Content is divided into news (car news), reviews (mainly drawn from the magazine), the show (news about the TV program and its presenters), video (clips from the show) and gallery (themed collections of photos). The app's top level panorama offers a quick overview of the available content, but you can dive into each section for a more comprehensive listing.
For most users the standout feature will be the video section. In addition to the expected option to stream videos directly, there's also an option to download video for later "offline" playback. An integrated download manager lets you keep tabs on completed, pending and in progress downloads, as well as letting you delete videos once you have watched them.
Due to platform limitations the TopGear app does need to be open in order for downloads to take place - you'll be warned that downloads will pause if you switch away from the app, although they are automatically restarted when you return.
There's definitely is room for improvement; only a limited amount of content is available from within the app, and features are limited (e.g. no sharing, and only linked links to additional information). It would also be good to see live tile integration - perhaps to notify you of newly available content?
Nonetheless it's an easy way to get TopGear content onto your phone and for fans of the show is an essential download.
Marketplace description:
Keep up to date with Top Gear HQ 24 hours a day. Do you love Top Gear? Do you want to get more? With the new Top Gear News app, you can get all the latest news, videos and random nonsense from the Top Gear team, wherever you are. And it’s completely free to download and use.
TopGear can be downloaded for free from the Windows Phone Marketplace.
The TopGear is the BBC's first official app for Windows Phone. We're expecting others, perhaps even a Windows Phone iPlayer app, to arrive over the summer. It looks like TopGear will be used as a testbed for some of the features in these future apps.
If you can't wait for the official BBC apps there are a number of very good third party app that make it easy to access BBC content on your Windows Phone device; take a look at apps like BBC Podcast Player , BBC Radio Player, and BBC News Mobile.