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Hi all, I'm new to the android world, with the nexus s being my first android operated phone maybe even my first smart phone, had a Nokia n97 previous although it wasn't quite the smartphone advertised but thats another story.
The title says it all really I'd just like to know what browser you would recomend and why. I used to use opera on the n97 however there wasn't the selection available there is for android. I see dolphin hd pop up alot around the forums.
So please share your favorite browser and you reassons why. e.g speed, UI, customise ect
Cheers for everyone who takes part.
Firefox or Dolphin HD for the add-ons
Opera for speed
Stock browser for all-round
Stock browser for speed (less lag)
I also like the stock browser but I'm also a big fan of xScope Browser.
I usually use the stock because it seems the best all around as one of the above stated but to save pages I use Opera and I've been testing out some others as well
Im really liking the Dolphin mini beta at the moment. I find it quicker than stock and still runs everything perfectly.
For me the stock browser is the best atm :
- Firefox : looks promising, but way too slow for day-to-day use, needs optimizations
- Opera : don't like the rendering, almost impossible to click on links (try browsing Google Reader...), not really faster than stock (with turbo mode off)
- Dolphin / Dolphin HD : too bloated for me
The stock browser has been impressive so far. I haven't run into any problems so far
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
The only thing that bothers me in the stock browser is the navigation through open windows. I'd love to have some proper tabbed browsing.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
nicholasbgr said:
The only thing that bothers me in the stock browser is the navigation through open windows. I'd love to have some proper tabbed browsing.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
(adding more for 10 char limit)
I've extensively used the stock browser, Opera Mobile, and FireFox (nightlies and latest stable). I primarily use Opera Mobile (not mini) for almost everything because of how ridiculously smooth its pinch zoom and panning is compared to everything else out. To see its advantages, simply go to an image-heavy page like Gizmodo and try panning and zooming on any other browser (the newest FireFox included). To me, its smoother/better user experience is important than the javascript speed advantages in FireFox.
I have run repeated tests on both my N1 and my NS and have found that in SunSpider, the fastest is FireFox by a healthy margin, followed by the stock browser, distantly followed by Opera. However, in my experience, page loading has always been similar across all three, meaning that js speed doesn't factor that much in rendering most pages.
Extensions are a big draw in FireFox, as is Flash in the stock browser, but I find that Opera does everything I need natively. Plus, flash support is supposedly going to be added (as well as to FireFox Mobile).
x scope 6 is solid its fast and all around just great I know its not free but I think its the best one out at the moment until firefox comes out of beta and adds flash it may be king
stock for me.
Dolphin HD has a lot of add-ons that I thought sounded interesting and installed on my Galaxy S and Nexus One, but I never really used any of them, so that's a pointless feature for me. I found Dolphin HD to be bloated and much slower than the stock browser on any of my phones, even without add-ons.
I've kept the NS on stock based on past performance with Dolphin.
seems like I haven't really gave the stock browser the chance it deserves, to be honest dismissed it almost straight away.
Back to stock for me to give it a real test. Although I'm hoping firefox lives up to it's desktop browser standards.
Also quick question which is non related but I don't see the point in starting a new thread. I need to return my phone due to the back button not lighting up. I was just wondering if there is a away to save all my data to when I get my new phone i can put all my data back on. E.g phone numbers, sms msgs photos angry bird progess, music ect.
thanks again for any help.
I prefer the built-in browser for everyday use. I have one website that I get from a real estate broker which has some fancy frames in it that doesn't render correctly in the stock browser, for this site I use Opera mini.
i'm still can't decide which one is best
using (in no special order):
Stock 2.3 Browser
Opera Mobile
Opera Mini
SkyFire
Dolphin HD
FireFox beta
they all have their Cons/Pros
SkyFire was my main Browser until they screwed it up, and now it has become as broadware as Dolphin HD
I like both Dolphin and Skyfire for their Flash & Video support but... they are slow and broad.
FireFox still has much work to be done on it
Opera Mini & Opera Mobile is identical in Android, but in WinMo they were 2 different apps
so it boils down to Stock 2.3 Browser being the fastest, but.. not so great on Flash / Video support
can anyone answer my question on a way to back up all my data as I'm returning my phone tomorrow due to the back button light not working.
