Develop Bugs

[Apps] Web Browsers

Hi all ,
I've noticed lately in the last week theres been a rush of updates on web browsers. Heres my short notes on them
Fennec :- Latest version isn't that bad compared to last release. Its quite stable now. Also it finally has auto updates so it will always be updated. At 11megs its quite large. http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/m/alpha <--- Use your phones web browser
UC Web 7.2.2.5something :- Lets just say I'm very biased with this browser, It was my default on my winmo phone. Its fast, Got a crap load of options , the best one being night mode (I use it to save power as background is dark). The only bad thing is that its a Proxy based browser like Opera Mini so I would advise you not to use it for anything sensitive like banking. Other then that its hell fast.
Use your internal browser on phone and goto http://wap.ucweb.com
Skyfire 2.x : Not bad but I don't use flash or multimedia on my phone so I rarely ever use this. But it does look like its improved since I last used it 6 months ago on Winmo. Www.Skyfire.com or MARKET
Xscope 6.06 : This is my current default browser as Its small, fast and not a proxy browser. Best option for me in it is "LOAD NEW PAGES IN BACKGROUND" . Theres not much to say other then I love it. Get it from MARKET

Fennec is VERY laggy..

AldasG said:
Fennec is VERY laggy..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd recommend Dolphin HD. Not the quickest browser, but the most convinient to use. Easy gestures, great HD interface, background loading, addons, easy zoom, everything! Tried a bunch of other browsers, but I stick to that one.

you forgot to list opera mini and dolphine HD
my top choice goes to SkyFire,
2nd place opera mini
999999999999 place for Dolphin HD is the slowest browser available in the market right now

No i didn't They havn't been updated in the last week. Dolphin HD was updated yes but I've never been a fan of it. Opera Mini is ok but for some reason I hate it. I use Opera Desktop and want a decent Opera like on Winmo (opera 6.x?) not a proxy based P.O.S that was ment for nokia phones

AllGamer said:
you forgot to list opera mini and dolphine HD
my top choice goes to SkyFire,
2nd place opera mini
999999999999 place for Dolphin HD is the slowest browser available in the market right now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know why you say this, I have absulutely no problems with the speed. You might tried an older version? If it's indeed the slowest, it shouldn't be more than a few seconds behind. I'm using it every day. Let's say fudzilla.com loaded up in 10 sec. (just checked now)

The renamed Fennec (Firefox Now) is pretty nice and fast. Definatly something to keep out for

ickyboo said:
The renamed Fennec (Firefox Now) is pretty nice and fast. Definatly something to keep out for
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's still very unstable on SGS...

AllGamer said:
my top choice goes to SkyFire,
2nd place opera mini
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
agreed!!
3rd stock browser
4th dolphin HD

My vote is for opera. Very snappy on my vibrant.
Sent from my GT-I9000M using XDA App

So far I've tried Opera Mini, Stock and xScope. I've liked xScope most of them all. I notice a lot of people here recommending SkyFire but not even mentioning xScope. Any particular reasons why?

Sooo..What's wrong with the stock browser? I find it to be good enough for me...

same here. i found that the stock browser works best for me.

Stock browser for the win!
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

Here I use Opera Mini and really enjoy it.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

Today I learnt something nice, Xscope 6.06 saves bookmarks the exact same place as stock browser! so any widget/app that uses stock browser's bookmarks work fine like LauncherPro's new popups! SWEETTTT

UCWEB is very bad

i've tried dolphin hd and xScope, liked them on my nexus but on the galaxy they were not only slow but they also really slowed down the whole system and made it very unstable ....that was before i ran the lagfix.
That may not be the case after the lagfix but atm i am happy enough with the stock browser's limited features to risk sludging up the system again.

Talking of browsers, anyone know of a browser that lets you save the webpage to SD card for offline use?
My Nokia N95 had this as standard, and the iPhone has various 3rd party browsers offering this but so far not found any for android

Stock FTW !!! followed by skyfire...
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

what web browser to use

what web browser is everyone using the stock one on the g2 has a problem that i just noticed if you clear the history you lose all your book marks or is there a way to stop that?

I just re-discover Dolphin HD browser. I bought it about a year ago then Opera came out and I switched to it. I tried Fennec, but it's very slow right now to me. I'm really liking Dolphin HD!

