When comparing Apex Launcher Pro vs Lightning Launcher eXtreme, the Slant community recommends Apex Launcher Pro for most people. In the question“What are the best launchers for Android?” Apex Launcher Pro is ranked 4th while Lightning Launcher eXtreme is ranked 16th. The most important reason people chose Apex Launcher Pro is:
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.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Highly customizable app drawer
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.
Pro Customize grid size
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.
Pro Stock Android experience
Made to look like stock Android with additional features.
Pro Has a theme shop
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.
Pro Sort drawer by most used
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.
Pro Can hide apps
Apex Launcher also allows users to hide unused or unwanted apps from the drawer.
Pro Gestures are free
The free version of Apex comes with swipe gesture support.
Pro Unread count (paid version)
Unread count notifications create badges for home screen, dock and drawer icons that let the user know how many unread messages they have.
Pro Infinite scrolling
Infinite scrolling allows you to cycle among your home screens without ever changing directions.
Pro Tablet support
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.
Pro Highly customisable
You can choose a grid of any size or drop the grid completely and arrange everything freely on the canvas. It even comes with its own scripting language if you want to completely customise any aspect of the launcher.
Pro Supports icon packs
specify per item - icons from packs can be set as foreground or background icons and can be scaled independently.
Pro Great themes available
Pro Small Memory Footprint
Depending on how how in-depth you customize, a bare-bones launcher experience uses very little memory.
Pro Practically unlimited number of desktops
By utilizing folders users can create what are essentially mini desktops with each one.
Pro Desktops can be greater then the visible area, allows for panning around
Pro How-to videos available
The developer, Pierre Hébert, provides YouTube video guides.
Cons
Con Can be overwhelming at first
Apex Launcher offers lots of customization in terms of user interface and functionality that can be overwhelming at first.
Con Slow to implement new features
Development of Apex Launcher can some times be slow, lagging behind in features when compared to more frequently updated launchers.
Con Version 4 changed everything
The look, the options, animations and sizes.
Con High learning curve to fully customise
It will take a lot of time and patience to perfect your screens to exactly what you want. You can, however, download and build off of other users' models. The dev provides several YouTube how-to guides as well.