[Android Apps and Games] chinarabbit:
My Review of Home Launchers for Android

Here is my review of Home Launchers for Android

I tested them all on JB 4.2.2

I checked out alot of Launchers, something like 15 or 20.. but these following ones were the ones I thought were worth mentioning.

Yandex Shell - Rating: 5 stars

Pros:

Includes its own Dialer you can disable if you prefer

Has cool folders that open up or expand

Includes 3D mode for use with 3D glasses

Has a Carousel you pinch the screen to enter, then you can spin the carousel to select a page..

You can enable or disable Pages and rearrange them instantly from the double-row sliding panel view, by hitting the bottom right icon in the carousel view, and dragging icons to the bottom row to disable or rearrange them

The Carousel works as a Screen Saver, showing 3D earth views of time zones, calendar animations, etc

It has many cool functions not found in other launchers, while at the same time, lacking alot of the functions of the others.. its a very unique style of launcher in its own category, really

Its a fun and useful tool, that you can add a shortcut to on another launcher's desktop to get to this launcher when you want more functionality and to use its widgets

Unlimited Pages with continuous scrolling in both directions

Of all the launchers, Yandex's carousel is probably the fastest way to navigate, its lightning fast

You can Click the bottom square (left of home) or round (home & right of home) buttons to go straight to the page

You can drag any bottom page button (including the active one) up to enter a quick carousel for a fast spin, that will drop you on your chosen page when you release your finger

Clicking on the active bottom button once and releasing enters the full carousel mode as well

Has alot of Widgets, including:

- - Call Log - with an awesome 3D panel you can bring up by clicking the contacts photo

- - A great Notes Widget with as many folders/ categories as you want, such as personal, business, shopping, etc.. each folder can contain as many notes as you want.. notes are multi-color, select a color, overlapping, support drag-rearranging, etc,

- - World Time Zones - Shows 4 world time zones with a 3D earth you click on that lets you rotate it freely to see the current position of the sun on the planet

- - Shortcuts to Power, Screen, Wifi, Data, Bluetooth, Hotspot, etc

- - Weather - can show the weather, wind, humidity, barometric pressure, 5 day view, and 4 time of day periods, from as many cities as you want (as long as the "3D" weather option is disabled ,or its just one city for 3D)

- - Calendar, shows upcoming events from your calendar, opens your Calendar etc.

- - Time with lots of different cool clock skins

- - Pictures, with different update options

- - Picture Gallery

- - Weather

- - Messaging

- - Contacts

- - Book Marks

Has Many Full Panels:

- - Time Panel

- - Weather Panel

- - Pictures Panel by Flikr

- - Calendar Panel

- - Moon Panel

- - News Panel

- - Calculator Panel

Tons of useful add-ons you can download, such as:

- - Yandex Maps

- - Yandex Opera Mini

- - Yandex Search

- - Car Navigator

- - Yandex Mail

- - Yandex Market

- - Yandex Weather

- - Yandex Traffic

- - Yandex Taxi

- - Yandex Disk Cloud Storage

- - Yandex Money

- - Yandex Automobile Guide

- - Yandex Metro

- - Yandex Train

- - Yandex Foki

- - Yandex News

- - Yandex Exams

- - Yandex Translate

- - Yandex Photo Albums

- - and more

Cons:

No custom Transitions - this is because in Yandex you dont change panels by swiping, but via the carousel, after pinching, or from a quick carousel by dragging any page button upwards, or by clicking the active page button once

No Swipe Gestures - one thing missing.. but the other features I feel make up for this..

Lacks some of the advanced Panel customizations of other Launchers

Cannot Search through the Dialer T9 Pad

Cannot drag contacts slider, but it does scroll very fast & very long...

Some of the Yandex services are only in Russian or for Russia & Ukraine

It probably has the biggest foot print of all the launchers..

Apex Launcher - Rating: 5 stars

Pros:

Has Swipe Up & Swipe Down functions to a variety of actions

Cube out Transition

Apps Drawer sorting by Mostly Used, Title, or Install Date

Supports Gestures like Pinch, Double-tap, Up/Down Swipe, etc

Pro Version (paid) includes extra things you likely wont miss.. Basic version is enough

Swipe or Pinch can be used to Launch an App, such as "Screen Off & Lock" to turn off & lock screen with a swipe

Cons:

Cannot scroll Background in Opposite Direction of Title

Doesnt Load your Icons from the Default Android Launcher

ADW Launcher - Rating: 5 stars

Pros:

Lots of Gestures available for use, including 2-finger gestures

Includes Dock Swiping as an extra swipe function

Good Transitions

Folders with Display & Behavior Options

Create Shortcuts to any file in your computer

Swipe or Pinch can be used to Launch an App, such as "Screen Off & Lock" to turn off & lock screen with a swipe

Pro Version (paid) includes extra things you likely wont miss.. Basic version is enough

Cons:

Cannot scroll Background in Opposite Direction of Title

Doesnt Load your Icons from the Default Android Launcher

Lightning Launcher - Rating: 5 stars

Pros:

Lots of Gestures available for use, including 2-finger gestures

Includes Tap, Long-tap, & Double-tap on Empty space

Can change the behavior of Home key, Menu Key, & Search Key

Can scroll pages up & down AND left & right at the same time

Customize behavior of individual desktop screens

Option to minimize RAM usage

Pinch Zoom your Screens

Mirrors your Icons

Has a "Multiple Wallpaper" add-on

has "Simple Screen Switcher" Add-on

Can download many Languages & themes

A Gesture can be assigned to Launch an App, such as "Screen Off & Lock" to turn off & lock screen with a swipe

Cons:

Not many transition effects

Doesnt Load your Icons from the Default Android Launcher

You need to be careful that the gestures you choose dont conflict with the direction of switching you are using

Nova Launcher - Rating: 4.5 stars

Pros:

Can Load your Icons from the Default Android Launcher, allowing for seamless transition from default to Nova

Background can scroll in the opposite direction of the transition

Cons:

No Gestures are available in the Free Version..

Cannot Swipe up or Down in Free Version

Holo Launcher HD - Rating: 4 stars

Pros:

Small & Fast, quite Simple to use, yet full-featured

Can Swipe Up & Swipe Down

Cons:

No Cube Transition

Doesnt Load your Icons from the Default Android Launcher

Go Launcher EX - Rating: 2.5 stars

Pros:

Can Group Appdrawer Apps into their own folders

Has alot of themes

Cons:

Most versions I tried (by 1st downloading the theme, then the downloading the launcher through the theme) fill your phone with countless strange Chinese crap

Takes over your app drawer, and fills it full of crapware, most of it Chinese

Spams all of your homepages on install with crapware & crapsites that are difficult & time-consuming to remove

Installs its own poorly designed Icons over your own default Icons which mix with its own crapware icons, and sometimes you cant tell which are which

Doesnt Load your Icons from the Default Android Launcher

Most themes and versions of Go EX Launcher are largely made by companies who want to spam your android with their own promotions, so there is alot of development for it, but mostly by people wanting to make money from you