Pros and Cons of the best Launchers

Crookedsoul · October 11th, 2012, 10:47 PM

I know there is alot of love for Go Launcher, Launcher Pro, and Nova. Would love to know which one you think is the best. What pros and cons you have of each. Looking to get on for my Galaxy s3 just unsure which one stands out as the best. Thanks for your help.

chanchan05 · October 12th, 2012, 10:02 AM

Go doesn't work well with ICS and beyond, so you can forget about it for the S3. On an ICS or JB device, choice of launcher would be between Apex and Nova. Nova should be a great product since its from the same makers as Widgetlocker, but it isn't good for my tablet because it forces the homescreens to landscape even with rotate turned on, so I went with Apex. It's smoother than stock Samsung TouchWiz and has more customization options like changing icons or display names on the apps.

Pookeysgirl · October 12th, 2012, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chanchan05

Go doesn't work well with ICS and beyond, so you can forget about it for the S3. On an ICS or JB device, choice of launcher would be between Apex and Nova. Nova should be a great product since its from the same makers as Widgetlocker, but it isn't good for my tablet because it forces the homescreens to landscape even with rotate turned on, so I went with Apex. It's smoother than stock Samsung TouchWiz and has more customization options like changing icons or display names on the apps.

What do you mean by Go not working well with ICS for the S3?

Jacksmyname · October 12th, 2012, 12:35 PM

Using Nova Prime on my Galaxy Tab 10.1.
All pros, no cons.

DragonSlayer95 · October 12th, 2012, 12:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pookeysgirl

What do you mean by Go not working well with ICS for the S3?

As far as on my evo 3d on ics, works flawlessly

Sent From My HTC Evo 3D Using TapaTalk 2

xxkid123 · October 13th, 2012, 12:11 AM

For ICS and JB I would go with Apex or Nova. Go works, but it's not really optimized for 4.x. Apex and Nova have the newer Holo look, and if you're rooted you can add widgets from drawer.

For GB it goes between adw free and go launcher HD. Launcher pro used to be an option, but it hasn't been updated in so long and has so few features compared to go that I wouldn't recommend it. I would go with ADW if you like the look of stock android, but want some more customization and Go Launcher HD if you want heavy customization.

chanchan05 · October 13th, 2012, 08:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pookeysgirl

What do you mean by Go not working well with ICS for the S3?

It doesn't run as smooth as Apex and Nova on ICS or JB. It appears that Go does not take advantage of project butter or the hardware graphics acceleration. Those two are actually the most probable reasons why Apex and Nova doesn't work for previous Android versions.

Adauth · October 13th, 2012, 07:33 PM

Tried most, always come back to Apex pro.

nickdalzell · October 20th, 2012, 11:54 PM

Go Launcher Pros:

Great selection of widgets to use with it, nice ICS-styled dock, customizable docks, app badge features (nice if you use both Android and iOS), lock screen tweaking, themes

Cons:

HUGE storage and RAM footprint. on entry level devices, slim down on widgets and try being rooted and moving things around and tweaking the CPU and RAM. adjusting transitions to 'smooth' speed, and turning off wallpaper scrolling helps, but not perfect

So far, Go Launcher is my de-facto launcher as of yet. i find it best to keep the CPU clock turned up to max, or if you got overclocking options, slightly overclocked (keep an eye on temp). on my ZTE Merit, it is happiest at 600MHz or above. disabled i/o scheduler, disabled governer

wickets · October 21st, 2012, 01:02 PM

Glad you asked this question as Im having the same....I just bought nova and apex, and even though around the www nova gets more luv (even if just by a hair) apex seems to be more nongeek friendly. I keep switching between the two (thank goodness for backup and restore lol)........off topic, playing with different themes and icons is effing addicitive

kopkiwi · October 21st, 2012, 05:03 PM

Have tried just about all launcher. Nova Prime is the best. Go the worst, it's laggy, slow just a general pain. SPB Shell 3D is the coolest, but expensive and limited. Once they get the ability to customize loaded in there and reduce it's footprint it will be a killer.

chanchan05 · October 22nd, 2012, 12:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wickets

Glad you asked this question as Im having the same....I just bought nova and apex, and even though around the www nova gets more luv (even if just by a hair) apex seems to be more nongeek friendly. I keep switching between the two (thank goodness for backup and restore lol)........off topic, playing with different themes and icons is effing addicitive

Apex is better suited for tablets actually. On a tablet, Nova forces you to use a phone-like UI, while Apex has a tablet mode.

stealthychief · October 22nd, 2012, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kopkiwi

Have tried just about all launcher. Nova Prime is the best. Go the worst, it's laggy, slow just a general pain. SPB Shell 3D is the coolest, but expensive and limited. Once they get the ability to customize loaded in there and reduce it's footprint it will be a killer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chanchan05

Apex is better suited for tablets actually. On a tablet, Nova forces you to use a phone-like UI, while Apex has a tablet mode.

I agree with both of you guys. I think you can't go wrong with either Apex or Nova. Just stay away from GO as they have lost all sense of what their users want and continue to just bloat it up.

Jaykar · October 22nd, 2012, 12:26 PM

Thanks for the info I had Go on my SGSIII and just decided to try nova prime i like so far but i am gonna miss go calendar widget

RichSz · October 22nd, 2012, 02:05 PM

I prefer Nova for both my phone and tablet. Haven't had the problem about being forced to landscape, never heard of it before. I find Nova to be smooth and nicely featured. Tried Apex and it wasn't bad at all, just never grabbed me. I guess I'm simply more comfortable with Nova.

Crookedsoul · October 22nd, 2012, 03:46 PM

I decided to go with Nova Prime, and have been pleased. I have not tried Apex yet, but it does not seem like there are many differences between the twon. Thanks for the info.

Natalieann75 · October 23rd, 2012, 03:46 AM

This is a handy thread. I've had my Note 2 for a couple of weeks and was (for once) thrilled with TouchWiz. Finally more customisable and the folders are very cool. However I just can't get past the inability to hide the notification bar and I'm getting some force closes so trying to decide on a replacement launcher. I've used just about all of them aside from Nova so maybe that should be the one I try from the sounds of your posts.

I have GO on at the moment but for some reason none of my paid downloaded themes are appearing in the theme manager

This happened on my Galaxy Nexus but I was able to locate the files using Super Manager and reinstall the apk so it picked them up... but I can't find them for the life of me now. Anyone know where I can find them just out of interest?

TSF Shell is cool but it's a bit gimmicky. And I would stick with SPB Shell if they would make it a little more customisable....

Jacksmyname · October 23rd, 2012, 03:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wickets

off topic, playing with different themes and icons is effing addicitive

Oh man, ain't that the truth.
I've spent countless hours browsing themes on the Store, and trying them on my tab.

Jacksmyname · October 23rd, 2012, 03:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chanchan05

Apex is better suited for tablets actually. On a tablet, Nova forces you to use a phone-like UI, while Apex has a tablet mode.

I use Nova on my tablet, in landscape mode with no problems.
Nova is perfect for tablets.

chanchan05 · October 26th, 2012, 06:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jacksmyname

I use Nova on my tablet, in landscape mode with no problems.
Nova is perfect for tablets.

Nope its not "perfect". It forces you to use a dock with the app drawer icon and other shortcuts or whatever beside it, just like a phone. I like the normal tablet layout better, with the app drawer on the upper right corner and the search on the upper left and all that.

Maybe its just me not really used to using the phone UI on a tablet, since I've very much used to the old Honeycomb layout. Its kinda weird.