I don't write much anymore so sorry this is so long. I lost interest in blogging...

BACK story - I have 2 Samsung Galaxy S4's because I recently had to change mobile providers so got a FREE phone with the contract. Looking back I REALLY wish I would have gone with the LG G3 instead of another S4 (I don't much care for the S5) but that's another topic...

My non-networked Sprint S4 updated to Lollipop recently and that's cool except for the fact that it completely borked TouchWiz. (FYI - TouchWiz is Samsungs 'touch user interface' software). I still use my non-networked Sprint S4 at home with Wifi mainly as a docked Wifi/Bluetooth music player so I have really GROWN used to it to working as it should.

I have tried several launchers in the past out of curiosity but they never had any lasting appeal. Now I am forced to use one to replace my broken Sprint S4 TouchWiz. Launchers have come a long way over the years and I'm kind of glad I had to check them out again. It took a while but I narrowed the field down to two.

For a robust "free" option my choice might be EverythingMe Launcher. If you want to get lost for a few HOURS in mindless non-productive tweaking this is a good solution. The downside for me is that it's loaded with non-intrusive adware in the form of suggested apps. I MAY have went with this launcher if they had a paid version without the adware.

What I settled on is the paid version of Nova Launcher. Compared to most of everything else I tried it's more my style in what it offers and how it works. I had no problem buying the $4.99 full version before I even finished exploring the free versions abilities. To me it is that good and I don't mind helping out developers by buying the full version app when I can.

For honorable mentions and different styles of launchers check out this Android Central article. The best Android launchers of 2015I've been using the paid version of Apex Launcher for years and am very happy with it. Nova and Apex are VERY similar.I don't know why but I never installed Apex. I kept meaning to but then forgot, several times.