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Third party launcher performance

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pm1066

Android Enthusiast
I stuck with Blur the first week. I briefly tried Go Launcher, but found it laggy compared to Blur. I uninstalled it, then reinstalled it, and it seemed snappy, but is getting laggy again. I've also noticed with Go Launcher installed, the screen rotation flat out doesn't work at times--mostly getting stuck in landscape. Not just on the home screens, but even inside apps. I literally have to turn the phone upside down to get it to respond again. I think I'm ditching Go and going to give LPP a try.

So, anyone else have good/bad experiences with third party launchers?
 
pm1066 said:
I stuck with Blur the first week. I briefly tried Go Launcher, but found it laggy compared to Blur. I uninstalled it, then reinstalled it, and it seemed snappy, but is getting laggy again. I've also noticed with Go Launcher installed, the screen rotation flat out doesn't work at times--mostly getting stuck in landscape. Not just on the home screens, but even inside apps. I literally have to turn the phone upside down to get it to respond again. I think I'm ditching Go and going to give LPP a try.

So, anyone else have good/bad experiences with third party launchers?
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I prefer ADW EX. It seems faster and smoother to me than LP or GO.
 
Using Launcher Pro here. Sad the OEM versions have to be hogs. Sense on the Rezound seems even more so.

Sense on the Flyer seems fine.
 
argent7 said:
Launcher pro is always a winner. If you like Windows- this is cool https://market.android.com/details?id=info.tikuwarez.launcher3&hl=en

Question---- I'm having problems with getting Home Switcher to work with the Razr-- Anyone having that problem?
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LPP runs very smoothly on my Razr. Stock launcher is quite slow by comparison. No problem with Home Switcher.

Rooted: Droid Incredible / Droid X / Thunderbolt / Droid Razr (waiting for SBF to root) / VZW 4G Xoom / Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE
 
argent7 said:
Launcher pro is always a winner. If you like Windows- this is cool https://market.android.com/details?id=info.tikuwarez.launcher3&hl=en

Question---- I'm having problems with getting Home Switcher to work with the Razr-- Anyone having that problem?
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I installed home switcher, because my default wallpaper changed, so I had a different wallpaper on the lock screen and my GO home screen. I could get home switcher to take me back to my default home screen, but it force closed when I tried to do anything significant with it. I also noticed on my old Droid X that home switcher wasn't very consistent.

I initially installed LPP because I love the calendar widget, but it's been so long since Fede has done any updating, the launcher is starting to feel a bit "stale" to me. My biggest problem is with the app drawer being one long scrolling list. I love the fact that the new blur allows you to hide the bloatware.

I am currently using GO with their GO Calendar, and while the calendar is not as "pretty" as LPP theming, it still does what I like it to do. I've found the combination of GO Launcher with Wave Launcher and a few Circle Launcher widgets works perfectly for me, and I only use 2 home screens (one for my apps and one for my calendar widget).
 
Using GO with no issues here. Been running since day 1 and haven't seen any lag or rotation issues. Also am using Home Manager which seems to work well and no FC's like I had experienced with Home Switcher in the past.
 
Razr being my first upgrade from the D1... I had heard lots of bad news about MotoBlur.
Got to be frank... I love it. The performance is snappy, never lags, the email ap is a huge improvement... Honestly, Being rooted for more than half of the 2y I had D1, none of the ROM or alt Home I tried ever came close to this. Am I missing something? did the ROM community finally get their act together in the last 9 mo that I missed out on?

Just curious, because I almost started a new thread on the "I'm loving blur, what was all the hate for" subject.
 
tbcpn said:
LPP runs very smoothly on my Razr. Stock launcher is quite slow by comparison.
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Could you be more specific? The default home is ridiculously snappy, transitioning from screen to screen, or to the app drawer. I'm just not understanding what aspect of it is "quite slow".

Another issue I'm noticing with both LPP and Go, more with Go after it has run a few days, is the screen redraw. I'm catching both getting hung up, just enough to be noticeable. This is not something I've seen with the default launcher.

Just curious, because I almost started a new thread on the "I'm loving blur, what was all the hate for" subject.
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If you came from a 2.1 or even 2.2 Blur experience, what we have now on the Razr is equivalent to a cave man being woken up from a block of ice and seeing "giant metal birds in the sky" for the first time. Blur simply doesn't suck like it used to. I too have completely ditched K-9 for the stock e-mail, and there are other enhancements as well.

For those of you using Go, have you tried the transparency theme? It gives the widgets a pretty nice look, similar to the LPP widgets.
 
