Smart Launcher 5 vs Nova Launcher: Is It Ready to Take the Lead

Nova Launcher was my favorite Android launcher until I tried Microsoft Launcher. Nova Launcher is one of the most popular and most used launchers and rightly so. But it's getting old and boring. This has allowed the competition to find interesting new launchers that are testing the old ways of interacting with the home screen.

Nova Launcher is not beautiful but feature-rich with a special emphasis on productivity. And then comes Smart Launcher 5 which promises not only to be loaded with useful shortcuts, but also wants to watch it.

Download Nova Launcher

Download Smart Launcher 5

Let's start.

Setup of the home screen

Nova Launcher comes with an adjustable grid size, which ranges from 2 to 12. Each slot can contain an application, and you can set it both horizontally and vertically. You can then control the size of the icon and its font color.

Smart Launcher 5 has redesigned a new way of managing grid layouts. There are built-in icon layouts like Flower and Arch, which automatically place the icons in a particular pattern. You can still control the size of the grid (limited to 8 only), but it is not necessary to set the icons manually.

Next is the modular and flexible layout where you can decide the location of the application drawer and the news area – place it where you want. Drag and drop it and you're ready to go.

For example, the application drawer will launch by the side rather than the bottom, which most launchers look for by default.

Finally, Smart Launcher 5 will extract not only weather information but also upcoming events from your calendar to the clock widget. I like the icon of the moon. Nice touch.

Swipe left to access a news section that can be customized to your liking. Read the daily news, edit the layout or manage the topics. They have recently added support for regional news.

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The dock area

In Nova launcher you can create up to 5 anchor pages that can contain up to 7 icons each. This is 21 applications in the dock without using any folders. You can then drag endlessly to access it. You can then choose a background color, layout and labels.

Nova Launcher shows its productive side, while Smart Launcher 5 shows its versatility. We've already seen how you could choose different ways to place applications in the dock area. Unfortunately, you can not have a sliding dock.

What you get is a smart search bar at the bottom and the ability to launch multiple apps with a single icon. For example, when you tap the phone icon, you can launch Phone, Truecaller or another phone application. Nova Launcher goes for swipe action where dragging on an icon in the dock will launch a different application. Tap to call or swipe up to send a message.

Search smartly

Nova integrates with Sesame shortcuts to provide secure offline shortcuts to contacts, applications and the Web. Some examples are Google Maps, Netflix movies or web searches directly with the help of a single point of access.

Smart Launcher 5 comes with its intelligent search function located in the dock area for easy access. Again, it will extract data from many applications and provide convenient shortcuts to several applications, but not as powerful as sesame shortcuts. Notice how the WhatsApp option was missing when I typed a name?

Sesame Shortcuts inherently incorporates several launchers, and you can use the search widget on any launcher.

Categorization of the application drawer

You can create different tabs to use as categories to hold different applications in Nova Launcher. This will help you find applications faster and make the application drawer less cluttered. Once organized according to your preferences, you can then customize the user interface with background colors, fonts and shapes and sizes of icons.

Smart Launcher 5 is smart, which is why it will automatically classify all your applications. The tab buttons are located at the bottom, which facilitates the change. However, Nova Launcher allows you to simply swipe left and right to switch, which makes it easier.

It's not so smart either. During the tests, several of my applications were misclassified. Still, it saves time because most of the work is done for you. You can add new categories if you want.

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More ways to personalize

Smart Launcher 5 comes with several wallpapers and themes. It is not only smart but also beautiful. This is a secondary market feature, which means that not all themes are free.

Nova Launcher does not offer any theme or background screen. It's sad, but you can still download them separately from the Play Store. There is also a night mode that you can activate depending on the time. It's the same for Smart Launcher 5, but it comes with AMOLED black.

What Nova Launcher offers is a plethora of gestures. Smart Launcher 5 also gets gestures, but options are limited compared to Nova. For example, in Nova, you also get shortcuts based on rotation.

Smart Launcher 5 offers even more shapes of icons, blur effects, widget pages and some interesting home screen layouts that I do not have still seen elsewhere.

Price

Nova Launcher will cost you $ 4.99 and is worth every penny. He calls Nova Prime and unlocks gestures, scans of icons, groups of application drawers and some customization options.

Smart Launcher 5 displays ads in the free version, which is a deactivation. The pro will unlock cool effects like blur, adaptive icons, the ability to sort icons and create new categories, more widget pages and remove ads. The pro version will cost you $ 2.99.

Launch

Nova is not so pretty but offers many useful features that you will end up using daily. Smart Launcher 5 offers new features and customization options that make things interesting. Do not go with the free version either, and you will be happy.

Then: Click on the link below to learn more about the difference between Nova and Nova Prime launchers.