Is there away to back up all data, apps, contacts,photos, messages, angry bird progress. live wall papers. Or will i need to start all over again?
Also how can I earse all my data in order to return the phone.
Thanks in advance
I had installed dolphin hd browser & find it the best accept that the developers missing out the most important feature of importing bookmarks from other browser, hence i wanted to test firefox4 mobile & opera 11.
Both browser are painfully slow & will open a page in 2-3 mins , none of them let me log on my rediffmail account, same slowness on other sites don't know what is making these 2 excellent browser so slow.
Is there a way out or these browsers are so slow (I cant believe that) my guess is that something is clashing between these browser so I closed all of them restarted the phone & tested individually but still the same slowness making them useless, where as dolphin hd works like a charm but its again useless as I cant import my bookmarks organized in folder & sub folder into it.
May be the mobile view is turned on in the dolphin browser, hence it loads faster, and the other other browsers opens the whole pages.
Did you try opera 6 mini?
Mobile view is off on all three browsers yet not working. I hope dolphin hd is not blocking them. Opera mini supports importing nested bookmarks?
I have been using Firefox mobile for several days now and it has been a bit faster than the stock browser for me. If you are worried about conflicts with other browsers try uninstalling them, but I doubt that is it.
Are any other network connections, like to the market or email, also running slowly?
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA Premium App
I am on 2g so already slow connection compared to 3g but even then dolphin hd, email market opens up 10-20 sec, but firefox simply refuse to open even in 1 min, it opens may be 3-4 mins which was bothering me hence I downloaded opera & that too is behaving the same way so I am concluding that either something is blocking these 2 added browser bcoz stock browser & dolphin are working fine faster as usual.
Cant figure out what is the issue, I need the bookmark to be imported as they are important part of browsing.
Try out Skyfire 3.0, one the only browser that supports Silverlight.
Opera mini is the Best for Slow Internet connections, or Skyfire on 3G would be my choice..
I noticed that Google has two different mobile versions of his pages. One for his default Android browser and one for the others. And the one for the others is much simpler. It's most noticeable when you try to display iGoogle. In the default browser you get fancy user interface with many features and widgets whereas in Opera Mobile 11, you get really simple HTML page with practically no settings. I set Opera to use the user agent of the default browser and suddenly I got the better mobile version too. And naturally with all functionality.
So I ask.. why Google does that? He thinks, that other browsers can't handle advanced features of his pages? Or is he simply trying to put off people from using alternative browsers? Or is there an official way turn on this better version? Because changing the user agent seems to break some other pages and even the Google search, although it looks much better and more modern, is for some reason displayed extremely wide.
I couldn't find anything about this weird behavior but maybe I just used the wrong keywords
Bump. I have wondered this too, and it forces me to use dolphin (which is essentially the default browser spiced up a bit). I like the google homepage with the default android browser because it uses my location. Withe firefox, its as if Im on a computer and is less helpful. Anyone have a solution/workaround?
Well, as I wrote before, I changed the user agent of Opera to the user agent of stock browser/Dolphin so basically Opera pretended to be stock browser and I really got the nice modern Google Homepage, including my location. However the layout was a little bit messed up, the viewport was strangely wide, so it was kind of useless. But I guess it's a problem of Opera. You could try it too in Firefox, but I don't know whether it is possible to change your user agent in mobile Firefox, maybe there is an addon for it?
Easiest way to get the stock browser user agent is to open stock browser, use Google to search "what is my user agent", go to first link and select and copy the text it displays. You can just past it then wherever you want to.
Btw. I tried Dolphin HD and I almost switched because I really liked the UI (Opera is a little bit old school I would say) but when it came to rendering real full webpages, Opera was way way faster than Dolphin. At least on my Nexus S.
I really like the Opera mobile also with the Google search from the stock android browser using the user agent. I really wish there wasn't so wide like others here have posted. Hopefully someone or Opera will come up with a fix.
The instructions found in the below post has seemed to fix all of the rendering issues I had with Opera Mobile.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1009719
I really wish that opera would fix the problem of Google search being to wide. I really like the opera browser but it is annoying when searching to have to scroll to the right in order the click the search button sometimes.