Xscope is a great alternative. Much faster than the default browser, and instant page back/forward (like opera)
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

I really like the Dolphin HD browser. I like the tabbed browsing and the pulldown tabs when fullscreen. I also like the simple slide right for bookmarks and slide left for desktop/mobile view and fullscreen. I am just getting into the gestures.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

clamman said:
what web browser is everyone using the stock one on the g2 has a problem that i just noticed if you clear the history you lose all your book marks or is there a way to stop that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use the stock browser and that has not happened to me when I've cleared history.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

I use the stock browser. Bookmarks are only erased when data is cleared via manage applications.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

I am stuck between skyfire and the dolphin browser hd. They both have really good features I like about them. I guess time will tell.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

I've been using the Dolphin HD browser. I like having tabbed browsing for my browsing experience.

I have tried basically every browser out there and always come back to stock.
Dolphin is too busy for me. I hate that I can't scroll all the way to the right or left without the stupid bars popping up. The add ons are kind of cool but nothing I can't live without.
Opera was great before my city got 3G but now its just kind of blah. I like pictures and it scales the pictures all weird.
Skyfire was great before we got flash. Its way too buggy and crashed too much for a daily driver.
Fenac (Mozilla) is a great concept but just sucks. Its slow, scales images like Opera but without the speed boost. I really hope they fix it because syncing my tabs with my home pc would be awesome.
And then there is stock. Its not flashy, doesn't try to do anything special, it just works.

rudeguy said:
I have tried basically every browser out there and always come back to stock.
Dolphin is too busy for me. I hate that I can't scroll all the way to the right or left without the stupid bars popping up. The add ons are kind of cool but nothing I can't live without.
Opera was great before my city got 3G but now its just kind of blah. I like pictures and it scales the pictures all weird.
Skyfire was great before we got flash. Its way too buggy and crashed too much for a daily driver.
Fenac (Mozilla) is a great concept but just sucks. Its slow, scales images like Opera but without the speed boost. I really hope they fix it because syncing my tabs with my home pc would be awesome.
And then there is stock. Its not flashy, doesn't try to do anything special, it just works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Dolphin HD for me. After getting the hang of Gestures, I can't see myself using anything else.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

rudeguy said:
I have tried basically every browser out there and always come back to stock.
Dolphin is too busy for me. I hate that I can't scroll all the way to the right or left without the stupid bars popping up. The add ons are kind of cool but nothing I can't live without.
Opera was great before my city got 3G but now its just kind of blah. I like pictures and it scales the pictures all weird.
Skyfire was great before we got flash. Its way too buggy and crashed too much for a daily driver.
Fenac (Mozilla) is a great concept but just sucks. Its slow, scales images like Opera but without the speed boost. I really hope they fix it because syncing my tabs with my home pc would be awesome.
And then there is stock. Its not flashy, doesn't try to do anything special, it just works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had exactly the same thought process. The stock browser really is the best option.

I normally use the stock browser but I use Dolphin HD on occassions where I want to render pages in desktop mode. As far as I know of the stock android browser does not offer this feature.

Akulamenuri said:
I normally use the stock browser but I use Dolphin HD on occassions where I want to render pages in desktop mode. As far as I know of the stock android browser does not offer this feature.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you type in about:info into the search bar then you can go into the settings and there is a way to select desktop mode.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

iI love dolphin browser hd with the full screen add-on it works great

Well I tried the HD and I think it really kicks back pocket. Only think is the flash content comes as arrow marked down and onces u click on it, the content starts. Any way to avoid that and render papges as is.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

kinacool said:
Well I tried the HD and I think it really kicks back pocket. Only think is the flash content comes as arrow marked down and onces u click on it, the content starts. Any way to avoid that and render papges as is.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Possibly buy why would you want to? Flash will slow your browsing experience down and also drain your battery faster. All of us Android guys know about conserving battery wherever possible.
Or are you trying to watch a site with a ton of...well...videos on your phone? Some of them of an adult nature? If so, they just allow it under the website settings and share which page it is. Everyone I go to hijacks me to brazzermobile and sucks.
And yeah...after my rant in favor of stock browser, I downloaded Dolphin to give it another try. Its not that bad once you disable the stupid righ/left option windows.
I don't understand why Google can't make Chrome integrate with their stock browser better. Why Google...why????

