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Launcher recommendations?

lunameow

lunameow

Well-Known Member
I know, I know. "Try them and see what you like best." But I want to hear from the forum.

Things to bear in mind: I'm not a heavy widget user, and I'm running on a slightly older model that I haven't worked up the nerve to root yet. I'm big on customization, and the more options I have, the happier I am.

Currently using PandaHome for theme management (I'm a sucker for anything with "panda" in the name, so it was the first one I tried). But I see the posts on the "post your home screen" threads, and mine looks so... blah.
 
lunatic59 said:
Launcher Pro will give you a bit more options for visual customization over ADW.Launcher but I prefer ADW on my Nexus for the specific features it offers.
Click to expand...

This is the sort of answer I was looking for... why one is "better" than another. I'll take a look at ADW, but if Launcher Pro has more visual customization, it's probably going to be more my style.
 
lunameow said:
This is the sort of answer I was looking for... why one is "better" than another. I'll take a look at ADW, but if Launcher Pro has more visual customization, it's probably going to be more my style.
Click to expand...

Eye candy ....ommNomNomNomNom. ;)
 
Launcher Pro / Launcher Pro Plus are worth a look, couple it with the Launcher Pro Icons and a good wallpaper app like Zedge you can get some pretty decent base looks. It has plenty of options and does not use themes so you can mix and match dock backgrounds and icons (You can use Launcher Pro Icons to get these.), then the rest are up to what widgets and background you decide to use.
 
Mortus said:
Launcher Pro / Launcher Pro Plus are worth a look, couple it with the Launcher Pro Icons and a good wallpaper app like Zedge you can get some pretty decent base looks. It has plenty of options and does not use themes so you can mix and match dock backgrounds and icons (You can use Launcher Pro Icons to get these.), then the rest are up to what widgets and background you decide to use.
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Now, when you say Launcher Pro Icons, are you referring to the paid app on the Market? No problems paying for apps, but with only 15 minutes to test them out, I want to make sure that's the one you're referring to. (Happy to pay to "test" on a good recommendation.)

And yah, trying Launcher Pro out now. Liking it so far, love that I can still use my WoW fox wallpaper without having to mess around resetting it anytime I make a change.
 
I mainly use LauncherPro Plus so I'm a bit bias towards it, but I did try ADW Launcher EX for a few hours and ended up going back to LPP. The major differences for me were the following:

ADW EX better than LPP:
- Able to change all icons on the homescreens without using other apps (LPP only can change dock)
- A lot more custom animations/focused on the visual aspects of the launcher.
- Locking the entire screen to prevent accidental long-press changes. Small, but nice touch.


LPP better than ADW EX:
- LPP Widgets! Main reason why I went back is because I use the Calendar and Bookmark widget and I don't want to download a 3rd party one.
- Dock swiping. It is so very useful.
- Able to overlap widgets to make very unique homescreens. Second main reason why I went back because I couldn't emulate my LPP homescreen setup on ADW.

A lot of people say that ADW EX is a lot faster than LPP, but I don't think that's really the case. ADW has very quick animations which make it seem like the entire launcher is quicker, but I think LPP is just as fast, except the animations aren't on crack to simulate the effect.
 
If you're looking for customization, I'd recommend ADW. Just type "ADW" into the Market and see all the themes that show up. They plug right into the launcher, which is awfully convenient if you get bored easily with a given look.

lunameow said:
Now, when you say Launcher Pro Icons, are you referring to the paid app on the Market? No problems paying for apps, but with only 15 minutes to test them out, I want to make sure that's the one you're referring to. (Happy to pay to "test" on a good recommendation.)

And yah, trying Launcher Pro out now. Liking it so far, love that I can still use my WoW fox wallpaper without having to mess around resetting it anytime I make a change.
Click to expand...
 