[Q] Better Web Browser
I'm looking for a web browser for my TF that views pages in actual web form, not as mobile pages.
I think with a screen this size it should be possible, right?
Anybody have any suggestions?
Thanks
Soopafly Incredible said:
I'm looking for a web browser for my TF that views pages in actual web form, not as mobile pages.
I think with a screen this size it should be possible, right?
Anybody have any suggestions?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Skyfire has a desktop mode.
~DC
I use Dolphin, can set user-agent to Desktop.
Some people have suggested Dolphin HD as good replacement for the stock browser. I'm just not clear about your problem? My stock browser displays the webpages as my PC browser would. You can check Settings|Advanced and User agent string.
Hope this helps,
rio
I'm using Dolphin HD and like it better than the stock one.
~DC
I guess maybe I'm missing some steps, or haven't tried a few of them that you've mentioned. Just noticed that in my firefox browser (and also the stock browser) all of the pages (MSN, Facebook) are showing up in their mobile forms.
I'll try a couple of those you mentioned and see if I can find them...Thanks!
try Firefox
rio911 said:
My stock browser displays the webpages as my PC browser would. You can check Settings|Advanced and User agent string.
Hope this helps,
rio
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do this to stop getting mobile versions!
rio911 said:
Some people have suggested Dolphin HD as good replacement for the stock browser. I'm just not clear about your problem? My stock browser displays the webpages as my PC browser would. You can check Settings|Advanced and User agent string.
Hope this helps,
rio
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now we just need hulu to acknowledge this!
Dolphin HD
This should be a poll
If you get ADW EX you can adjust the standard (useless) browser widget to 2 columns by 7 rows (looks a lot better), then when you first click on a thumbnail it asks you which browser you wish to use, click your preffered item then you have a custon full size browser of choice widget.
Lately I have been experimenting with different browsers because I am not happy with the stock browser on Honeycomb because it seems to have a lot of issues and slow performance when rendering. I know that a lot of people have been recommending Dolphin Browser HD, and I have tried that alongside Mozilla Firefox. Which browser is everyone else using on their Transformer and how do you like it?
The thing I miss most about the stock browser is the sync with your google chrome bookmarks, so if anyone can suggest how to get that to work with Dolphin Browser or Mozilla, I would appreciate it. Mozilla seems to have the best rendering speed out of the two, however, Dolphin seems to have more features and a better overall interface. Both Dolphin and the stock browser have problems rendering this forum, but Mozilla seems to do it with ease. However, it doesn't seem as though Mozilla is proportioned right for Tablet use yet.
I guess each of the has their positives and negatives, which is why I want to see what everyone else is using and their thoughts.
I use all of them because I don't like any of them. Every one has some problems. The best is probably the stock one, but it doesn't have adblock and when I turn on flash some pages turn into literally hell because of ads. Firefox on the other hand is fast but has very few options and scales images very poorly (this forum looks ugly on it for example). Opera is strange (especcialy the tabs are strange). Dolphin looks like a bloatware.
I hope to see full desktop browser on Android some time. With extensions and such (Firefox mobile extensions are laughable, even adblock doesn't have any options).
to me the stock browser seems more and more like chrome...is it just me?
All Android browsers are really inferior... Right now I go back and forth between stock and Firefox... Don't like either...
stock is as fluid as it gets
I tried Dolphin... but to be frank, it definitely does seem like bloatware. Its overall pretty awful. I keep it installed just because I use it for some websites that the stock one doesn't work properly. But thats rare. And I don't care for it.
People keep saying that Dolphin is "optimised for honeycomb" but I really don't think so. If it were, it'd run a crap ton better.
I use stock. It doesnt always work perfect, and it has its flaws for sure, but its pretty darn fluid, the tabs work great, and its just a clean looking browser.
Stock for browsing and firefox for downloading .zip files
would prefer opera as its my desktop browser of choice but its just terrible atm on android
re browser's
I,d really like to like the stock browser, or dolphin (my usual favourite), but the opera mobile seems currently the only one that has that ipad floaty feel to scrolling. Why cant the others do this?
