Nova Launcher Review

Nova Launcher

One of the main selling points of Android is customization, and one of my favorite customization tools is Custom Launchers. I've tried quite a few, but this is the best so far. Nova Launcher gives you plenty of customization options, and is slick and fast. Here are some of the best features, along with some screenshots from my very own SII.

Nova offers some lovely screen transitions as you can see here. I'm quite a big fan of the default TouchWiz launcher, but one thing that does disappoint me about it, is the lackluster transitions. The transitions available from Nova on the other hand, are slick, and beautiful.

The App Draw in Nova is another thing of beauty. It arranges all of your apps into alphabetical order, (something TouchWiz doesn't do) gives you slick transitions, and makes it easy to copy them to your home screen. Another great feature is being able to select widgets from the App Draw. Most custom launchers require you to root your device, before being able to place widgets from the App Draw. Nova doesn't, meaning that my non-rooted SII that isn't running any custom ROM's, can use this handy feature. The Google Play Store can be easily accessed from the drop-down menu in the top-right corner.









The Dock and Folder system in Nova is another great feature. The Dock has five icons, and can have up to five pages! You can also place folders in the dock. This is handy if you want to put all of your messaging and social apps in the dock. As you can see, I have a lot of those! (Although it seems I put the same app in there twice... Oops.)














Nova gives you a plethora of settings, making it easy to get everything just the way you want it. I've used a lot of custom launchers since I got my SII in April, and usually I end up going back to TouchWiz. This time though, I think I may just stick with Nova.















Widgets can be placed and re-sized with ease. Nova overrides a widgets default properties, meaning you really can re-size any widget, even the ones that came with the device.

















Overall I give Nova 8.5/10 and I recommend it if you're looking for a replacement launcher. Nova is available on Google Play. There is a free lite version, which I'm currently using, and a prime version available for purchase.

Nova Lite

Nova Prime