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Home screen launcher love triangle

Hi everyone, I've been playing with new Nexus S (my first android phone) for a few days now, and I can't decide on which homescreen launcher to use because each has features I like and lacks some that the others have. Maybe someone can find a remedy for me. I've made some notes about what I like or dislike about the following three launchers I've used.
ADWLauncher EX:
Separate catalogs on drawer
Lacks scrolling dock (hidden dock is less intuitive to me)
Best homescreen transitions
Go Launcher:
Gesture response for icons on dock
Tab to see running apps from app drawer that lets you kill or switch between tasks easily. However, the tab takes away space from the icons. Maybe there's another way to access something like this, a gesture for example? (image here)
Best edit function for screens: provides convenient way to move icons from one screen to another, lets reposition screens, delete
2 touch access to phone settings from menu button
Share access from menu button
Launcher Pro:
Missed calls/sms/email notification in the doc

I personally like Zeam..
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

The main reason I use LPP is because of he cal widget and being able to use custom dock images. Over ADW EX that is.

Launcher Pro Plus, by far.

http://www.appbrain.com/app/homesmack/com.teslacoilsw.homesmack

I like Zeam. Light and fast!

Actually I'll further confuse you.
32 Home Replacements Reviewed
http://hubpages.com/hub/Droid-Home-Replacement-App-Comparison
There's a way to get the "counts" in ADW with paid app "ADWNotifier".

kschang said:
Actually I'll further confuse you.
32 Home Replacements Reviewed
http://hubpages.com/hub/Droid-Home-Replacement-App-Comparison
There's a way to get the "counts" in ADW with paid app "ADWNotifier".
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You're terrible.

That review is crap.

That review is crap. Launcher pro hard to configure my assss.

kevin2516 said:
That review is crap. Launcher pro hard to configure my assss.
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I am guessing you mean LauncherPro? Compared to drag-and-drop of HelixLauncher dock config, LauncherPro dock IS hard to config.

Why is LauncherPro so popular here? I feel like its the most limited. No long-hold uninstall or edit from the homescreen like the others. I liked it the least out ADW, Go Launcher, and LauncherPro.

glasslung said:
Why is LauncherPro so popular here? I feel like its the most limited. No long-hold uninstall or edit from the homescreen like the others. I liked it the least out ADW, Go Launcher, and LauncherPro.
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Yes it is.

glasslung said:
Why is LauncherPro so popular here? I feel like its the most limited. No long-hold uninstall or edit from the homescreen like the others. I liked it the least out ADW, Go Launcher, and LauncherPro.
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I think LPP was the first Launcher to have a drop-to-uninstall function.

Zeam. Minimalistic, light, fast, awesome.
Sent from a piece of ginger bread

I have tried them all and I always end up back with LauncherPro plus.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

Best launcher?

So I think I tried every launcher in the market and I can't decide. I'm running fusion right no and adw fc on me all day. Launcher pro kills the battery, there's four other ones but they aren't customiable like adw or LP any ideas?

I use zeam

Josh K. said:
I use zeam
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Tried that too. I liked that one, but I couldn't change the darn icons

launcher pro is the best
next prob is open home full cut
also the cheaper way crazy home was alright

Go Launcher, Panda Home, Open Home

ADW Launcher EX

Neckrobeard said:
ADW Launcher EX
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+1. Its paid but worth it.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA Premium App

i almost always end up back with launcher pro

I started with adw on an htc magic, switched to launcher pro, kept launcher pro when I got my captivate, started using Go, and am currently running adw. Going to check out zeam, but unless it has some feature I really love, I expect I'll buy adw ex and stick with it.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

tiuk said:
I started with adw on an htc magic, switched to launcher pro, kept launcher pro when I got my captivate, started using Go, and am currently running adw. Going to check out zeam, but unless it has some feature I really love, I expect I'll buy adw ex and stick with it.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
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I use ADW EX and it's the best launcher I've used out of Launcher Pro (massive battery drain for me), Panda Home (laggy), Open Home (laggy), Go Launcher (not my type), Zeam (very good minimalist theme but also not my type)

goob1284 said:
So I think I tried every launcher in the market and I can't decide. I'm running fusion right no and adw fc on me all day. Launcher pro kills the battery, there's four other ones but they aren't customiable like adw or LP any ideas?
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What version of LP do you use that kills your battery? Its never been a battery killer for me.

whiteguypl said:
What version of LP do you use that kills your battery? Its never been a battery killer for me.
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Launcher pro has been known to drain battery on people's battery faster than usual. I used the latest one and silk had the same issue which made me switch to ADW EX
Sent from outer space while finding another place

