Due to the importance of Launchers on Android devices, we reviewed 4 of the best Android launchers separately and this article is all about a head to head competition between the 2 best Android launchers.
Among the variety of launchers available, the user should choose the best one based on his taste, needs and his Android device’s hardware capabilities. Normally, launchers which are light and fast are more preferred than others. Apex and Nova are two of those fast and powerful launchers which they don’t come short on the features compare to other ones in the market. In today article, we are going to compare Apex Launcher Pro and Nova Launcher Prime, to find out which one is better.
- These two launchers are similar to each other in many ways. Both of them let the user keep the icons from the previous installed launcher. Both used a similar App Drawer which the App drawers support tabs and start with Apps and Widgets tabs and the Google Play icon on the top left of the screen.
-The settings of Home Screen, Duck bar, App drawer are really close and their descriptions are discussed before in different articles reviewing both.
-Notifications: Both of the launchers used their customized apps to notify the user about the incoming text messages and missed calls. ApexNotifier is for Apex and TelsaUnread is for Nova. In reviewing these apps, we can say that both have enough functions and options but the winner is Apex launcher that this is mainly due to more options which provided to users. The user has this option to choose the default apps to handle each action, for example, Sending SMS, making calls, Emails and etc. so that related number displayed on the app icon. You have also the option to choose the size, color and the location of the number based on the icon. These options are very limited in Nova.
-Folder Preview Settings: The option to choose how to preview the folders is available on both launchers. The winner in this section is Apex again. The Nova has options to show folders in grid, fan and stack, but the Apex besides those has IOS model as well, which displays the folders similar to IOS. 
- In selecting the background both act similarly and have same options. In Apex you have the option to choose the size of icon as well, but this options is not available in Nova. There are also some other options which are missing in Nova, thus make the Apex winner. It should mention that transparency option is available in Nova and not in Apex, but to consider the whole, the Apex is richer in the functi ons in this section.
-Keys and Gestures settings are similar in both and there is variety of options available.
-in the theme settings section, both have the option to choose the icon’s theme. Nova lets you apply themes from the Go launchers as well, which of course you can use all icons’ theme for home screen in both. However, the advantage of Apex is that it can mix different themes and use them. Icons, Font and the style of theme can be chosen separately.
-Memory consumption: based on the fact that both launchers are light, works smoothly in the App drawer and fast speed in changing the pages, we expect less consumption compared to other launchers. By using the same icon’s arrangement and setting in both, we calculated the memory usage of both which is shown in below screen shot. Their usage is really close to each other, but Nova uses a little less than Apex, which compared to Next launcher which is installed and took almost 65MB of memory, they took near half of it.
To sum up, both launcher are powerful and give the user variety of functions. Both are light and run quickly. However, based on the discussed topics, if you are delicate and precise person, then we recommend you the Apex, as it gives you more option for customization. Apex Launcher Pro is the Winner of AW Center Head to Head Competition.
See Also:
Go Launcher Review
Holo Launcher HD Review
Apex Launcher Review
Next Launcher 3D Review
Nova Launcher Review