Dolphin hd beta 5 is awesome
Firefox with adblock is sweet. For watching Flash websites, I use stock or dolphin hd. I like opera too. I guess I will be using all of them as I see fit. That's what I like about android.
I personally think opera mobile (the newest version) is the best one out there. Absolutely zero lag. Compatible with everything I throw at it. I don't understand why people insist on hating it or not using it. It's the best one out there.
I like Opera but there are some things that bug me:
- Google always shows up in mobile view, its annoying to have to always scroll down to click classic.
- The tabs system is slow, I prefer the way the stock browser has them
- You cant always go back to the start page, most of the time you have to open a new tab instead of being able to use the speed dial.
The new Dolphin HD is nice but I don't like not having back and forward buttons, and that you have to scroll back to the top of the page to type in a URL. In the stock browser all you have to do is click the tab and the buttons show.
I don't like the blocks that happen in the stock browser when scrolling, but I really love the quick controls. It generally seems less buggy than the other browsers as well.
Opera actually almost is the best browser but on some pages they never load fully & on some pages even with flash enabled some things show up as a big arrow that would play just fine on Dolphin Hd.Opera is the only browser i can check my gmail just as i could on my desktop..Dolphin HD is lacking there.Opera needs another update to fix the bugs.Lastly why on earth does everything load on Opera halfway (for instance pictures).If you hold on the pic it will give you the option to "Reload image in full quality" !!! Wtf..how about loading that way in the first place lol...I'll stick with Dolphin Hd for now.
Toast95135 said:
I like Opera but there are some things that bug me:
- Google always shows up in mobile view, its annoying to have to always scroll down to click classic.
- The tabs system is slow, I prefer the way the stock browser has them
- You cant always go back to the start page, most of the time you have to open a new tab instead of being able to use the speed dial.
The new Dolphin HD is nice but I don't like not having back and forward buttons, and that you have to scroll back to the top of the page to type in a URL. In the stock browser all you have to do is click the tab and the buttons show.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Weird. Nothing has shown up as mobile view for me for a month now. I think you need to play around more with settings.
Toast95135 said:
I like Opera but there are some things that bug me:
- Google always shows up in mobile view, its annoying to have to always scroll down to click classic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can solve this by setting the User Agent to Desktop in Advanced settings.
---------- Post added at 09:32 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:28 AM ----------
Arun01 said:
Opera actually almost is the best browser but on some pages they never load fully & on some pages even with flash enabled some things show up as a big arrow that would play just fine on Dolphin Hd.Opera is the only browser i can check my gmail just as i could on my desktop..Dolphin HD is lacking there.Opera needs another update to fix the bugs.Lastly why on earth does everything load on Opera halfway (for instance pictures).If you hold on the pic it will give you the option to "Reload image in full quality" !!! Wtf..how about loading that way in the first place lol...I'll stick with Dolphin Hd for now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look like you have Opera Turbo enabled, which means that Opera loads the pages though a proxy server which compresses pages for faster loading over slow connections. This will speedup your loading over slow connections, but if you've got a fast connection you should not use it.
You can disable Opera Turbo in the settings.
I find the Dolphin for Pad browser very good:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.dolphin.browser.pad&feature=search_result
None
The day I can go to vimeo.com or youtube.com and play an HD 720p video without having to maximize the screen (without ANY stutter) is the day I'll name a best browser. As it stands, none to me are the best. They all have flaws with flash.
Argh nevermind the part about "reload image in full quality ".I see what it is now lol.Dolphin for pad needs an update bad!!!
Sent from my Xoom using XDA App
I like dolphin for pad. Opera is not bad, but for me it's a bit slow to start showing the site, and some site I use quite a lot has a little bug in the render. Also, I don't like the tab system.
You can go to the top in Dolphin HD by using the gesture button on the bottom left. Just make an upside down V and it'll bring you right up.
All the browsers need to add some better swipe gestures however...like Atomic Browser for ios. It has 2 Finger swipe left or right to switch between tabs or 3 finger touch to maximize screen. They're customizable as well.
Goodintentions why dont you put a poll on this thread of the top ten browsers?
