How we pick

A phone that feels new. Keep yours.

We highlight the best-looking apps so your Android feels like a new phone, without buying one. Beauty first.

Beauty first. Then everything else.

A great home screen is not a shopping list. It is how the phone feels in your hand. We start with how an app looks, because that is what you live with every day.

What we look at

  • Type, space, colour and a dark mode that was designed, not inverted
  • Motion that helps, icons that sit still on a grid
  • A style that holds together on a real screen

What we do not

  • Star ratings or how many people downloaded it
  • Who paid us, or who asked to be first
  • A store listing we fetched in the background

Four numbers. One person.

A person uses the app on a real phone. Design carries the most weight. When two apps land on the same score, design wins the tie.

35Design: polish, type, dark mode
30User-friendliness: first run, fewest taps
25Efficiency and speed
10User respect

Ties go to design. The four numbers add up to 100. Nothing else is weighed.

A real phone

Someone opens the app, taps through the first run, and writes a score of 0 to 5 on each of the four.

The maker's site

We look at real screenshots the maker published. Official pages only, read in a normal browser.

The press kit

Icons and device shots come from the press kit or the maker's own files. We do not fetch a store to judge looks.

We will not crown an app that takes your contacts or your keystrokes. That bar does not move.

An app can stay in the catalog. It will not wear a medal, and it will not sit on the home page, if it uploads your address book or sends what you type to someone else.

More on Be careful

No contact upload as a winner
No keystrokes sent to the cloud
No medal on the home page for either

Three winners. Then five more. Then all of them.

Each category opens on eight apps a person picked. The rest of the catalog is one tap away.

1

Top 3 winners

Numbered 1 to 3. One Best overall, then two other needs that category's readers have. Two winners never share a label.

2

Five more

The rest of the Top 8. Each has a short "for" tag, so you can see why it is there without reading a table.

3

See all

Under the eight, one control opens every listed app in that category. Same facts. You can sort them.

See all N apps ▾

How we stay independent. Rank is not for sale.

A page can earn its keep beside the list. The list itself does not.

Labelled

The sidebar says when it is sponsored.

A house placement can sit beside a page. It is labelled. It never changes who wins, who is in the Top 8, or the order of See all.

No cut

No affiliate links in the rankings.

We earn nothing when you tap Get it on a winner or a pick. The rank is the rank.