Speaking of those site lol. Is their any way to view the actual desktop version of a website without viewing the mobile version. I went into the settings on the Dolphin Hd browser and set it up in desktop mode, but when I go to the site it takes me to the mobile version not the desktop version. I havent tried about:debug and adjust the settings on the stock browser yet, does anyone know if this works?

dsil711 said:
Speaking of those site lol. Is their any way to view the actual desktop version of a website without viewing the mobile version. I went into the settings on the Dolphin Hd browser and set it up in desktop mode, but when I go to the site it takes me to the mobile version not the desktop version. I havent tried about:debug and adjust the settings on the stock browser yet, does anyone know if this works?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The website knows that you are on an Android phone. With non-stock ROM's, you could have it spoof as something different. Stock we aren't that lucky.

Stock FTW. It is basically chrome-lite. Not flashy, doesn't do all kinds of crazy, but its fast and simply works. No need for another browser now that we have flash.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2

Best Mobile Browser

I had been using DolphinHD, but I was wondering about the other options. I switched to xScope browser yesterday which I am quite liking, and I personally preferred dolphin mini to dolphin HD when I used to use it.
Please post what browser you use and why you like it!!!

I've been using boat browser for a while, it's fast, and I like the ability to customize the tool bar.

I prefer Opera Mobile because it uses its own rendering engine. This means webpages look like their desktop counterparts. My biggest disappointment with Opera, though, is that I could never figure out how to get it to open a home page and not its Speed Dial page.
My second choice is Skyfire because of its simple interface, yet it still has a search box in the address bar.
I've tried Dolphin HD on my Incredible, but it just looked cramped and I got used to the other two browsers.
To each his own, though.

Opera Mobile for sure.
Sent from my LG-P930 using Tapatalk

Here's another vote for Opera Mobile! It seems to render just about everything as close to desktop as possible; it also has the best html5 compatibility, IIRC...

I'm using Dolphin as well. I never tried others yet but coming from the G2x, I like the Dolphin HD the most... But tonight I'll experiment with other browsers. The dolpin used to suck with so much lag on my SU640, you need to do the adjust resolution thingy for it to work smoothly.

Opera Mobile (not Opera Mini) and Maxthon

limpbisquit said:
you need to do the adjust resolution thingy for it to work smoothly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wats that?

Billy Madison said:
wats that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go to settings, display and press screen optimization.

i use maxthon browser and i like it very much...am i the only one?

I am anxious to try the google chrome browser but I have to wait for LG to send my bricked phone back.

GordonOSU said:
I am anxious to try the google chrome browser but I have to wait for LG to send my bricked phone back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you also need ICS .

Opera Mobile for normal browsing, Dolphin HD for porn and pages Opera can't load, which happens occasionally.

I can't remember where I saw this, maybe it was the boat browser thread in the apps and games section of the forums, but dolphin had apparently been sending all of the information from your browser use to its websites. 34 sent from dolphin hd compared to 5 from boat browser.
I personally use boat after seeing that information. If i wasn't so paranoid about privacy (i really have nothing to hide) then i would keep using dolphin. It is quite impressive with how fast it is.

xScope used to be my favorite, but the Devs seem to have abandoned it long ago...Except for most recently, but even then I believe that was only to fix for Galaxy Nexus.
Currently I have Boat, DolphinHD and Opera Mobile all installed. I find I mostly use DolphinHD, then Opera for the occasional page that Dolphin can't handle/render properly. Boat is nice, but I'll likely be removing it soon as I just keep gravitating back to DolphinHD.
I just installed Firefox Beta (v11.0.0) and so far I'm quite impressed!

Sandpapers said:
I can't remember where I saw this, maybe it was the boat browser thread in the apps and games section of the forums, but dolphin had apparently been sending all of the information from your browser use to its websites.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
[PRIVACY] WARNING: Dolphin's collection of your browsing history
Namuna said:
I just installed Firefox Beta (v11.0.0) and so far I'm quite impressed!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have large collection of saved forms, passwords, do not sync it with mobile FF it will take ages before it become responsive after opening...Other than that It's good, but not yet there compare to Opera and Maxthon.

[email protected] said:
If you have large collection of saved forms, passwords, do not sync it with mobile FF it will take ages before it become responsive after opening...Other than that It's good, but not yet there compare to Opera and Maxthon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, and apparently the Flash support still isn't there yet either...So I'm back to liking Opera/Dolphin combo.

Try boat mini. It's lightweight and fast.
Sent from my LG-P930 using XDA App

Best 3rd party browser?

