Coral Reef screensaver

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on December 01, 2009

Screen savers these days tend to give users a lot of options: adjust the speed of one element, change the quantity or color of something else, add your own music, and so on. Coral Reef screen saver downplays customization in favor of really, really good graphics, and we can't say it's a bad trade-off.

The screen saver doesn't do a whole lot. As the name would suggest, it's an underwater scene, with fish leisurely swimming past a shipwreck. Sunlight streams through the water, creating a ripple effect on the sea creatures in the foreground. Users can select subtle underwater sounds, gentle music, both, or neither. And really, that's about all it does. Unlike similar programs we've seen, you can't increase the number of fish, change their speed, adjust the lighting, create your own soundtrack, or otherwise customize the look of the screen saver. But that's fine, because it's really pretty great as it is. The graphics are fantastic--as realistic as any we've seen. The fish move as smoothly as they would in real life. You can even see tiny specks of plankton floating in the sunlight. The screen saver's sound effects are appropriate, neither cheesy nor distracting. Overall, we found the Coral Reef screen saver both attractive and relaxing, and we'd be happy to set it as our computer's default screen saver.

Coral Reef screen saver is free to try, but it displays a nag screen after it's been active for a minute and a half. The program installs and uninstalls without issues. We recommend it to all users.