Sony Ericsson will be launching its new handset, Xperia Ray, pretty soon now but we’ve got its launcher already leaked well before its release. It’s been upgraded from what we saw in Xperia Arc, Xperia Play, etc and includes a new cool theme feature which would let you further customize the launcher to suit your taste.

There are some other changes too in the new home launcher. Like, the homescreens overview screen has undergone a chnage too. The widgets keep floating a bit now, which is nice view, and shaking your phone while in the overview shuffles up all the widgets.

But more importantly, that button in the bottom right that brings the Edit mode has got one additional very-much-wanted feature: letting you uninstall apps right from the app drawer itself. Earlier, you were only allowed to move apps within the drawer but now you can also uninstall apps from right there after confirming the uninstall on next screen after you press the app’s icon in Edit mode.

This has been available for long in the Samsung phones thanks to their TouchWiz UI, which still works better than the SE’s uninstalling option because the app gets uninstalled directly from the app drawer, while SE’s launcher pops out one additional screen to confirm uninstall.

Ah, in all this chatter about the new features we almost forgot to tell you that the new Sony Ericsson Launcher, v 2.0.X.0.20 — pretty weird version, eh! — is available for download and you can simply install it on your phone too. While the new launcher is said to work flawlessly on SE’s own phones like Xperia Arc, Xperia Play, and even Xperia X10, it’s not working fine with other android phones. We tried it on Galaxy S II and it kept force closing again and again. Also, the there are no themes to try out right now for this launcher.

In any case, we think a new tweaked version from the developer community will pop out soon and will be compatible with most, if not all, android phones. And, if you own Xperia Arc/Play/X10 or other SE device it should work for you and there is no reason you shouldn’t try this.

Here’s how you can install it:

  1. Download the APK installation file from here. File name: Sony Home 2.0.A.0.20.apk. Size: 825 KB
  2. If you downloaded it on PC, transfer it to phone.
  3. On your phone, go to Settings – Applications – Tick the “Unknown Sources” checkboxes.
  4. You need a file manager to browse sd card’s folders and install the downloaded APK. If you don’t have one, install for free from android market (link)
  5. Using a file manager, go to the folder where you saved it (downloading the APK on phone saves it to ‘downloads’ folder in sd card).
  6. Click on the file – Sony Home 2.0.A.0.20.apk – and select Install to install the new Sonny Ericsson home launcher.
  7. That’s it. Press the Home key to select this.

Try it on your own android phone, whether it be SE Arc/Play/X10/X10 mini/Mini pro or other android phone and let us know in comments how it worked for you. We’ll sure keep you updated with the tweaked version of the launcher compatible will all android phones as and when it drops by so that everyone can install and use this new launcher.

Via XDA