Launcher Pro vs Launcher 7 vs Go Launcher: A Three-Way Comparison

Desktop

Launcher Pro allowed one to seven home screens, with a changeable default and many animation choices. Launcher 7 offered a Metro-style theme, rotating icons, missed-notification badges on tiles and an optional Windows Phone style status bar. Go Launcher had a gesture shortcut for a multi-home-screen view and easy folders, though it was said to use heavy system resources. Launcher 7 was found less intuitive because it departed so far from normal launchers.

Widgets

• Launcher Pro: scrolling widgets and shortcuts to app activities. Resizing and some extras required a purchase.
• Launcher 7: no widgets at the time, with some planned for later releases.
• Go Launcher: a widget store, scrolling widgets and resizing, though more widgets meant more installs.

App drawer

Launcher Pro looked like the stock drawer and could hide unwanted apps. Launcher 7 allowed an Android or Windows Phone style drawer, hidden icons and an alphabetical index. Go Launcher included an app killer, scrolling or tabs, and a recent apps tab. Complaints: Launcher 7 had no fast scroll, which made a very long list, and dragging an app to a home screen took extra steps.

Dock and customization

Launcher Pro had a minimalist dock with unread counts. Launcher 7 had no dock, though its first tile was the phone. Go Launcher looked clean and was extremely customizable through many themes, but many themes cost extra. Launcher 7 provided extra bitmaps for custom tiles but too few of them.

Other points

Launcher Pro let users uninstall an app by hovering over a trash icon. Launcher 7 had smooth transition animations, but its status bar did not show mail, text or social notifications. Go Launcher offered other matching apps, but could not import settings from another launcher.