Galaxy Tab S 10.5: Touchwiz alternatives

[dlb107]

I just purchased the Galaxy tab S 10.5 and it is my fist device with touchwiz. My last two phones have been stock android and I really like them. TouchWiz, however, is terrible. Anyone know good alternatives to get rid of the touchwiz lock screen, S voice always on mic (switch it to google now), and remove the magazine UI?

 

[Featherstone]

Everyone seems to like Nova launcher a whole lot. I had it on an old Samsung Epic 4G phone and I, too, liked it quite a lot. I haven't tried it on the Tab S 10.5 yet, but I probably will eventually, just for kicks. I also very much like Solo launcher, which I have on my G'Nexus 5 phone -- excellent customization options, change icon sets, lets you fully control the aesthetics of most everything, and has quite a lot of other nifty bits, and it's super smooth and fast fast fast, and it doesn't eat much battery or storage space; and it's free, and it's ad-free! But on the Tab S, for some reason, the Solo launcher is not ideal -- for one thing, it makes the icons in the apps drawer look too small. But it really is an excellent launcher, and I'd suggest you try it, and try Nova, and you'll probably like one or both of them a whole lot.

 

[bonerp]

using Nova now due to slightly laggy TW which has also been improved since a fw update last week. Chrome Beta is better than chrome definately.

I find if it gets a bit laggy a restart puts things back to good again. A restart every now and then benefits all android devices imho.

The case is excellent. Expensive, but really excellent and would recommend it over the usual ebay tosh. Thin, great magnets and even on your lap it works well.

 

[ocnbrze]

Just bought the tab s and I love it minus touch wiz.......just installed nova and all is good.

Been using nova for years so I can't complain so far.

 

[brownbag68]

I use Nova on the phone, but don't like it on the Tab S 10.5. It doesn't seem to use the whole screen properly. Anybody find a better launcher for this tab?

 

[nicholb]

I had that problem too, but if you turn on labs options and mess with the grid sizes, you can get Nova to fill the screen. For the desktop I use 7 by 16 with no margins. For the drawer I use 6 by 13 and have 12 icons on the dock. This looks good and uses the screen well.