• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

PandaHome versus GDE? Or Alternative Home Replacement?

What is the best Home replacement for Droid?


  • Total voters
    143
I played around with both Home ++ and Panda again. Having the multiple side bars intrigued me - right until it FCd.

Home++ didn't FC, but it *did* lock up on me to the point where I had to go back to my original home screen - and this was after I had removed everything on my original home screen too, and not installed SportsTap....

Home++ just does not seem to play nicely with widgets that like to update themselves a lot.

I don't have time to play with pay for apps right now, and since GC won't let me use AE for foreign currencies, that leaves out a lot of apps anyway.
 
Upvote 0
a small bit of advice I picked up on another thread is to get rid of your widgets before trying a new home app. The other thread points out that you may have two copies of the widget running. I have had problems with all the home apps and finally gave up on them. Panda was the most stable but had random problems. I am now going to start the testing over and remove widgets first and see what results I get.
 
Upvote 0
Great thread! I keep coming back to GDE as #1 and PandaHome as #2. It's interesting that my findings aren't necessarily consistent with others. For example, if I had to choose, I'd say that PH is more stable, at least on my Droid, than GDE. I am experiencing way too many FC's with GDE (maybe 6-8 hourly?), and it's quite laggy to transition between home pages using the cube... again, at least for me.

One thing I really like about GDE that I don't think I've seen mentioned is the ability to flip between a page full of icons and a verfically scrolling list of apps, just by touching the upper-right corner of the apps drawer. Personally, when there are a lot of apps, I find it much quicker to find what I'm looking for via the scrolling list vs. eyeballing through all those icons (it works like Contacts, including an alphabetic slider on the right side).

One downside to GDE (and probably other non-native home apps) is that you can't use them in conjunction with nice tools like Better Cut or Apps Organizer. I'd love to change icons and labels for app shortcuts in GDE, as I used to do easily with Better Cut.
 
Upvote 0
Great thread! I keep coming back to GDE as #1 and PandaHome as #2. It's interesting that my findings aren't necessarily consistent with others. For example, if I had to choose, I'd say that PH is more stable, at least on my Droid, than GDE. I am experiencing way too many FC's with GDE (maybe 6-8 hourly?), and it's quite laggy to transition between home pages using the cube... again, at least for me.

One thing I really like about GDE that I don't think I've seen mentioned is the ability to flip between a page full of icons and a verfically scrolling list of apps, just by touching the upper-right corner of the apps drawer. Personally, when there are a lot of apps, I find it much quicker to find what I'm looking for via the scrolling list vs. eyeballing through all those icons (it works like Contacts, including an alphabetic slider on the right side).

One downside to GDE (and probably other non-native home apps) is that you can't use them in conjunction with nice tools like Better Cut or Apps Organizer. I'd love to change icons and labels for app shortcuts in GDE, as I used to do easily with Better Cut.
Hmm... I'm using GDE with Apps Organizer without any problems.
 
Upvote 0
One downside to GDE (and probably other non-native home apps) is that you can't use them in conjunction with nice tools like Better Cut or Apps Organizer. I'd love to change icons and labels for app shortcuts in GDE, as I used to do easily with Better Cut.

I'm using Apps Organizer with Panda with no troubles. I have set up live folders within their own side drawer--it's a powerful combination IMO.
 
Upvote 0
i contacted the home++ dev and got some probelms fixed, two updates later and it works 100% for me even on 2.0.1
chart.png

here is the qr, try it out. its free, nothing to lose.
 
Upvote 0
I too had trouble with Home++ and wound up pinpointing it to the SportsTap widget.

It's a shame because it's a great widget. Is that something Home++ dev could fix or would it be up to ST?

I haven't noticed any issues with the widget. I will admit it's a great app, but I don't really need it.

I have had issues with the Weather Widget Free though. It only seems to work with the zip and not off of GPS.
 
Upvote 0
One downside to GDE (and probably other non-native home apps) is that you can't use them in conjunction with nice tools like Better Cut or Apps Organizer. I'd love to change icons and labels for app shortcuts in GDE, as I used to do easily with Better Cut.
My apologies; I stand corrected. It does seem that Apps Organizer is compatible with most shell replacements. Unfortunately, Better Cut is not with the exception of Open Home -- if OH is installed first, Better Cut sees it and asks which shell it should work with. No joy with GDE, however, which is what I'm currently using.

I've spent a lot (too much!) time with GDE, Panda, Open Home, Home++, and DxTop... and agree with the other poster who concluded that none are a clear winner. The ideal would combine features of all five, plus some kind of toolkit to easily create new widgets and extensions. I know it's probably heresy to say this, but shell extensibility is onr thing MS got right in the new WM 6.5 Titanium interface. People have built all kinds of slick new Titanium panels (applets), skins, and themes. I suspect, though, that dev options under Android are hugely limited without root access which isn't an issue in WM. Kinda ironic with Android being open source, isn't it? :)
 
Upvote 0
I have a rooted G1 running cyanogen 4.2.7 with apps2SD and Cache2SD and I can tell you that even though my phone runs faster generally speaking, I have yet to see any home alternative run lag free on Android, stock or root. I've used AHome, Open Home, Dxtop, freshface and GDE. GDE is what I'm currently using now and what started as bliss, quickly turned into a headache after the latest update.

GDE DOES lag and there are times when the app will freeze at a black screen for anywhere from 20 seconds to up to 5 minutes (the longest I waited before restarting the phone) It was a disgrace. I like the app dock and the conversation widget alot but I need stability. I'm giving GDE another day or two to see what's what. I believe the conversation widget was causing serious problems on my phone but I can't confirm this. That would be a shame as I believe that widget is one of the best for Android.

