A little bit Moto, a little bit HTC
Fancy the look that HTC or Motorola phones have?
HeLauncher offers both of the styles seen on handsets with HTC Sense and Motorola Blur, offering similar looking skins and graphics for no cost.
Sadly, you don’t get the same widgets that each manufacturer offers, but it will make the look more like that of the premium handsets from these companies.
A slightly more advanced version is also available – HeLauncher 2 – for a littler under two bucks. This one offers more options to make your phone look like a premium model, as well as lots more screens to store your widgets.
For a little extra realism, you can grab some wallpapers that make up the rest of that HTC look.
A real iClone
We’ve mentioned it at least once on this site, but here it is again: Espier Launcher manages to do one of the best jobs at making an Android phone looking like an iPhone.
Espier goes one step further from the look, though, also adding the same menu structure, complete with the left-most screen searching through the entirety of the device.
Folders are even supported, as is the truly easy way of uninstalling apps, handled the same way as it is on the iPhone: simply hold an icon down until it shakes and hit the “x” button.
In fact, about the only thing you don’t get is widgetised homescreens, as this launcher doesn’t use them.
Made by Samsung
A new homescreen app by Samsung tries things a little bit differently.
Called the “Pure Breeze Launcher”, this one allows you to easily colour-coordinate groups of applications in your menu, making it really easy to find things.
The main homescreen still supports widgets and shortcuts, with the interface flying out like a kite.
A paid version exists, costing roughly two bucks, and offering more organisation groups.
Good idea – buy a cheap phone and make the OS look and run like an expensive one.
Good idea but depending on the phone you get this idea might not be a good option. Cheap phone = lower specs = performance issues as you start adding more intricate homescreens. You’ll notice in the load up and redraw times especially. Sure you’ll have a nice looking UI but it will be slow and potentially buggy.