Blur Vs. Customer Launchers on Bionic

[2defmouze]

Another android noobie Q...

Been doing some research the last day or so on the custom launchers available. Seems the "big 3" or whatever are ADW, Launcher Pro, and Go Launcher and all look pretty interesting.

Anyway main and simple question is, with these options available, which don't require root or anything, and AFAIK seem to negate all the things people hate about moto's blur... why doesn't everyone just use one these launchers, and why hate on blur that much if you don't have to use it? Something I don't know, such as too much instability within them? Everything I've read seems to say that they're all pretty stable, smooth and reliable..?

Secondary question: When you get the bionic will you be using a launcher and if so which one? Want to throw in some details of why you prefer it over the other options that would be welcome also.

For myself I see no reason not to try everything. Maybe stay with the stock blur a couple days, then spend a couple days or so each with the custom launchers available and decide which works best for me.

Thanks in advance for the responses / advice.

 

[mjforte]

Well the reason people used to complain about Blur was because it USED to be slow and laggy. With the new Blur on the Droid 3 and Bionic the stock launcher is much improved. Me personally, I like either Go Launcher EX or LauncherPro because they offer a bit more customization that the stock launcher won't offer. I say try the stock launcher out for a while and if you don't like it, then try the different 3rd party launchers. None of the launchers require root either.

 

[spectre1006]

I'm a big fan of adw launcher... Shortcuts, gestures, skins, backup and restore settings. It has it all and the ex version(paid) has more options.

 

[p08757]

I'm not a big fan of launchers. I'm going stock with my Bionic and going to rock the new blur, or what ever they are calling it now.

To each thier own...

 

[Fable]

You will probably get a some very different responses as this one progresses. I myself prefer (and I even paid for and I haven't done that a lot in the last 2 years of Droid ownership) Launcher Pro. That said when I unrooted my Droid X to get it ready for sale, I left it stock. As you say I recommend you try them all and see what you like best.

In the end I think folks look at Touchwiz and Blur as where they came from and not where they are headed. GUI overlays are great, but typically the 3rd party developed home replacements get alot more updates and can take the best parts from different phone manufacturers.

This might be a good way to show you why people like/disklike locked/unlocked/stock/non-stock:
Blur - Bloatware can't be removed but you can make groups and show only the stuff you want to see.

LP+ - using the same kind of thought process you can just click what you don't want to see and it removes it for you from your cabinets (its a little more of a pain to get it back though, but its all relative)

Root (throwing this in there because it is the next step in the hey how can i control more customization)- Basically gives you a higher degree of control over your experience, allows you to remove the bloat.. but that being said.. Super User is Super User.. mess something up and brick experiences can stressful (I should know I bricked my DX hard before being able to restore via like my 12th SBF).

For me, LP+ gave me less lag on my OG Droid and I just kinda migrated with it over to my Droid X. Playing around with the X without it recently, its not that much different than the LP+ GUI, but it does take a different approach to how it gets there.

Most if not all replacements have freebee trials that you can get weeks of enjoyment out of.. so definately give each a shake. I think you will find that the D3/Bionic GUI is pretty good though.

 

[2defmouze]

I'm not a big fan of launchers. I'm going stock with my Bionic and going to rock the new blur, or what ever they are calling it now.

To each thier own...

Interested to know why this is.. as they apparently give you generally better speed and customization options... have you had any bad experiences with any specific ones you could enlighten me with? I'd like to gather as much information as the community offers..

 

[2defmouze]

FYI I'm reading and liking all the contributions I'm already getting here and looking forward to more... going to try to limit my own responses to when something someone says leaves me with a follow-up question or I'd like to pick their brain harder

 

[ChevyNovaLN]

FYI I'm reading and liking all the contributions I'm already getting here and looking forward to more... going to try to limit my own responses to when something someone says leaves me with a follow-up question or I'd like to pick their brain harder

Well, thats what we're all here for. Pick away, we all have opinions and are happy to share them as fact. hehe. That and a few random 'OMG OMG I NEEDZ DIS PHONEZ NOW!!!!!!" posts.

 

[p08757]

Interested to know why this is.. as they apparently give you generally better speed and customization options... have you had any bad experiences with any specific ones you could enlighten me with? I'd like to gather as much information as the community offers..