OpenHome is okay but I haven't run it in a while. Ahome is the same, when I ran those I was comparing them to DXtop at the time and DXtop was hands down the clear winner. I've run DXtop for months until the constant vanishing desktop icons annoyed me to no end. FreshFace was ok but horribly unstable and laggy. But I did like the ability to use custom backgrounds and icon packs and save your setup as a custom theme.

I really want to like GDE and use it as my default home app but hearing of Droid users having the same lag and instability problems of G1/MT3g/Eris/Hero/Moment users is disheartening. The lag and bug issues are starting to make me doubt android in general. I can understand some lag due to the crap Qualcomm CPU that many of us are running but a lot of these apps crash far too often. I'm starting to feel ripped off.
 
Upvote 0
as my post above stated, i had zero issues with GDE until the GDE update yesterday. Since then i have had 3 FC's, and multiple issues. It randomly changed my transition to fade, even though it was STILL set on normal, changed to cube to test and it used strech. Took 3 trys on "normal" to get it back. Tons of lag when i hit the home button, blank screen for up to 1 minute. Really dissapointed b/c i have been using this since the first week, and have become quite accostomed to it, but if these issues persist i might have to try out DX.
 
Upvote 0
Is GDE available for Android 2.0? I have the Moto Droid and can't seem to find the correct application to download to try GDE. I have PandaHome, love it and yes I also wish there were more themes, especially somewhat girly or feminine themes. I don't think all the other alternative home applications work on Android 2.0 either, any suggestions or comments??? :eek:
 
Upvote 0
Is GDE available for Android 2.0? I have the Moto Droid and can't seem to find the correct application to download to try GDE. I have PandaHome, love it and yes I also wish there were more themes, especially somewhat girly or feminine themes. I don't think all the other alternative home applications work on Android 2.0 either, any suggestions or comments??? :eek:


I don't see why not. Go into market and look for GDE -The New Home Experience. or just search for GDE and scroll through the GDE themes until you come to the actual app.
 
Upvote 0
Home++ has 4 screens

Home++ can have between 3 and 7 screens

Decided to try Home++...I would rather it not wrap (or at least give me an option)

There is a preference to disable the looping. That setting, along with the screen number, is in 'Screen preferences'.

I've only been using Home++ for the last few days but haven't had many issues. I think once FC although the only widget I am currently using is Beautiful Home.
 
Upvote 0
Pandahome Review:

Pros:
Customization and organization
Up to 11 screens
2 vertical scrolling side docks with the capability to hold many apps
A wide range of settings like changing dock transparency color etc
Customization and organization
Will make some of ur apps obselete bc this has so many features incorporated in it (i.e. no need for quick uninstaller anymore thanks to the app wheel)
Has themes
Very innovative app wheel that comes up when push and holding down an app icon on the homescreen that allows u to uninstall app, delete icon, check app info and icon settings
Did I mention? CUSTOMIZATION AND ORGANIZATION!!!

Cons:
Frequent freezes/force closes/ shut downs etc (but comes back very quickly)
Is not compatible with certain tasking/operational apps (I had freezing issues resolved when I removed Adv task killer but according to many posts/articles that app isnt really worth it anyways)
Makes some apps obselete that you may not want to part with
Does not look good or work well in landscape mode (esp the vertical scrolling side docks)






I've been a heavy user of Pandahome since I downloaded it a few hours ago. And I absolutely fell in love with it, however the only flaw is that........it freezes/force closes/ stops working/etc waaay too often. Now its not like every 2 min. However, it seems to happen when ur editing, especially when you have 11 home screens like I do. Otherwise, widgets work great, I love the two side vertical docks as well as multiple pages for apps. Its great not to have to scroll through the apps. It also takes a while to come OUT of landscape mode tho it goes into it very easily. Nonetheless, it doesnt look so good in landscape mode anyways and the vert scroll side docks so its best to jus chose the option to restrict panda to portrait. If your really into customization than this is for you. You can organize all urs apps and programs that way YOU want to...alphabetically by page or categorically by folder or color coded by using side docks...the possibilities are endless. The main drawback is freezing up and i'll be honest, this happens not every two min but at least twice every hour, however, the android interface is nice enough where it brings u back to your main home page, all ur settings and changes in tact and you pick up from where you left off. It might cause a 2-5 second hiccup at most. Sometimes resetting the droid works for constant force closing, but other than that its not too bad to deal with considering all the customization and organization options it gives you. Now if GDE had 11 pages and side docks, then I may have to consider switching but I believe it only goes up to 7 pages and no support for folders (correct if Im wrong).

As you read in the Cons section I did notice some increased freezing issues with certain apps, esp tasking or operational apps (apps taht help customize interface), i.e. Task killer but once these apps are removed, it works great. So you may have to do some trial and error and really find Pandahome's sweet spot.

Also, Pandahome appwheel is great and with so many app options, home options, etc it really helps you do away with little apps that focus on one feature since Pandahome really has it all.

Anyways, after trying Home++ and Pandahome, I'd give Pandahome 9 stars out of 10. If you're the kind of person who absolutely hates freezing issues (aka snotty former Iphone users (JK JK im only kidding I love the Iphone/itouch) again just kidding no hard feelings please) then this app will probably drive you nuts. I used to be in teh camp of having everything run perfect as the Iphone and when I had Iphone apps fail on me, I felt like calling an Army of Orcs from mordor and crushing the the device, but coolheadedness (is that even a word?) prevailed.
 
Upvote 0
If you haven't already done so, I'd suggest doing a soft reset of your phone. I have been using PandaHome for weeks and it *never* force closes on my Droid. Otherwise, it could be one of the widgets that you're running I suppose. I'm running Beautiful Widgets (the whole package plus add ins) and three Google Finance Widgets.

I have not had any issues whatsoever with Panda.
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones