TOP ANDROID LAUNCHERS

TOP ANDROID LAUNCHERS

ADW.Launcher

         

ADW Launcher is full of features, both eye candy and functions. So it's more of a heavyweight.

First, as you can see from the screenshot, it resembles the Froyo launcher a lot. If you are wondering about the monochrome shortcuts, that's because I specifically turned on the "tint mode", which just use the alpha mask, not the full color icon. I can turn the tint mode off. It is not as good as having real monochromatic icons, but it's close.

Second, you can see the "two dots" in the lower left and right corners. Those are Nexus One style scroll markers, indicating how many screens are there to each side. You can "click" on it to scroll that way, in addition to the drag/flick method. This can now be turned off in the latest version, so you get room for two MORE on-screen static shortcuts, for a total of four.

Third, ADWLauncher *does* support Live Wallpaper, with the option to turn the support OFF to improve speed and decrease battery and CPU drain.

Fourth, if you look at the App Drawer, you can see that this one uses the iHome / Samsung Galaxy style where the app drawer goes left/right instead of up/down. However, that is an OPTION. You can turn that feature off and get the old app drawer back. And it does the iPhone style zoom-in graphics flair.

Fifth, you can adjust the vertical and horizontal spacing of both portrait and landscape orientation, to squeeze in more icons and widgets if you wish. You can also turn on/off status bar, change the "screen previews" mode (Sense UI mode or plain mode).

There are many other features that this short review cannot cover. But the most impressive feature is speed... This launcher is pretty fast. In some cases the App Drawer is even faster than TagHome, but not all the time. It's probably due to some app info caching.

Problems? There are a few. First, the widget loading screen is VERY slow. Second, it is not that stable, though the latest version seem to have improved upon that.

The latest version supports themes, which are mainly color and minor icon variations. There are many themes in the AppMarket, many are free, but many cost money.

NOTE: ADW Launcher EX cost $3.30 and has even more drawer styles and desktop transitions and stuff.

Pros: a lot of various UI options, such as Nexus, Froyo, and Samsung improvements
Cons: speed not consistent, often slower than stock home
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Verdict: if you don't want app sorting, this should be THE one to try!

Download ADW.Launcher from Appbrain
Downlaod from play store :

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.adw.launcher&hl=en 

Custom Launcher Icons

Launcher Pro has spawned a cottage industry where people make icons for apps that were not covered by default set of icons (only a dozen or so). A paid app has been made available in Android market that allows you to locate icons for your specific app and/or request icon made for an app that's not covered thus far.

Keep in mind that you *can* obtain the icons from their website for free. You just have to set them YOURSELF, one at a time. The app takes care of all that. 

LauncherPro : 

LauncherPro probably gets a "most improved" award for having MASSIVE changes. The current version bears no resemblance to the beta I tried and thus this review is written from scratch.

LauncherPro's main strength is speed. It is fast. And it supports up to 7 screens (or as few as 3). The app drawer snaps open like iPhone's and zooms in. Scrolling among the screens is silky smooth, and there are quite a few other features.

The "dock" along the bottom of screen look similar to Helixlauncher, and by default has 4 static shortcuts. However, looks are deceiving. The "dock" itself is actually scrollable, and can be "flipped" like the desktop screens. You can currently have up to 3 docks. Each dock has 5 places for shortcuts, which you can assign to anything you wish. If you use the middle one to launch the app drawer, then it looks the same as any other launcher. You can assign the shortcut's default icon, the LauncherPro's "gray" icons, or any custom icons you may have on the phone! The dock can be set to different backgrounds, making them more visible and/or further customizing the looks, from a tabbed look to bars to even a football field. Furthermore, the "flick up" action from any of the dock positions can be mapped to yet another action, so instead of 15, you actually have 30 actions.

The home button can be mapped to different functions, like open up the screen previews, toggle app drawer, toggle status bar, and so on.

You can also save and restore the screens and placements of all the icons, which is only somewhat useful, as the layout do not seem to be compatible across different launchers.

Problems? You can't config the dock shortcuts easily. With HelixLauncher or ADWLauncher you can just drag and drop the shortcut onto the dock. With LauncherPro you have to long-press the spot and wait for the app list to pop up, then choose the app you want. There is no theme support but I don't miss it.

Overall, LauncherPro is a MAJOR improvement over the default home, and is my current favorite launcher.

NOTE: LauncherPro has left beta and now has a PAID version calledLauncherPro Plus, which has several scrollable widgets included, plus ability to resize widgets. Latest version allows the widgets to be themed, and can now useIcon Packs.

Pros: fast, multiple docks that's more useful than Home++'s powerstrip
Cons: hard to configure compared to others, no theme support
Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Download LauncherPro from Appbrain
Download from play store :
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fede.launcher&hl=en

Go Launcher Ex, Sketch Theme

Source: Appbrain

Go Launcher Ex

Go Launcher, when originally launched, feels like a foreign clone of LauncherPro (reviewed earlier) with a task manager, translated back into English. This is understandable as the development team is out of China. However, the most recent version has been totally rewritten and now has theme support, which puts it one step ahead of even LauncherPro.

The appdrawer gives a 3 tabbed version: all, recent, and running. It has an integrated task manager. You can kill the apps right from the app drawer. It supports folders and direct app management (press and hold an app icon to pop up a menu) While I personally do not not task killers much, it is nice to have it right then and there. Also, the integrated app manager is also very nice.

