Very
good
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LauncherPro Beta
Tested version: 0.6.0
Latest version: 0.8.6
Requires Android: from 2.0
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Summary
Okay, so I wasn’t planning on writing another homescreen replacement app review today, but LauncherPro recently got an update and thus new features. It isn’t without just cause that LauncherPro’s popularity is steadily increasing, and seeing as I’ve been meaning to review this app for a while I thought today would be the day to do so.
Features & Use
Section rating:
Here's the Market description of LauncherPro’s features:
• Super-smooth scrolling
• Animated screen previews (like Exposé or HTC Sense)
• Up to 7 home screens
• App drawer (2D and 3D!) with a fly-in effect and smooth scrolling
• Scrollable shortcut dock
“Super-smooth scrolling”... for sure! The app’s perfomance is stellar.
The “Animated screen preview” is also a really useful feature which can be accessed by pulling your fingers together on the screen.
There are other homescreen replacements out there that provide more than seven screens, but the ones featured in this app are more than sufficient in size.
The app performs very well indeed on the Nexus One, even in 3D mode.
My favorite feature is the “Scrollable shortcut dock”. You can put up to 15 shortcuts into the lower half of the screen and access them via sliding from within every screen (5 are visible at once). You can insert applications, links or an extra button for the App Drawer.
Another useful feature that shouldn’t go without mention is the fact that you can de-install apps simply by pulling them onto the recycle bin, waiting for two seconds and then letting them go.
LauncherPro is not only compatible with Live-Wallpaper but also with scrollable widgets.
Probably the most important aspect of a homescreen replacement is its performance, without which even the coolest features are pretty useless. If the homescreen is lagging it’s a no-go. LauncherPro on the other hand performs very well and has cool features. Not bad!
Screen & Controls
Section rating:
As is usually the case with homescreen replacements, after having installed LauncherPro it can be launched by pressing the home button or else set is as your standard.
The shortcut dock in the lower half of the screen is already set up with links, but they can be changed by pressing on them for a long time. You can set up further shortcuts by scrolling through the dock to the left and pressing on the plus sign. You then have the option of choosing the following from a context menu:
• Blank
• Applications
• Homescreens
• App Drawer
You can also select from all the options available to you on your phone by pressing homescreen/links for a long time.
You can view the screen-preview by clicking on the Home button twice or by pulling your fingers together on the display.
In order to change further settings, click on the Menu button followed by Preferences. You can then select the amount of screens you’d like as well as your default screen. You also have the following options:
• Auto-Rotation on/off
• Scrollable Widgets on/off
• Select Dock Backround
• Screen Indicator on/off
• Show/hide app icons
• Wallpaper Scrolling on/off
You can switch on the pimped out 3D App Drawer in Advanced Settings. I didn’t encounter any problems with this on the Nexus One, despite the warning message “Experimental. May cause instability“. You can also determine the amount of lines for "Portrait“ and "Landscape".
There’s also the option of displaying five rows of icons on the homescreen, although you are warned that “Requires widescreen, and looks bad in landscape”, which is, in fact, the case. If you want to take advantage of these features switch off “Enable Auto-Rotation” in Settings.
Lastly, you can determine the scrolling and opening speed for “Homescreen”, “App Drawer”, and “Screen Previews”.
Bottom line:
LauncherPro will not be replacing by current ADW.Launcher—this is because I’ve gotten too used to this “Galaxy S” style app. However, if and when LauncherPro offer that feature I will have switch over, as the app really does perform well and the shortcut dock is a super useful feature.
Speed & Stability
Section rating:
LauncherPro runs very smoothly. Even the App Drawer, usually a weak point, performs really well, even in 3D.
Price/Performance Ratio
Section rating:
The app can be downloaded for free from the Android Market.
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Jun 23, 2010 7:06:19 PM
After trying a bunch of the home screen / launcher apps, this is the one I settled on due to the raw speed. The smoothness trumps all of the others. It replaced the default Samsung launcher on my Galaxy Spica and uses a lot less resources (battery!) besides
I bet you'd wished you had reviewed this one first because from where I'm sitting only this and ADW are worth trying. That may sound harsh but most of the alternatives are too bloated for the purpose.
Jun 23, 2010 7:40:02 PM
Thanks everyone for weighing in. Rog, I agree that LauncherPro and AWD are clear leaders at the moment, and juding by the two apps' popularity in the Market we're not the only ones who think so :)
Jun 24, 2010 11:58:51 PM
If your looking for some good 1.5 home replacements, zeam and slidescreen are the only ones that run good. Slidescreen doesnt have any themes or widget controls and is only one screen. Zeam has some FC issues when switching to landscape mode but they rarely happen.
I would like to see the pit put up OS version numbers so people dont get confused when attempting to download. Especially with 2.2 coming.
Jun 25, 2010 12:02:10 AM
Sorry for the double post, just wanted to add this. For 1.5, pandahome and ahome work but are severly bloated and FC quite often on my backflip. I would stay away from those since bflips have low memory and small processors. Plus we get 2.1 sometime around august according to At&t.
Jul 16, 2010 5:47:36 PM
This app is fantastic! Smooth, fast, awesome options like scrollable dock and 3D app drawer. Dev is very responsive. It's pretty hard to believe this is still in beta. It's been my default launcher since about 90 seconds after installation. (Moto Droid 2.1)
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Market Comments
Daniel, May 20, 2012
Preferences Would like to set preferences but can't. No app drawer organization. Good widgets. Scrollable dock. Altogether good launcher
Julia, May 19, 2012
Not Ics compatible Thought it was great but had to unintelligible as it kept crashing on my s2 running ics
MJ, May 19, 2012
Good Is really nice but found some quirks with its interface and stupid flaws The one flaw irritating me is that the app2sd app in folders need a launcher restart to show their icons
Zai, May 19, 2012
Awesome! Completely Customized My Phone Into One Like No Other! Had An Outcome Better Than HTC Sense. Horizontal App Drawer Would Be Nice. :)
Ronjoy, May 19, 2012
Getting outdated No updates for over a year even after being promised an update waaayyy back. I bought the paid version in hopes of the new update and now I get back nothing. Its a dead project. Fede's busy havin a ball with all his money rather than finish the update and give back something to the people who gave him all that cash in the first place.
Rico ANDROID, May 19, 2012
STILL MY FAV LAUNCHER From my very first experience with android till now, thks is my FAV launched 4-10-2011
vvmm, May 18, 2012
Good The applications in the drawer overlap if screen orientation changes. No way of sorting/organizing apps in drawer. Can't change home pages order.
Roy, May 18, 2012
Seems to have caused phone touchscreen lockups. I installed this app and shortly thereafter started having problems where the unlock screen's touch screen would become unresponsive. As this is the only software that has changed, I uninstalled immediately thereafter.
adam, May 18, 2012
Messaging widget still has No accurate time stamp I like the appearance but my screen freezes up and the messaging widget shows wrong date and time stamp access to developer website is "403 forbidden"
Ben Caronna
This home replacement is amazing. I've been using it for about two weeks now and I lobe it. It is without a doubt the best free home app on the market. Download for sure.