No really bad experiences its just my personal prefrence. Moto worked hard on Blur, why not use it.

 

[ChevyNovaLN]

No really bad experiences its just my personal prefrence. Moto worked hard on Blur, why not use it.

Sony worked really hard on Betamax.... so what? lol

Brian
(j/k i completely agree)

 

[p08757]

Sony worked really hard on Betamax.... so what? lol

Brian
(j/k i completely agree)

Some of the best porn I had was on Betamax.... I digress....

I guess I never really saw the need to replace the stock launcher. Like I said to each their own.....

 

[ChevyNovaLN]

Some of the best porn I had was on Betamax.... I digress....

I guess I never really saw the need to replace the stock launcher. Like I said to each their own.....

Funny enough, thats what killed betamax. the Porn industry chose VHS.

Back on topic... Yeah. The stock launcher is a-o-k with me. I like my native android OS on my OG Droid. Not even sure what that launcher is called but now i'm running CM7 on my phone and i like ADW on it as well. As long as stuff works, i'm happy.

 

[wseyller]

I always use launcher pro plus on my original droid. I am willing to try out the blur 3d ui. If at some point I realize that I don't like it or I like laucher pro plus better then I have that choice. I'm willing to give any default UI the benefit of the doubt on a phone.

 

[Eggshen]

I also use Launcher Pro on my OG Droid. I'm not sure if you have one of these launchers if the default UI is still in the background or not. I notice a lot of times when I'm in an application on my Droid, when I hit the home screen button or just back out to the home screen, the phone loads all the icons up again. This is really getting annoying as it can take several seconds each time I want to switch back to my home screen.

The phone is rooted with Cyanogen mod and I'm using Launcher Pro. Anyone else notice what I'm talking about? I'm too lazy to mess around and figure out what it is. -.-

 

[D1andOnlyOmen]

Like the OP, I too am looking forward to my first Android phone (Bionic tops of my list as of now) and was curious about this same topic (so thanks for starting the thread!). Some very insightful responses thus far so thanks for all of those too.

One question I have regarding all of this - do these other launchers essentially run "on top" of the Moto UI so to speak? In other words, is the Moto UI still really running in the background utilizing system resources while you're also using the 3rd party launcher? I'm kind of assuming that this is the case and that it's basically the reason that some prefer to root their phones.

 

[TeeSquar]

I also use Launcher Pro on my OG Droid. I'm not sure if you have one of these launchers if the default UI is still in the background or not. I notice a lot of times when I'm in an application on my Droid, when I hit the home screen button or just back out to the home screen, the phone loads all the icons up again. This is really getting annoying as it can take several seconds each time I want to switch back to my home screen.

The phone is rooted with Cyanogen mod and I'm using Launcher Pro. Anyone else notice what I'm talking about? I'm too lazy to mess around and figure out what it is. -.-

If you have "Lock Home in Memory" enabled, try disabling it.

Menu/Settings/Cyanogenmod settings/Performance/Performance settings

 

[Cvballa3g0]

I use launcher pro on my og droid. But I'm looking forward to using motorolas application platform =)

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[SSHGuru]

Launcher Pro is good but I'm going to use Motorola's new Blur. I saw what it can do like re-sizing widgets and I think it will do the job.

Launchers are good but they will slow down the phone a bit.

 

[corymcnutt]

Like the OP, I too am looking forward to my first Android phone (Bionic tops of my list as of now) and was curious about this same topic (so thanks for starting the thread!). Some very insightful responses thus far so thanks for all of those too.

One question I have regarding all of this - do these other launchers essentially run "on top" of the Moto UI so to speak? In other words, is the Moto UI still really running in the background utilizing system resources while you're also using the 3rd party launcher? I'm kind of assuming that this is the case and that it's basically the reason that some prefer to root their phones.

YES, in answer to this question and some say it tends to slow it down a bit. This new stock UI looks pretty nice so I will try it first.

 

[bworley50]

YES, in answer to this question and some say it tends to slow it down a bit. This new stock UI looks pretty nice so I will try it first.

I am using the "new blur" on my Droid 3. I like it very much and it is fast as hell b/c of the dual core processor. There are Motorola applications you can stop from running as well. All in all, their software is unobtrusive and fast. If you like the sense look, get something like beautiful widgets.