Main reason I like LP is more customization options than Blur. Nice to be able to put more icons per page and have less pages to scroll.
 
rushmore said:
Main reason I like LP is more customization options than Blur. Nice to be able to put more icons per page and have less pages to scroll.
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I was starting to really get used to blur until the lack of home screen rotation made me batty.
 
Is there anyway to change the look of the icons while still using blur launcher?

I like skinning my icons to look like stock ice cream sandwich but encounter problems with every other launcher......

1. With ADW EX it becomes way to laggy

2. With LP and Go Launcher i notice sometimes when i swipe between home screens it launches apps where my finger touches instead of swiping to the next page. Happens too often Very frustrating.:confused:
 
DukeL said:
Is there anyway to change the look of the icons while still using blur launcher?

I like skinning my icons to look like stock ice cream sandwich but encounter problems with every other launcher......

1. With ADW EX it becomes way to laggy

2. With LP and Go Launcher i notice sometimes when i swipe between home screens it launches apps where my finger touches instead of swiping to the next page. Happens too often Very frustrating.:confused:
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I haven't found a way with blur to do this. Where did you get the ICS icons?
 
I liked the stock launcher, but didn't care for the limit of 5 screens.

I found the Go Launcher EX to have many options for customization. And find it quite snappy. What really amazes me is the options for putting numerous apps into file groups, and the option of up to 30 screens.

I haven't found this launcher to be laggy at all.
 
Tried go launcher last night...really customizable (is that a word?) but I noticed more battery drain while sitting idle overnight. stock blur-8pm 100%-8am 90%..smart action has data disabled from 10-7...go launch 8pm-100%-8am 70%..same smart action set...does the stock blur become completely disabled when go is installed over top or do I need to do something else...battery life will keep me away from any aftermarket launcher regardless of smoothness (and go is smooth as silk), unless someone can tell me if there is something else I need to do.
 
IDEAL41 said:
Tried go launcher last night...really customizable (is that a word?) but I noticed more battery drain while sitting idle overnight. stock blur-8pm 100%-8am 90%..smart action has data disabled from 10-7...go launch 8pm-100%-8am 70%..same smart action set...does the stock blur become completely disabled when go is installed over top or do I need to do something else...battery life will keep me away from any aftermarket launcher regardless of smoothness (and go is smooth as silk), unless someone can tell me if there is something else I need to do.
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Make sure you remove everythibg from stock launcher before you switch to another one.
 
Szadzik said:
Make sure you remove everythibg from stock launcher before you switch to another one.
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what can be removed?....I don't see anything specific in the files for the launcher...widgets - ok but no large file that says blur or launcher or anything like that...can you point me in the right direction?
 
I am really loving Blur but I hate not having scrollable widgets. It makes me crazy on the Twitter widget (Android Pro Widgets). This is the ONLY reason I am wanting to go over to LPP or Go.

Does anyone know how to get scrollable widgets to work with Blur?
 
IDEAL41 said:
what can be removed?....I don't see anything specific in the files for the launcher...widgets - ok but no large file that says blur or launcher or anything like that...can you point me in the right direction?
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The idea is just clear all five of the blur screens, especially of widgets so they aren't running in the background.
 
If neither the Razr nor the Rezound work well with other launchers, then I'll stay with my DX2 which is working amazinginly well with Go Launcher. I normally like ADW ex, but it had gotten laggy on my DX2 so I recently switched to GO and man am I impressed with it overall.
 
Teegunn said:
If neither the Razr nor the Rezound work well with other launchers, then I'll stay with my DX2 which is working amazinginly well with Go Launcher. I normally like ADW ex, but it had gotten laggy on my DX2 so I recently switched to GO and man am I impressed with it overall.
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I don't think that is an accurate characterization at all. Looking at the posts above, I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion.

Putting it another way, blur used to be sucky sucky in terms of response on older Droids. Third party launchers were a great improvement in terms of responsiveness and customization.

The new version of blur on the Razr is absolutely lag free. It only lacks in a few areas, like screen numbers, customization, etc. Performance wise, new blur launcher rocks.

My original question was geared toward a level of performance you don't see on other phones. When I mention lag or redraws on the Razr, it is so minor some owners don't see it at all. I wouldn't give up on anything until you've actually tried it.
 
Always been a fan of GO but this time around been playing with SPB Shell 3D for something different. No complaints so far and love the text widget. Only side note is that it's a bit pricey.
 
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