Boat Browser is my go-to but it's not working on the N7 and I can't stand Chrome. The scrolling just feels clunky.
What do you guys recommend? Dolphin HD?

I use xscope and it seems to work well. Flash works fine.

ICS browser+ is a good one that is fairly unknown ....everyone seems to like dolphin HD too
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

great browser
Dolphin HD seems to do a good job for me including opera

Dolphin HD, OP put a poll up!

Here's another prop for xscope pro. It is the best I've used so far. Flash works, you get true full screen, it's fast and it's smooth. You really can't ask for more.

Been using dolphin mostly.. very smooth

Maxthon

Dolphin for me here, very smooth, Chrome feels like its still in beta.

Xscope was my fav on previous devices, but doesn't seem to work as well on the N7 for me. It use to pinch/zoom every mobile web site, but on the N7 it doesn't. I'm getting use to Chrome, seems to pinch zoom well (but doesn't auto-wrap like Xscope). Pretty sure I have every setting the same, but still no luck. Example is Facebook mobile page, zooms on my Player and phone, no go on my N7; where Chrome does. I need to try it again, because I'm missing flash.
Darreno1 said:
Here's another prop for xscope pro. It is the best I've used so far. Flash works, you get true full screen, it's fast and it's smooth. You really can't ask for more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Dolphin or Maxthon. Though honestly, I pretty much exclusively use Chrome nowadays. Google spanked every Android browser dev in the world with how awesome tab switching/handling is in Chrome for Android, lol. Every other browser feels like an old, clunky piece of crap by comparison.

+1 for boat on GB
+1 for Chrome if you are on ICS+

Give Firefox's nightly build a try, its called Aurora
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

Dolphin HD is good. Though I'm using chrome again don't know why.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

Maxthon
Maxthon for me due to full screen mode, although if Chrome had full screen I'd be using that instead.

I use Xscope pro, works for me.

I never liked Firefox on my phone but the beta is really nice on my N7.

Xscope is interesting. I like the ad block feature and its Dark mode. It works very well compared to the Inverse crap the stock browser uses.
I'm kinds confused on the way it works though. I see tabs at the top but when I swipe left to right, I get other pages but each page has a single tab. Almost like a new browser window. Seems to be speedy.
I tried Dolphin several times and just can't get used to it.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

player911 said:
Xscope is interesting. I like the ad block feature and its Dark mode. It works very well compared to the Inverse crap the stock browser uses.
I'm kinds confused on the way it works though. I see tabs at the top but when I swipe left to right, I get other pages but each page has a single tab. Almost like a new browser window. Seems to be speedy.
I tried Dolphin several times and just can't get used to it.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Downloaded scope based on your guys reccomendations and it seems to be really fluid. Gonna take a bit to get used to all the feautures and gestures but so far seems to be a huge improvement over chrome,

aristurtle said:
I never liked Firefox on my phone but the beta is really nice on my N7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed, looks like they finally got it right apart from bookmarks being buried 6 finger taps deep. WTF?
Nice to have Adblock+ working, too.

That's it! I'm done with Chrome!

Such a horrible browser! Lags, freezes, slow, stupid checker board.... Horrible. Constantly refreshes every time I leave the app and come back real quick. The stock browser in my HTC incredible s is faster and more efficient... Even with 4 flash videos running at the same time!
I just used opera mobile just now and it is world's better than crappy chrome mobile.
The only thing it has going for it is the ability to sync desktop bookmarks and current tabs opened... But it's so laggy and slow, it's a pain.
opera Mobile is now my default browser
How can something so awesome on the desktop suck so badly on mobile?
#smh
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

I have been enjoying the latest dolphin browser beta: http://dolphin-browser.com/beta/
Sent from my DROID RAZR MAXX using xda premium

Wow... I keep going back to Chrome. Haven't found any that zoom and wrap any better. Have never seen a refresh. I tried Dolphin, Boat, FF Beta, and Xscope. Keeping Xscope for flash, Chrome for 90% of all other. I use Firefox on PC, so Chrome sync is not used, I don't like so many bookmarks anyway. While I have my favorites on my home page, I find this bookmark app helpful. I find the font and text size in Chrome much better than any other browser. If it would use flash, it's the only one I'd use.

