Smartphone Web Browser Preferences?

[Lynchmeister]

Hey guys,

I'm curious to hear feedback on what mobile web browser you're using on your mobile device, and also why it's your preferred browser.

I have a Samsung Vibrant (T-Mobile's Galaxy S phone) that runs Android and has some pretty impressive specs, but despite the horsepower, I soon found that it was lacking in a few key areas--web browsing being at the forefront.

I have since rooted the phone and installed a custom ROM based off the FroYo kernel (*cough* because Samsung and T-Mobile are taking their sweet time) and this in and of itself has boosted the phone's performance and usability to new heights, but now the other half of the equation (the browser app itself) is surfacing as the weak link.

Originally, I was using Dolphin HD, but despite its awesome aesthetics, it seems bloated and slow. I then tried Mozilla Fennec, but it was an alpha at the time and extremely buggy (current reviews aren't that great either). Eventually, I settled on Skyfire, which was great. It was simple and fast, yet not totally void of cool features...until its recent update to 3.0. Now it's almost as bad as Dolphin in my opinion with all sorts of social networking crap sprinkled all over it.

Exasperated, I wound up crawling back to the native browser on the phone and was shocked to find that it's faster than all of the third party options out there currently.

Am I missing out on a different browser that I haven't tried yet, such as Opera Mini, Miren, or Galapagos? Or is less really more in this case?

 

[stobes21]

I use atomic web browser on my ipad and a bit on my iphone as well. It has a lot of the features the native safari browser lacks on iOS devices such as tabbed browsing, adblock, private browsing, full screen browsing (ability to hide the menu bar and allow the webpage to take up the whole screen), and others. I find it to be pretty comparable to Safari in terms of speed, though on 3G both browsers are pretty slow (I'm sure a network rather than software issue).

I don't know if it is available for android devices. Frankly I'm a bit surprised that the native android browser is so slow. You'd think that since Chrome is one of the fastest regular browsers out there google would be able to make their mobile browser pretty fast as well.

 

[TonyH]

I'm using Dolphin HD right now on my Sprint EVO 4G and like it ok. I have always used Opera mini on my phones in the past, but their last few updates have rendered it virtually unusable, IMHO. I'll watch this thread with interest.

 

[_JP_]

With my iPhone I use Safari, Atomic, and Opera. Atomic seems to be the slowest of the three. I like Opera for reading my local newspaper, it works better with how the paper is laid out than the other browsers.

Heads up! Firefox has a version out for Android. My brother installed it today and seems to like it.

 

[LinuxMintyFresh]

My phone only comes stock with a WebOS proprietary browser. Nothing else comes close performance-wise on my maching so I can't tell you, but I've heard OK things about Opera's mobile browser. Maybe give it a go.

 

[Lynchmeister]

I use atomic web browser on my ipad and a bit on my iphone as well. It has a lot of the features the native safari browser lacks on iOS devices such as tabbed browsing, adblock, private browsing, full screen browsing (ability to hide the menu bar and allow the webpage to take up the whole screen), and others. I find it to be pretty comparable to Safari in terms of speed, though on 3G both browsers are pretty slow (I'm sure a network rather than software issue).

I don't know if it is available for android devices. Frankly I'm a bit surprised that the native android browser is so slow. You'd think that since Chrome is one of the fastest regular browsers out there google would be able to make their mobile browser pretty fast as well.

I may have misspoke mis-typed above (I'll have to double check), but the native Android browser so far has been the fastest for me in terms of page load speeds.

With my iPhone I use Safari, Atomic, and Opera. Atomic seems to be the slowest of the three. I like Opera for reading my local newspaper, it works better with how the paper is laid out than the other browsers.

Heads up! Firefox has a version out for Android. My brother installed it today and seems to like it.

Yep, while it was in its alpha stage, it was called Fennec Fox and I played around with it. At the time, it was way too buggy. This, I'm sure has changed if it's now a beta or RC. I'll have to look into this again...

Cute, haha!

On a separate note...

FYI, I played around with Mirin browser last night and it showed promise. I especially liked how you can create icons for your bookmarks on the app's homepage (little, mini homepage shots of the websites, really, much like Chrome does with your recently visited pages when you open a new tab). The deal breaker, though, was that there's still a bug with this feature. It gave me six or so open icons with the option to assign websites to them. After doing so, though, the changes don't stick.

 

[sol92258]

I've tried DolphinHD, Opera Mini, Firefox alpha, and IE for Droid (HA! Just kidding ), and kept going back to the stock browser.

Then Opera released the Moblie browser (as opposed to the the Mini)...it's all I use now

(Droid 2)

 

[TonyH]

I've tried DolphinHD, Opera Mini, Firefox alpha, and IE for Droid (HA! Just kidding ), and kept going back to the stock browser.

Then Opera released the Moblie browser (as opposed to the the Mini)...it's all I use now

(Droid 2)

Interesting...

I wasn't aware of Opera Mobile vs Mini. I'll have to check it out.