Go launcher ex, Go launcher ex, Go launcher ex.
Oh, and Go launcher ex. Swipe gestures on dock icons and sorting my app drawer into folders has made it by far the best launcher I have used so far.
Herp derp Captivate XDA app.

whiteguypl said:
What version of LP do you use that kills your battery? Its never been a battery killer for me.
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0.8.3 is my version

I have tried all of the above and keep going back to go launcher ex.

dethtek said:
I have tried all of the above and keep going back to go launcher ex.
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im trying it out and so far it looks pretty good

Coak5 said:
Launcher pro has been known to drain battery on people's battery faster than usual. I used the latest one and silk had the same issue which made me switch to ADW EX
Sent from outer space while finding another place
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Has it been known to drain battery or have a lot of people that don't really know what there talking about said it does. Not sarcasim I'd actually like to know this because I don't understand why it would do it to others but not me.
goob1284 said:
0.8.3 is my version
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Hmm same as the last version I used.
Side note go launcher is really nice too.

I'm using LauncherPro (paid) for a few months now and love it.. I've tried most of the popular ones always go back to LP. Haven't tried Go Launcher EX yet though, so I'll give it a spin and we'll see!

Zeam Launcher
Zeam Launcher - first tried it on DocKitchenRoms, and then kept it. It's small, simple, fast, supports customizable up and down swipes, customizable bottom buttons/icons, custom grid settings, transparent app list, auto-rotation etc. Free. Worth trying. Crashes when selecting wallpaper, but setting sticks.
I use it with Smooth Calendar widget - also transparent with custom colors.
Battery life with it pretty good on Torch 1.5 ROM, can have up to 4 days on standby and talk.

I use ADW...
It's fully customizable.
Home Screen -
Customize your homepage icons images, size and text.
Fully customize the dock. (icon size, number of icons, hide dock bg)
Customize widget sizes.
Customize number of rows and columns.
Set homescreen scroll speed and overshoot.
Add pages.
Set any page as default homescreen.
Lots more!
App Drawer -
Custom app grouping and labeling.
Customize number of rows and columns.
Set animation time.
Fade icon labels.
Switch between pages or vertical scrolling.
Much more!
Not too bad for free!
I enjoy ADW. It's simple, effective and runs VERY stable on my Captivate. I have not had ADW Force Close on me, not once. The damn thing runs flawlessly across almost all versions of Android OS.

launcher questions

i hope this is the right section if not please move. but is launcher pro the only one where u can change the icons without using a theme. i like changing the app draw icon like now im using mosaic(sp) icon. but im kinda tired of launcher pro and looking for something different, but i keep finding myself coming back to launcher pro.

Go launcher can do what you want.

thanks ill give it a try.

Multiple Launchers
If I have multiple launchers installed (or even just 1 extra than the stock launcher), do they all use system memory even if I have a default set? I'm using Serendipity VII, which I love, but I want to customize the icons so I've installed Go Launcher.
Am I taking a performance hit by using a different launcher?

mylivespot said:
If I have multiple launchers installed (or even just 1 extra than the stock launcher), do they all use system memory even if I have a default set? I'm using Serendipity VII, which I love, but I want to customize the icons so I've installed Go Launcher.
Am I taking a performance hit by using a different launcher?
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As far as I know, no**, you won't take a performance hit by using a different launcher.
**Caveats:
1. As long as the launcher you use isn't a memory hog by itself.
2. As long as you check and make sure TouchWiz (or any other launcher) isn't showing up as a running process while you're using the other launcher.

Adw ex gets the job done, sure you have to pay for it but in my experience it gives me the best battery life and it's smooth as butter. I'm running darky's 10.2.2 and ADW beats go launcher and Launcher pro, just as responsive and snappy, way better battery life =)

I'd say use launcher pro plus/ adw free/donate version. I was huge fan of go launcher and widgets but after watching this http://youtu.be/iGPbvzPvkWw I am not sure if its really safe or not. Also if you really care about the performance use zeam as said in video, it is very very light on memory...

I bought LauncherPro after using the free version that DG had put into one of the Cognition roms. I loved it so much I bought a license. It's smooth, responsive, and very customizable, although I have left it stock.

ADWex for me all the way....GO Launcher was always laggy for me and I never liked Launcher Pro
OR you can try Launcher 7 PRO....which I made tiles for...this is what it looks like.
http://lifehacker.com/5835954/the-andro+metro-home-screen

i agree adw ex works the best for me and has a lot of features. Launcher pro is probably the smoothest but has a few bugs and very few features. Go launcher is also great too if you want a free launcher with a bunch of features

Nova launcher on XOOM : just fantastic !!!