Chrome and Dolphin are the best I've used so far, and neither make me super happy. Chrome lags big time on certain sites (Tumblr for example) and closes tabs as soon as you look away. Dolphin is faster, most of the time, but has rendering issues on some sites (ESPN for example, gives the mobile site vs the tablet site, no matter what the user agent is). As an iOS user historically, I was expecting the browser experience to be better on Android since it's an "open" system, but unfortunately that has not been true. Hopefully someone steps up to the plate.
I had a TF101, and I felt the stock browser on that was better than Chrome now. Especially small usability things like having a bookmarks bar. It shouldn't take 5-10 seconds to load my bookmarks (multiple taps + loading wait), they should be available quickly and efficiently.

I actually quite like chrome on a tablet!
Its always been really responsive and fast.
Tried, dolphin beta, Firefox & opera but none of them compare to chrome.
The lack of flash support isnt a huge problem for me.

Seriously? something must be wrong with your OS or hardware because for me is working great! I'm a ex- Transformer prime user with the stock browser and Chrome is by far the best browser experience I ever had in an Android tablet, although I have not tried that Dolphin Beta mentioned above

yeah, I feel you
I know that chrome is FAR from perfect as of now, and I even have dolphin installed, but something about it just keeps making me come back to it...

I click on the Chrome icon and it opens to my bookmarks home page in about 1 second. Click XDA BM and opens in 1-2 seconds. I find Chrome VERY fast, just lacks flash which is a BIG "just".
Dorkington said:
I had a TF101, and I felt the stock browser on that was better than Chrome now. Especially small usability things like having a bookmarks bar. It shouldn't take 5-10 seconds to load my bookmarks (multiple taps + loading wait), they should be available quickly and efficiently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Chrome is 2nd rate til they enable full screen option, and default desktop setting.
Boat browser swims circles around chrome right now.

If you put Chrome on a transformer prime, it's known to cause all the other browsers you have installed to then lock up and crash on a very regular basis.
You have to uninstall Chrome, and then flash, and reinstall flash to get back to normal. I was curious when they decided to use chrome as the default if they'd fixed this. I think the answer is sorta.
While the lockups arent near as frequent or bad as they are on the prime. It still happens. The best combo on the prime was browser, and opera. Which seems to work well on the nexus as well.

My only gripe with Chrome is that the new tab page opens up Mobile Bookmarks as the default bookmark folder, even though I have absolutely no bookmarks stored in that folder. Why can't I just be taken to the root bookmark folder?
Other than that, Chrome is smooth enough to be usable for me. Usually if it starts chugging, it's because I have another app open in the background eating up all of my system resources. Having to refresh the page after leaving the app for an extended period of time makes sense given the limited resources on this device, and it happens with other browsers, too. Android's memory management is only as good as the memory management of your third party apps, which is to say most developers are still terrible at it.

I too have problems with Chrome. Currently using the stock browser.

Turbocom said:
I too have problems with Chrome. Currently using the stock browser.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How does one install the stock browser on the Nexus 7? (Preferably without rooting)

thevuman said:
Such a horrible browser! Lags, freezes, slow, stupid checker board.... Horrible. Constantly refreshes every time I leave the app and come back real quick. The stock browser in my HTC incredible s is faster and more efficient... Even with 4 flash videos running at the same time!
I just used opera mobile just now and it is world's better than crappy chrome mobile.
The only thing it has going for it is the ability to sync desktop bookmarks and current tabs opened... But it's so laggy and slow, it's a pain.
opera Mobile is now my default browser
How can something so awesome on the desktop suck so badly on mobile?
#smh
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Chrome on the Nexus 7 is great.. I've never had any of the issue you described. No lags, refreshed, anything. It's fast and perfect.
I've heard people complain about it but all I can think is that there's something wrong on their end.

You guys don't get the checkerboard effect either? Surely you must. I've seen it in video reviews too.
I fap to the porn forums on Tapatalk 2

Checkerboard? Never saw that, but then I've never watched a video in chrome. I either use the You Tube app or Xscope.

tcat007 said:
Checkerboard? Never saw that, but then I've never watched a video in chrome. I either use the You Tube app or Xscope.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Checkerboard, meaning the whole page hasn't rendered and as you scroll, white squares will fill in spots on the page that haven't rendered yet.

Yeah I find the same with Chrome, good example is to load the Engadget website and scroll through it as its loading.
Using Dolphin, the best browser in my opinion. Might give the new beta a go.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

I love Chrome, it is my first option on all my devices. Never really liked Dolphin

Boat Browser. Android Chrome is still in its puberty. When it has matured, it will be something to reckon with.