Nova Launcher Prime vs Apex Launcher Pro

Nova Launcher provides an experience that's similar to stock Android, but adds multiple customization options. Customization ranges in ways that interactions and the user interface can be changed both aesthetically and functionally.

Speed of Nova Launcher is one of the app's key points. Even with a lot of widgets Nova Launcher performs speedy.

Options include horizontal pages, vertical scrolling or list. The user is also able to adjust the background transparency. This way the users drawer can look unique while also offering more or less apps on the page depending on their preference.

From the Nova Settings menu, users can create a custom grid size for their desktop and app drawer, up to a maximum of 12 columns and rows. Discriminating users can also adjust the size of the margins on the top, bottom, left and right. This allows for users to set how many widgets and apps can fit on these screens.

Not all custom launchers allow custom icon packs. Nova supports most custom icon packs that are in the Play Store.

Turning on infinite scrolling allows the user to move seamlessly among all of their home screens, rather than having to scroll backward when the last page is reached. This proves particularly useful if the user has a large number of homescreens. Infinite scrolling can also be enabled in the app drawer.

There are extra bottom row dock pages accessible when swiping left or right on the dock. In Nova's settings there is support for a maximum of five dock pages and a minimum of one.

This way you can set up to 25 shortcuts in the dock that can be scrolled though, leaving plenty of room on the home screen for widgets and other apps.

Nova has the ability to add an assortment of action shortcuts to the home-screen which can be performed when swiping on particular areas or icons (as opposed to when tapping).

Nova Launcher has the ability to add folders into the app drawer making for easy sorting of many apps.

The user can sort their folders in the drawer and home-screen alphabetically.

The app drawer and widgets take full advantage of a tablets extra screen real estate.

With the custom grids, most widgets can be sized to specifications which give added control over Android home screens.

Within Nova's setting the user can set the notification bar to stay hidden, allowing for more screen real estate.

It has an option to lock the icons and widgets in place as well as locks out the ability to delete apps, preventing accidental rearranging or deletions.

1. Create a folder in the drawer.
2. Drag the folder from the drawer to a home screen.
3. Add more items to the drawer folder.
4. The item gets added automatically to the home screen folder (because it is the same folder).

In addition, the user can set a custom icon for the folder (or for each shortcut).

Use gestures (swipe up, double tap, etc.) to easily launch apps.

Solid performance for getting work (and play) done, no crashes, no slow downs.

Allows you to customize scroll effects, scroll speeds, animation speed, app animations, gestures.

All of these options allow for very individualistic differences in how the launcher performs and looks, making for a great way to set ones phone apart from others.

A free version, Nova Launcher is available, but it lacks gestures, unread counts, custom drawer groups, ability to hide apps from the app drawer, icon swipes and additional scroll effects.

Users can save their configuration in a backup file and quickly restore it.

Nova Launcher Prime offers unread counts for all supported apps, a feature not available on all launchers. Although it requires the free installation of TeslaUnread.

What TeslaUnread does is add unread count numbers to certain application icons in ones application drawer and home screen, giving a quick overview of how many unread notifications they have in that supported application.

Apex Launcher lets the user customize the app drawer, including its style (Horizontal Paginated, Vertical Paginated, Vertical Continuous or Vertical List), the method of sorting and the background transparency.

Apex Launcher allows the user to change the grid size of their home screens (up to a maximum size of 10 rows and columns) and adjust the margins on the left, right, top and bottom. Icons can be made larger by as much as 150% or reduced to as little as 50% of their original size.

Made to look like stock Android with additional features.

A marketplace where the user can download extra themes is provided. Some of the themes must be purchased via Google Play, but many are free. Paid version allows the use of themes from other launchers.

There is an option in the Apex Launcher drawer to sort apps by the most used, making for a convenient way for users to get back to their most often used apps.

Apex Launcher also allows users to hide unused or unwanted apps from the drawer.

The free version of Apex comes with swipe gesture support.

Unread count notifications create badges for home screen, dock and drawer icons that let the user know how many unread messages they have.

Infinite scrolling allows you to cycle among your home screens without ever changing directions.

Apex, which requires Android 4.0 or later, boasts a dedicated tablet UI mode. Turning this on enables the persistent search bar at the top of the display, and somewhat inexplicably disables the dock at the bottom of the screen.