Opera
dolphin
skyfire
miren
uc
mozilla beta
etc etc
Sent from my tf101 using xda premium 1.59Ghz
I have to say opera mobile hands down. Not to be confused with opera mini. They are 2 different browsers...especially in terms of performance. But yes, opera mobile is an absolutely fantastic browser both on my nexus s and transformer. Blows every other browser out the water. Very fast UI. Very smooth scrolling and zooming. Flash content etc. It must have deep gpu / hardware acceleration i think. It behaves like a dream. What every browser should be.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda premium
Toast95135 said:
I like Opera but there are some things that bug me:
- Google always shows up in mobile view, its annoying to have to always scroll down to click classic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then change the UA to Desktop (you have Mobile, Tablet and Desktop) it's in the settings...
How card can it be?
---------- Post added at 11:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:42 AM ----------
voyager_s said:
It must have deep gpu / hardware acceleration i think. It behaves like a dream. What every browser should be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does, and it's the only browser to do so (which is why scrolling is silky smooth on Opera and crap on everything else). Even the stock Android browser doesn't have it yet...
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2370756,00.asp#fbid=7tE7TmefXx2
The browser will be available for all versions of the Android OS. New features in this version of Opera Mobile include hardware acceleration and pinch-to-zoom. According to the company, hardware acceleration leverages the power of the mobile phone to allow for increased speed, faster navigation, and more fluid interaction with the phone. It also makes possible full pinch-to-zoom functionality for all sites.
CrazyPeter said:
Then change the UA to Desktop (you have Mobile, Tablet and Desktop) it's in the settings...
How card can it be?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do have it set to the desktop user agent, and Opera does the same thing on my phone. Typing a search in the URL or search bar always brings up the mobile version. I have gone through and changed the user agent in the about:config page without any luck either.
Toast95135 said:
I do have it set to the desktop user agent, and Opera does the same thing on my phone. Typing a search in the URL or search bar always brings up the mobile version. I have gone through and changed the user agent in the about:config page without any luck either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Spoken like a true ipad user. Complain rather than try to find a solution.
The search bar is a mobile search bar, yes. Would it kill you to not use it? Just put google homepage (the desktop one) in your favorite and go there whenever you want to search for something.
Many of us have already written to opera about this. I'm confident they will fix this in upcoming updates.
To me, this is one drawback that is easily avoidable. With built in hw acceleration and functions... screw it.
Just don't use opera at all. If you prefer the lagginess of other browsers, be my guess. Don't ever try to go around anything. Just complain.
goodintentions said:
Spoken like a true ipad user. Complain rather than try to find a solution.
The search bar is a mobile search bar, yes. Would it kill you to not use it? Just put google homepage (the desktop one) in your favorite and go there whenever you want to search for something.
Many of us have already written to opera about this. I'm confident they will fix this in upcoming updates.
To me, this is one drawback that is easily avoidable. With built in hw acceleration and functions... screw it.
Just don't use opera at all. If you prefer the lagginess of other browsers, be my guess. Don't ever try to go around anything. Just complain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excuse me? Im complaining because I don't like a bug that lots of other people have reported? Ive tried every "solution" in the book to try and fix it but none work. I like Opera and have been using it for a year but it doesn't mean the mobile bug is any less irritating.
Toast95135 said:
Excuse me? Im complaining because I don't like a bug that lots of other people have reported? Ive tried every "solution" in the book to try and fix it but none work. I like Opera and have been using it for a year but it doesn't mean the mobile bug is any less irritating.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Already told you the solution. Its the same one I use. Just put Google homepage in favorite and go there when you want to search. How hard can it be?
I use the stock browser because it provides what I want (tabs, chrome bookmark sync) and performs reasonably enough for browsing; I still remember surfing at 3.4K/s .
Opera is what I use on my phone because it seriously kicks the Froyo stock browser to timbucktu on performance. I do think Opera Mobile's UI is much better suited to a tablet than the HC stock though.
Opera mobile is indeed faster and smoother in terms of scrolling compared to all the other browsers. UI response is also very quick. However, Opera has serious issues with Flash. Opera would crash on my TF for some flash content and flash videos are really slow to load and would stutter while Dolphin HD and even stock would play much smoother.
I like Opera, its my usual web browsing browser. But if I need flash content, I switch to Dolphin HD.