RyanB said:
If you're looking for customization, I'd recommend ADW. Just type "ADW" into the Market and see all the themes that show up. They plug right into the launcher, which is awfully convenient if you get bored easily with a given look.
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This. The themes you can download don't even have to be used as a whole either. I have a red/black theme on my DX running ADW, but I didn't like some of the icons that were included, so i installed another red theme that had some icons I liked, and then just changed the icons from the one theme to the icons from the other theme. And some of the icons didn't have anything in the theme, so I just searched for "red camera icon", for example, on Google Images, found one I liked, downloaded it, and used it for my icon. I've tried both LP and ADW, and I like ADW better. Easier to customize the way I want it, and LP force closed on me 3-4 times a day if I had autorotate enabled, couldn't handle that. ADW has been nothing but good for me. And I haven't even tried the new ADW EX yet!
 
lunameow said:
Now, when you say Launcher Pro Icons, are you referring to the paid app on the Market? No problems paying for apps, but with only 15 minutes to test them out, I want to make sure that's the one you're referring to. (Happy to pay to "test" on a good recommendation.)

And yah, trying Launcher Pro out now. Liking it so far, love that I can still use my WoW fox wallpaper without having to mess around resetting it anytime I make a change.
Click to expand...

Yes, that is indeed the one. You can also go to the LauncherPro Icons website and scan the QR codes for the dock Icons you want for free, the App I just find far more convenient. However one thing about the LauncherPro Icons app it's self I don't like is that choosing the style/color of icons to browse is currently not that intuitive, you have to press the menu button and select Icon Color to choose the style/color to browse.

Below is a screenshot of my main home screen in it current configuration. It's a work in progress as I am picky about my aesthetic.

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ADW doesn't sound a whole lot different than PandaHome. With that one, I could switch icons on everything, change the entire theme at once, and change wallpaper/icons to suit my tastes. I suspect it really isn't much different, just better themes being ready-made for it.

Having messed around with Launcher Pro Plus (yep, I upgraded already... seemed silly not to, for just $3), I'm loving the dock bar and the ability to change widget sizes. I've always kept my PC desktop to a bare minimum on icons because, hey, what's the point of having awesome wallpaper if you're covering it up? With the dock bar, I can actually see my wallpaper and still have quick access to anything I use on a regular basis. I can definitely see the downside of having to individually change every icon if I want to change the overall look, though. I gave up my WoW fox wallpaper in favor of a sleeker pink/purple setup (pink and purple do not match orange foxes), and I'm considering changing to an orange set and putting the wallpaper back, but... yah. That'll be a bit of a pain. Especially if I end up not liking it.

Anyhow, thanks very much for the suggestions. As mentioned, I tend to test things for hours at a time, and "try them all" would have been just a tiny bit time-consuming. :P
 
ADW EX has more eye candy then Launcher Pro, but it slows my MT4G down so I had to uninstall it. Launcher Pro runs much better on my phone, but that could be the number of widgets I have running.
 
ADW EX is very customizable, very crisp, very fast. Every day I start off with ADW EX in an attempt to sell myself on it. However there are two things is one thing that holds me back and I return to LPP by the end of the day.

The dockbar in LPP is simply too useful to me, and when I don't have it I miss it too much.

[edit]Removed second item as I found a solution so simple I could kick myself.
 
Enhanced said:
I mainly use LauncherPro Plus so I'm a bit bias towards it, but I did try ADW Launcher EX for a few hours and ended up going back to LPP. The major differences for me were the following:

ADW EX better than LPP:
- Able to change all icons on the homescreens without using other apps (LPP only can change dock)
Click to expand...

I have to say this is not true. When you add a shortcut on LPP you get a screen where you can change the name on the shortcut and also you can press the icon and change it there.

I am going to buy ADW EX and test it as it seems a lot of people praise it a lot. I have been using LPP for some time now and will see how I like ADW EX.
 
I am trying ADW EX and a few things I have noticed.

