Microsoft Launcher vs Samsung Launcher: Days of feature-heavy, bulky, flashy ROMs and launchers are behind us. This latest breed of smartphone users want efficiency and pure design, and developers have been doing their best to ease their customers’ demands.
The leading smartphone manufacturer in the world, Samsung, has had a tough time dealing with this change. The South Korean OEM was knee-deep in its heavy, feature-rich launcher TouchWiz when this pattern begins to emerge. Samsung took its good time to implement these changes, but they came up with a solution.
Microsoft has been out of the mobile OS race for a long time. Still, they have some apps on the Play Store and some of them can actually enhance the look and feel of your smartphone. Also, it is one that is more than capable of replacing your stock launcher application.
In this article, we’ll pit Samsung against Microsoft and help you search which launcher is a good fit for you.
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What is Galaxy Launcher?
As mentioned above, Samsung has had a tough time adjusting to public demands and creating a ROM. TouchWiz UI, which was prevalent in Samsung smartphones, had good features. But it wasn’t optimized enough to stand the test of time.
After testing and development, the South Korean finally brought in its successor with Android 9 Pie in 2018 — One UI. Many users accept the latest UI with open arms, and Samsung has only built on from there.
In 2019, Samsung launched One UI 2 based on Android 10. The look and feel of the native launcher did not change much. But the amount of explaining that went into the software is really commendable. The current One UI 2 launcher is agile, respectfully feature-rich, and can’t make you switch over to a different launcher almost immediately.
What is Microsoft Launcher?
There are lots of launchers available on the Google Play Store. Nova Launcher, Apex Launcher, Go Launcher, etc standing out in this competitive crowd is quite easy than done. Also, Microsoft has taken the challenge, and, so far, the results have been more encouraging than anticipated.
After launch, Microsoft has done its good share to bless its launcher with good features. Almost all updates have been incremental and subtle. But the launch we’re concerned with here — Microsoft Launcher 6.0 — is as huge as they come.
Microsoft Launcher 6.0 Preview
The Microsoft Launcher, formerly known as Arrow Launcher, and it has been around for a long time. However, it hasn’t received such an enormous overhaul thus far. Developers at Microsoft have built Launcher 6.0 keeping Surface Duo that works both as a tablet and a regular smartphone. Currently, the Microsoft Launcher 6.0 is in Alpha, so, expect a few errors here and there. The last launch date hasn’t been announced yet.
Samsung Launcher vs Microsoft
Both have their pros and cons, so, expect it to be a quite good close encounter. However, in the end, we thought to give you an exact picture of which launcher may be better suited for your needs.
Availability
For now, you can also download and install the Alpha build of Microsoft Launcher from Play Store. The stable build will also be available on the Store in due time.
Samsung, on the other hand, hasn’t made its launcher available for other devices. The One S10 Launcher is a quite good and decent alternative you can search on the Play Store.
Size
Microsoft Launcher Preview is quite lightweight and won’t take over a big chunk of your storage. Exact size varies with the device.
Ease of use
Both launchers are quite easy to use, and they can’t take more than a few minutes to get familiar with the systems.
Unique features of Microsoft Launcher
- You can Swipe up the dock to put in additional icons
- The left-most screen uncovers Tasks, Calendar, Sticky Notes, Device Info and much more. They can also take a look at the latest news.
- Find Pane supports image-based searching
- Windows 10-inspired design
- Customizable gestures
- Dynamic wallpaper thanks to Bing (Samsung launcher has Dynamic Lock screen)
Features you’ll find both on Samsung launcher and Microsoft Launcher
- The ability to use the Home screen in Landscape mode
- Dark theme
- Seamless transition between pages
- Ability to choose your favorite widgets
- Icon notification badges
- Simplistic, easy-to-master UI
Which one is the best for you and why?
Both Samsung and Microsoft understand what people want in their smartphones. The companies shed all the extra weight, packed their systems with features, also they are ready to get into as many devices as possible. As mentioned above, Samsung’s official launcher cannot be installed off the Google Play Store, so, practically, Microsoft Launcher already starts off with an advantage.
If you are using a Windows computer and keep in touch with all the notes and tasks on your PC. Microsoft Launcher may be a good fit. However, if you want to keep using Android 10‘s latest gesture navigation, then stick with Samsung’s stock launcher for the time being. As this is only the alpha build, not all features have yet been included. So, there could be many more amazing additions — Android 10 gestures, too, maybe — in the final Microsoft Launch 6.0 build.
Conclusion:
Here’s all about Microsoft Launcher vs Samsung Launcher. For further queries and questions let us know in the comments section below. Also, drop a comment if you want to share anything else!
Till then! Keep Smiling 🙂
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