It matches Launcher Pro feature for feature. It has live wallpapers, scrollable docks, custom background for docks, global upswipe (they call it upglide) and downswipe gestures, higher grid density, and more.

The app has a separate "notifier" app released separately. Some people are scared of the permissions needed in the main app to read SMS messages, Gmail, and so on. It's only to count the messages. This gives the paranoid peace of mind... Don't load the notifier if you are scared of it.

The themes so far looks pretty good. Most themes can't skin every icon, so the icons clash. GLE's themes added a "background" to the icons that made the icons into a button thus the icons don't clash any more with the theme. Several free themes are now available, and surely more will be coming soon when the specs are released.

Speed is quite decent on my overclocked Droid. 

With the addition of themes (which will make it a bit more iPhone-like) this is now the top choice among free Launchers

NOTE: Latest version has reminders that tells you to update the various plugins and modules, as well as announce new themes, which can be quite annoying

Pros: Scrollable dock with 15 shortcuts, task manager in the app drawer, themes... everything?
Cons: I really can't think of any right now
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
Verdict: if you want themes AND LauncherPro capabilities this is the app to get

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Regina 3D launcher, pane swap mode

Source: Appbrain

Regina 3D Launcher

Regina 3D Launcher is a new kid on the block, and it tries to outdo just about EVERYBODY in terms of both customizability AND graphical flair. It also adds a whole bunch of add-ons like weather / clock and todo-list (with more in the future, presumably). It's a little unstable (like ADWLauncher when it first came out), but it shows some promise.

Regina 3D takes the individual "screens" of a workspace to a completely new level. In regular Android Launcher, the screens are just different views of a larger desktop. In Regina, each screen is a separate workspace. You can set different wallpaper for each screen, and even set a different name. Of course, you can also put in different widgets / shortcuts.

Press and hold the screen, and you can actually SEE the different panes shrink and goes into a bit of Coverflow (tm) like mode.

Regina itself has several widgets / add-ons you can download. Right now you need to download the "weather" to get the city / weather forecast to work. There's a separate "todo" if you want a todo list. Calendar is already online.

The app crashes quite often, but you can ALMOST forgive it.

Definitely worth a try.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Verdict: holds promise

Checkout Regina 3D Launcher on Appbrain

Claystone Launcher

Source: Appbrain

Claystone Launcher

Claystone Launcher has what they called "3D content stacks". What it really is... fancy looking screens. Instead of multiple screens side by side, it is instead "panels". You can group panels into "stacks". Switching among panels in a stack is just a side-swipe or two away. Or you can switch between stacks by click one of the stacks along the bottom, just above the 5 static shortcuts.

The app has pre-grouped your RSS feeds, videos, music, bookmarks, and so on. Each stack can contain shortcuts, widgets, and so on. In a way, this is like having infinite screens... if you need them.

The problem with this launcher is performance. You need a hefty phone to run it. I am using this on a Moto Droid overclocked to 1.2 GHz, but it is STILL unbearably slow, probably due to lack of memory. If you have a good phone, it may be worth a try.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Verdict: Holds promise, but requires a lot of hardware.

Try Claystone Launcher

Zeam, massive improvements

Zeam

Zeam is yet another variant on the regular Home. The previous version is fast, but has nothing that makes it stand out other than speed, and was missing a lot of features. Version 2.0 however, has changed all that. It is now a full launcher substitute. However, it is also only for Android 2.0 or later.

The screenshots show that the "dock" has no less than 5 shortcuts and the app drawer trigger, which is a lot. What it does NOT show is that the dock is scrollable. That's right, you can add EVEN MORE shortcuts to it, and edit it (move it left and right, delete it...) And it supports drag-n-set... Just drag a shortcut to the dock bar and voila! You're set.

It has the flick up and flick down swipe actions so you don't actually need to have notification bar or status bar showing, The flick actions can toggle that, and more.

Live Wallpaper support has been added. Max screens has been reduced to 7, but you probably won't miss it. What's more this is one of the smallest home apps at under 500KB!

And it hasn't gotten any slower. If you want a FAST launcher, give Zeam a try.

NOTE: Zeam 2.8.6 tested on 3-JAN-2011

Pros: fast, scrollable dock, tiny footprint
Cons: no theme support
Rating: 8 out of 10
Verdict: still needs something really special to stand out

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Launcher 7

Source: Appbrain

Launcher 7

Wow, there sure are a lot of these Windows Phone 7 imitations out there for Android, and here's another one. This one is actually quite good, with the buttons looking right. There are also a bit of good animations, and proper backgrounds. I'd say this is the best WP7 clone launcher out there so far.

Pros: Good animation, allows custom tiles
Cons: Needs a bit of performance boost
Rating: 7 out of 10

See Appbrain Listing on Launcher 7

SO THESE ARE SOME OF THE BEST LAUNCHERS AVAILABLE FOR YOUR ANDROID. BUT THE BEST ONE OF ALL THESE,IS LAUNCHER PRO.I PERSONALLY HAVE TRIED EVERY OTHER LAUNCHER,AND LAUNCHER PRO IS THE BEST OF ALL,HIGHLY CUSTOMIZABLE. SEE MY NECT POST ON HOW TO MAKE MOST OF LAUNCHER PRO.