Hello, I am quite new on the Xoom and Android, and I just discovered that we can easily change the ICS Launcher ... I thought we could only do this by adding a piece of software on top of ICS and I didn't want to do that for performances reasons ...
But yesterday I discovered I was totally wrong about the launchers, I tried "Nova Launcher" which is free on the market, and I was absolutly amazed about this launcher fluidity : using the stock ICS launcher, I couldn't add a widget without slowing down everything, going from icones pages to icones pages became then laggy ...
Now with Nova Launcher, no more lags !!! (well, as always, except if you use animated backgrounds but I don't).
I was feeling like having a Quad Core Xoom ! Plus the sliding effects are beautiful (3D cube effect), you can also have a dock on the bottom of the screen, chose how many columns and lines of icones you want, etc ...
Any Xoom user should install this, you will feel like having a new device with perfect fluidity !

Great info! Thanks!
Sent from my Xoom

Had to try it Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 running ICS after reading about it here and WOW the speed is amazing. Stock ICS was pretty good but this is just another level. Highly recommendable!

Nice. I like this.

Thanks I'll Install That

A little trick : to have the best fluidity possible, I disabled the option which let the background image move when you change of icones page (sorry, I don't remember the exact name of this feature in the options menu).

APEX is the other high quality ICS launcher. I ended up going with Apex on both phone and tablet. Try the free one on market.

Mandelbrot.Benoit said:
APEX is the other high quality ICS launcher. I ended up going with Apex on both phone and tablet. Try the free one on market.
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Agree! I have Apex on my phone and tablet as well. Best launcher I've ever tried (out of many) and the developer is very open to suggestions and bug reports. Bought the pro version to support this great app.

I also feel Apex Launcher is the best. Plus, Apex Launcher integrates directly into the Cyanogenmod Launcher Settings. It's a neat feature if you're into that. (I am not sure if Nova Launcher does this...)
With the intention of supporting the developer and unlocking the pro features, i also bought Apex Launcher, and I am having no regrets.

I was on Apex, but switched to Nova. I like its dock better on tablets than Apex's; it's a bit bigger and spaced more normally. I also noticed Nova's search bar in both phone and tablet mode is correctly proportioned to the stock launcher's search bars and the Apex one is a bit bigger and stretched. It's picky, but I'm CDO (OCD in alphabetical order) by nature. Also, I like Nova's organization and the fact by integrating Nova Prime with TeslaUnread, I don't have to install another app for unread counts on my widget locker. There's also the issue Apex has with themes on tablets where the themed icons are tiny and look minuscule compared to the ones without a themed icon which are but normal size. I've brought this up MANY times and each time I get a "oh, we just found the bug and fixed it" every time, so Idk if they just found the wrong bug and fized something else by accident or the bug is more pesky than it appears, but I'd much prefer Nova's correct theme scaling regardless of if I have to apply it myself. Currently, however, I've switched from Lustre back to stock ICS cuz I like the rounded better. Does Apex Pro have the platform folder style? That's another thing in Nova I couldn't live without. Plus the overscroll effect on tablets in Nova has correct margines but goes way too far off the screen in Apex.

Nova isn't THAT good - ok, it's fast, but it has some bugs, like dock isn't docked - there can be icons UNDER dock, which is quite stupid (and I haven't seen option to alter that), then, placing icons into dock is frustratingly inaccurate (hovering over the icon place will place icon to RIGHT (not correct, but as direction -> left, right) place).
Not good for me. I prefer stock. Will try Apex now...

I didn't like NOVA.
I am using Go Launcher EX (not the tablet/HD version, but the regular version).

Loving NOVA!
Don't need the dock. With EOS rom, I can add quick launch items to the status bar. Who needs a dock?
Anyhow, very stable and fast.
Also the gestures are a good feature as well. Just remembered that I can also change icons easily.

ravenhr said:
Nova isn't THAT good - ok, it's fast, but it has some bugs, like dock isn't docked - there can be icons UNDER dock, which is quite stupid (and I haven't seen option to alter that), then, placing icons into dock is frustratingly inaccurate (hovering over the icon place will place icon to RIGHT (not correct, but as direction -> left, right) place).
Not good for me. I prefer stock. Will try Apex now...
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Click to collapse
I have absolutly no problem with the dock, all is OK for me, I didn't find a single bug yet.

