very popular and successful Windows tool. To be fair to the developers they've clearly had the Mac in mind when making the app.
It's very Mac-like, and creating archives is simple. This doesn't feel like a lazy port from a Windows app. However, the paucity of options on the splash screen is evidence of a fairly thin feature set. Just three options are available: create a new zip, open an existing zip and zip an email.
Zipping a folder or document is fast enough, but in our tests it wasn't appreciably faster than the built-in tool. Size reductions were only comparable too.
Being able to have a look inside an archive is a handy feature. This allows you to simply extract the one file you want without having to uncompress the everything.
However, overall WinZip's Achilles heel is that it's a bit light on extra services. We recently reviewed Stuffit Deluxe 2011 and for just a few pounds more you get a lot more.
Yes, WinZip can open a lot of file formats and create secure archives, but then so can many other utilities.
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