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What's your favorite launcher

G

gdiddy

Android Enthusiast
I like Touchwiz.
I want to like Nova and Apex but I just don't get what's so great about them.

Are there other launchers (outside of Buzz) that you like on Samsung Galaxy S4?

Thanks.
 
gdiddy said:
I want to like Nova and Apex but I just don't get what's so great about them.
Click to expand...

I use Nova on my SGS3. The features I like most is that I can remove the dock and I can increase the number of rows on home screens.

I find the app dock that never changes to be not useful. When I swipe sideways to other home screens, I actually mean to find apps and widgets that are not already on that original home screen. I just don't see the point of having a few apps remain on every single home screen.

The SGS3 has a fairly good size screen. I like to make the best use of the screen real estate as possible. I configure my home screens to be 6 rows high. Having more space on each home screen allows me to cut down the number of home screens I have. I use 5 home screens. If I only used TW, I would probably need 7.
 
I'm using Apex at the moment just to check it out. I downloaded some wallpaper apps that gave me excellent images for my desktops and lock screen although the apps data mine.

I like having a recent apps soft button. I don't know if I could have found one in the phones native launcher.

I'm thinking of trying a different one, I can't remember exactly the name though.
 
I'm still happily using Touchwiz.

I've downloaded and played with both Apex and Nova but haven't found any real need to keep them. Plus I love and heavily use the S Planner widget which isn't available in either Nova or Apex, and neither let me create folders in the app drawer (at least not in the free versions).

On my old HTC Desire I used Go Launcher just so I could get rid of the horrible Sense dock, but the Touchwiz dock, while not being the prettiest, does the job for me.
 
I use Apex on both of my devices. I love being able to set the number of home screens (TW, to its credit, allowed me to do that) and remove the dock, as well as overlapping widgets and customizable grids.
 
dibblebill said:
I use Apex on both of my devices. I love being able to set the number of home screens (TW, to its credit, allowed me to do that) and remove the dock, as well as overlapping widgets and customizable grids.
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Yes, I thought the dock could be removed with Apex but I wasn't sure because I didn't want to do that. I'm still slowly playing with it.
 
I'm not completely sure Apex has been continuously running because I haven't made any saves on my changes (except for wallpaper). I don't really like the icons the way they are, whether they're from the LG interface or Apex I'm not sure.
 
By default, Apex uses mostly stock icons and doesn't change anything. You can download icon packs on the Play Store for it.
 
After years of using Go Launcher, I went with Nova on my GS4 and love it and am installing it on all my devices. I like how quick it is and of course the ability to create folders and tabs like most launchers could now. I felt Go Launcher was slower and the ads drove me nuts. The immovable dock in TouchWiz and also I don't think you can create folders in TouchWiz can you - those killed it for me for TouchWiz.
 
Nova Prime. Some of the rom developers are even bundling in the basic version. Imo its the best balance of speed and features. PLUS, easy to set up because it can import your current touchwiz homescreen setup :)
 
KupKrazy said:
After years of using Go Launcher, I went with Nova on my GS4 and love it and am installing it on all my devices. I like how quick it is and of course the ability to create folders and tabs like most launchers could now. I felt Go Launcher was slower and the ads drove me nuts. The immovable dock in TouchWiz and also I don't think you can create folders in TouchWiz can you - those killed it for me for TouchWiz.
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TW on my Victory had beautiful folders.
 
Anyone into MIUI? There's a Chinese phone I'm drooling over, the XiaoMi M2 (& M2s) by the creators of the MIUI ROM. It's can still be bought from China but I can only find listings for it in black and, sadly, it's only 3g, and since I'd be getting a phone to use on an ATT mvno, I really want one that's LTE. Still, there's just something so cool about that m2.
 
I also find a static dock annoying. So I use a rotating one, with a few "key apps" in one pane (phone, sms, email and calendar) and folders in two others (all 3 have an app drawer). Both Nova and Apex support this feature.
 
Nova Launcher Prime hands down. Uses MissedIt! for badge notifications, gesture support to open apps or shortcuts or whatever. Doube action icons (tap to open app, then you can set a swipe action), as many columns and rows you want, scrollable dock with ability to hide it with a gesture, so awesome. :)
 
Hadron said:
I also find a static dock annoying. So I use a rotating one, with a few "key apps" in one pane (phone, sms, email and calendar) and folders in two others (all 3 have an app drawer). Both Nova and Apex support this feature.
Click to expand...

I do same and with a gesture action on each so camera/gallery, app drawer/play storet etc :)
 
mrsmumbles said:
Anyone into MIUI? There's a Chinese phone I'm drooling over, the XiaoMi M2 (& M2s) by the creators of the MIUI ROM. It's can still be bought from China but I can only find listings for it in black and, sadly, it's only 3g, and since I'd be getting a phone to use on an ATT mvno, I really want one that's LTE. Still, there's just something so cool about that m2.
Click to expand...

There's not really much LTE here in China yet, it's being rolled out now in a few larger cities but it's not compatible with the US flavour of LTE AFAIK. Most likely to avoid having to pay patent royalties and licensing.

Will probably be something to look out for soon, people buying Chinese LTE phones from Ebay or whatever and finding they don't work with LTE Stateside.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TD-LTE
 
mikedt said:
There's not really much LTE here in China yet, it's being rolled out now in a few larger cities but it's not compatible with the US flavour of LTE AFAIK. Most likely to avoid having to pay patent royalties and licensing.

Will probably be something to look out for soon, people buying Chinese LTE phones from Ebay or whatever and finding they don't work with LTE Stateside.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TD-LTE
Click to expand...

Good to know, thanks. I still love that Xiaomi M2. I wish there were some in stores here. It's only online in small quantities. It would be a great phone for Boost Mobile!
 
EarlyMon said:
Like MIUI?

Check out "MiHome Launcher"

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.miui.mihome2

Start there, add MiLocker if you like and theme away.
Click to expand...

It's soooo gorgeous! Even though the text is in Chinese you can still tell what most of the icons are for. The only thing I don't care for are the uniformly square button appearance of the icons but in the phone I think that can be changed and maybe in the launcher too. I love it.
 
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