Good news from the guys on the Kodi team! In this Kodi 17 Krypton preview we take a sneak peek at two default Kodi 17 new skins. Estuary and Estouchy will help you experience Kodi in a better way, starting with Kodi 17 and onwards. Confluence will still be available as a skin for Kodi, however, it won't be the default one. All existing Kodi installations will download Confluence automatically, so Kodi won't force an interface change for you if you are using this GUI. [Read:6 Best Kodi skins in 2015 to enhance your media center]
Enjoy The New Look Of Kodi, For Traditional And Touchscreen Devices, Starting With Kodi 17 Krypton.
Are these skins good to use? We can only go with suppositions at this time, since these skins haven't yet released in a fully-functional version of Kodi (you can use them on the nightly Kodi builds if you like to experiment). It would be best if we take a quick peek at each of them separately, so read on:
Kodi 17 Krypton preview: Estuary skin
With Kodi Estuary Skin Convenience Takes The Spotlight. It's A Good Looking Spotlight, Too.
This skin is well suited for traditional HTPCs, such as Android media players and in general any device where you need a 10-foot user interface. The new home screen guides you through all the main sections you can use. Also your addons will be readily available with a new feature that sorts them by last used, directly on your home screen. In this way, your favorite addons can be used with just one click. I suppose this will make it even better to browse your Kodi streams if you use Kore, the official Kodi remote Android app or a wireless HTPC keyboard, since you would just need a few presses of the arrow keys to find the last addon you used, directly on the home screen. That certainly sounds great! [Read:Yatse vs Kore: a comparison to help you decide]
Estouchy, The Name Says It All. Touchscreen Devices Will Be Easier To Use With This Officially-Supported Touchscreen Kodi Skin.
This skin will be a replacement for the re-Touched Kodi skin, and will be the default skin for iOS users. Estouchy has been challenging to create, because designing a functional skin for touch devices requires a balance between usability and available space on screen. In this regard, Estouchy actually hits a "sweet spot", and while it doesn't have all the features available on Estuary, it will allow you to browse your media comfortably in your touchscreen devices. If you want more skins for your touchscreen devices, you could try these 10 best Kodi skins for smartphones and tablets, while you wait for Estouchy to be fully available, alongside the upcoming Kodi 17 Krypton.
As you can see, these skins are quite well designed, and it's only a matter of time until you can use them on your Kodi HTPC. Can't wait? Try using one of the official nightly builds on the Kodi website, but only if you know what you're doing, as these nightly builds are still development builds, and are still prone to bugs and unforeseen issues. Otherwise, just wait until the skins we just saw in this Kodi 17 Krypton preview are available, with the new version of Kodi!
Alejandro is an electrical engineer, working as a software developer and part-time writer. He has a passion for technology, languages and games, and has been around the web since 2004.
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