1. Scrolling is a teeny tiny bit smoother than LPP.
2. No resizable widgets sucks.
3. Dropping things onto the dock is horribly bad and it is difficult to see if the icon is actually being dropped onto the dock or put into the bin.
4. The icon/ widget long-press menu is nice but not very useful.
5. I do not like the screen scrolling effects - useless.
6. App drawer is ok, but nothing great.
7. Not too many options compared to LPP.
8. No built-in widgets.

In conclusion - I am staying with LPP.
 
Szadzik said:
I am trying ADW EX and a few things I have noticed.

1. Scrolling is a teeny tiny bit smoother than LPP.
2. No resizable widgets sucks.
3. Dropping things onto the dick is horribly bad and it is difficult to see if the icon is actually being dropped onto the dock or put into the bin.
4. The icon/ widget long-press menu is nice but not very useful.
5. I do not like the screen scrolling effects - useless.
6. App drawer is ok, but nothing great.
7. Not too many options compared to LPP.
8. No built-in widgets.

In conclusion - I am staying with LPP.
Click to expand...

Longpress on a widget, select Edit, and you can resize it.

The app drawer is much more versatile than LPP's. The cataloging alone removes any need for apps like App-Organizer etc. The drag and drop from the drawer is extremely useful as well.
 
I've tried the free versions of both LP and ADW but they seem to crash my Samsung Galaxy S. It hardly crashes with Zeam, which is billed as a light-weight launcher because it has fewer customisation features. I know this is not what you're looking for, but just in case somebody wonders how they compare... :)
 
DenverRalphy said:
Longpress on a widget, select Edit, and you can resize it.

The app drawer is much more versatile than LPP's. The cataloging alone removes any need for apps like App-Organizer etc. The drag and drop from the drawer is extremely useful as well.
Click to expand...

Resizing - good point.
App drawer still requires more clicks if you set it up with catalogues than having App Organizer folders on the main screen. If I have to click for something more than once than it is already a waste of time.

Drag and drop from drawer is nothing new.

Checking ADW dock again I conclude that it is much inferior to the LPP one - LPP has great built-in icons, has customizable backgrounds, has 1-3 scrollable docks, has swipe actions.

I like the Lock Desktop feature and I hope Fede will get it in LPP too soon.
 
Szadzik said:
App drawer still requires more clicks if you set it up with catalogues than having App Organizer folders on the main screen. If I have to click for something more than once than it is already a waste of time.
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I thought that too, until I found that you can add a shortcut to the homescreen that goes directly to any Catalog you wish. Longpress on homescreen -> Launcher Actions -> Show Catalog, and select the desired catalog. Then all you need do is assign a custom icon to it if you wish. I uninstalled Apps Organizer the moment I found this, as it works much better.

Checking ADW dock again I conclude that it is much inferior to the LPP one - LPP has great built-in icons, has customizable backgrounds, has 1-3 scrollable docks, has swipe actions.
Click to expand...
I do miss the dock bar from LPP.
 
DenverRalphy said:
I thought that too, until I found that you can add a shortcut to the homescreen that goes directly to any Catalog you wish. Longpress on homescreen -> Launcher Actions -> Show Catalog. Then all you need do is assign a custom icon to it if you wish. I uninstalled Apps Organizer the moment I found this, as it works much better.

I do miss the dock bar from LPP.
Click to expand...

You can, but it will still be the app drawer with little to no customizations against Folder Organizer that I use and can set up the wai I want it.

I just found another problem with ADW. When you try to remove a shortcut from desktop you may accidentally put it on the dock and replace whatever you had there - total crap. When I move from Zeam to LPP I thought the LPP dock adding system was crap because you could not drag and drop items onto it, but now I think LPP's way of setting up the dock is muuuuch better.

A nice thing in ADW is that the dock does not disappear when you open the drawer. Thing is I never even touch the drawer because all the apps I use are set in folder on my main screen and are just one click away (or a swipe gesture for some)
 
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