ADW Launcher EX (the paid version) is still the smoothest launcher. Maybe it doesn't have that ICS look that you may love, but it is the best launcher for tablets.
It is smooth even with live wallpapers (only the lightest, but it behaves far better than stock/nova/apex launcher)

Im using Nova a week now and it's awsome! And the bar ahhh it's epic

using Nova after i saw recommendation here!! im satisfied but i have one problem...when i receive sms on ics xoom they dont appear on the screen like it was in honeycombdoes anyone have this problem?

I've been using Nova since its inception, but its just not what I desire for my Xoom. Both Apex and Nova lack the small features I really want for my tablet, but I'm really leaning towards purchasing Apex. It just has a little bit more.
Nova is fantastic for my GNex, but the Xoom is a totally different experience. I can't wait for Chameleon launcher in the fall.

I went back to ADW. Too many force closes with Nova. I too am waiting for Chameleon.

RampageDeluxe said:
I've been using Nova since its inception, but its just not what I desire for my Xoom. Both Apex and Nova lack the small features I really want for my tablet, but I'm really leaning towards purchasing Apex. It just has a little bit more.
Nova is fantastic for my GNex, but the Xoom is a totally different experience. I can't wait for Chameleon launcher in the fall.
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I love them both (Apex has better themes SO FAR but Nova's are coming close already, and the tablet layout of Nova is 10X better on Nova since the overscroll effect actually works best on it and grid sizes are more correct). I prefer Nova's aesthetics (like Holo design for TeslaUnread + the option for changing the Color Theme in the latest beta that makes all of the blues whichever colour you pick). I've got Nova Prime and regular Apex since regular Apex has 9/10 the paid features of Nova anyways. I'm excited for Chameleon as well, though, so we'll see what happens!

Anyone switch over to another launcher right away?

Just wondering if any of you switched over to Nova or if your sticking to the stock launcher.
Ive noticed some lag with stock but I enjoy the widgets touch wiz offers.
Stock or aftermarket launcher?

I'm currently using aviate by yahoo and I like it a lot especially with the transparent setting

I pretty much switched to Nova Launcher right away. Didn't even bother playing around with the Touchwiz launcher

Nova, latest beta. Looking good.

I'm using TW with no issues at all.

nova all the time.
Sent from my SM-N910T using XDA Free mobile app

As soon as I got all my apps installed, switched to Google Experience.

This is clearly a question - it belongs in Q&A, moved. Please post in the correct sections.
Thanks.

DutchDogg54 said:
This is clearly a question - it belongs in Q&A, moved. Please post in the correct sections.
Thanks.
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Looks like your work is cut out for ya today lol.

devynbf said:
As soon as I got all my apps installed, switched to Google Experience.
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That's the Google Now Launcher? I use a lot of different lauchers in my Note2 but Go Launcher is the one I have the most setup due to the extensive customizability-gestures-3D effects but it wasn't as impressive when I quickly installed in on a Note4 in Best Buy perhaps because I hadn't customized it yet but I also like the Google Now Launcher & Nova & Themer.
I generally immediately get rid of TW but it wasn't as bad in the Note4 but still not ultra smooth or interesting as the other lauchers. I really like the ability to change launchers which is another reason Android is & the next time I play with a Note4 I'll go through more launchers as it could definitely look cooler & be more functional.:good:

I switched to Nova Launcher beta instantly. TouchWiz isn't bad, but I can't stand the grid spacing as I like to keep a few widgets and apps on my main home screen.

I've already switched to Nova, phone should be here Friday. ??

DruHill said:
I switched to Nova Launcher beta instantly. TouchWiz isn't bad, but I can't stand the grid spacing as I like to keep a few widgets and apps on my main home screen.
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Agree grid of icons gets old fast like lame iOS & I also try to keep icons to a minimum (Go Launcher lets you program 5 base hideable icons to launch additional apps with gestures like swipe up as well as scroll swipe across to another 5 icons & another 5 icons (5x3=15 x 2 including the programmable gestures upon a long press menu = 30 apps-shortcuts-functions) & I use a lot of widgets so I don't even have to click icons to access some data. I don't think non-Prime Nova lets you customize as much as Go Launcher but there are more & more cool launchers being developed & still setting up other launchers I previously mentioned.

Switched to Nova pretty much immediately. As mentioned above I can't stand the spacing between icons. Also I need gesture support, especially with such a large phone. Why that still hasn't been built into the touchwiz launcher I'll never know.

First thing I did was install the ADW launcher. I've been a fan for a long time.