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I downloaded dolphin browser HD from the market last night to give it a try. I wanted to see if it would make the browsing even smoother and faster than it already is on frf91, or run flash better or something. I don't notice anything different. I understand that it has a lot of great features like gestures, tabs, add ons that the regular browser doesn't. But as far as just the performance of page loading or scrolling or anything, do you guys see any difference? What do you like about it?
Lol you answered it in your own post.. It's about the extra features it has
Right I was just wondering if people saw a performance increase in certain types of pages or something. Or if anyone was noticing speed increases.
I don't see any improvements whatsoever with speed. For Dolphin, I have a bunch of gestures set up that makes my lift a lot easier by having a shortcut to "select text".
I guess the only other thing that helps is the convenient access to wipe history and cache. You can also set it to private browsing mode so it never remembers history.
I like being able to exit/close the browser
I have noticed a few features that make Dolphin browser great.
First is the UAs (user agent settings) can be set to desktop client always. I hate going to about:debug every single time on the N1 stock browser. The MT3GS has a stock browser with UAs options in the stock settings. Not having that, after already having it in a stock browser is just annoying.
Downloading is much more efficient with Dolphin for me. I have been able to get everything posted on xda through rapidshare and others. If I am about to download something on my computer, I chrome to phone the link, and use dolphin to download it and astro to move it to the root.
Text clarity is much better on Dolphin. This was especially noticeable when reading text sites, like the news.
The flash player is on Demand, which is annoying when your first testing it out, but I have grown to love that feature. Especially when a lot of sites are fattened up with flash advertisements and useless widgets all over the place. News sites are the worst of all. Even when your in an EDGE only zone a news story should load fine, but an animated advertisement loading in the middle of the page will slow you down.
Downside. I can't seem to establish a secure connection when attempting to connect to a website using verisign to verify the secure connection. I don't know if it is the secure connection that isn't working or the verification? I emailed Dolphin, maybe they will tell me.
I use Dolphin primarily, but the great thing about Android is that you can run both of them, or either of them whenever you please. Getting the best of both worlds.
What I like the most is the simple refresh and stop button next to the address bar
I just wish it had a better theme...the theme tries to be too flashy and the additional themes are equally as gaudy...a simple stock browser theme (same tabs and buttons and whatnot but with the stock android theme styling) would be great...oh well.
Just so I know, dolphin browser uses the default webkit browser core, correct? And it just basically is like the default browser with different settings, UI, and "skin" overtop of the default browser.
no one uses xscope?
dmo580 said:
no one uses xscope?
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Only for downloading files that Dolphin Browser seems to not want to download...
Skyfire 2.1 has improved alot. Its fast, the multi touch is better than it was with 2.0, and its flash player works much better than before. I use this when browsing casually (not logging in anywhere.) Love to watch worldstarhiphop videos with it cause flash 10.1 performance sucks on that site.
dmo580 said:
no one uses xscope?
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Click to collapse
i use xscope. although i like that dolphin has ability to sync bookmarks
Nope, stopped using Dolphin HD for a couple reasons:
1) It has tabs, which is awesome, but it's a little too complicated to reach them compared to the old dolphin. I liked being able to swipe down to bring down the bar.
2) It's buggy as hell. I've uninstalled and reinstalled it about three times now. Sometimes it doesn't register my clicks, sometimes it brings about the crazy screen problem, and sometimes it just doesn't try to load my pages.
I just wish the stock android browser had tabs implemented.
Xscope has 0 bugs and its fast
The ability for fullscreen mode. That's most important to me as I don't want the notification bar to waste space and to prevent further lcd screen burn in for my N1.
Although that feature is broken in the recent version but a fix is coming.
kolyan said:
Xscope has 0 bugs and its fast
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fast yes. Zero bugs? No... it doesn't do text reflow on XDA forums properly vs. Dolphin.
dmo580 said:
no one uses xscope?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do. Downloaded X-Scope and Dolphin the same day. There was something Dolphin did that I did not like, but can't remember what it was. But it was often enough it annoyed me. Never had an issue with X-Scope
Love xscope lite. Looks great, great features. many people don't know this but you can set up Flash to run automatically vs. "on demand"
I wasn't sure if all the browser improvements on 2.2 were just for the stock browser but doesn't seem anyone has noticed a difference in speed between stock and alternatives.
aussiebum said:
Fast yes. Zero bugs? No... it doesn't do text reflow on XDA forums properly vs. Dolphin.
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Click to collapse
Not sure what you mean by text reflow, but I set it to "wide" in one of the settings and it made the xda forums look exactly the same as dolphin/stock browser.
Have Fun
Don't forget to hit the Thanks button!
EDIT : Woo, my 500th post! and ignore the Arrow in the title, no idea how it got there.
With this run side to side with dolphin hd 4? Will you be posting updated betas or how else do we get them?
lexluthor said:
With this run side to side with dolphin hd 4? Will you be posting updated betas or how else do we get them?
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Nope. It installed on top of my version 4. Still, pretty stable for a beta. And if i can get hold of updated betas, Ill release them too.
Thanks for the link Sacred. Been waiting for this one...
D3XX said:
Thanks for the link Sacred. Been waiting for this one...
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Click to collapse
No problem
Hey I was just curious as to why you would recommend this over the stock browser (cm7 nightly 75). I used dolphin back when I think it was in version 3 and although impressive I didn't really see the value in it. Just wondering if anyone can provide some user experiences. Thank you so much!
Ummmm, yeeeeeah I would recommend it without a doubt. It's has the speed of a 4g stock browser i would say even on 3g and it loads pages very quickly.
I'm not impressed. It is definitely better than the stock browser which is horrid - lack of features and loads extremely slow. However when compared to my daily browser, Opera, it feels gauky.
Compared to opera it loads just as fast, displays flash just as well, webpages look just as good. But the app itself just doesn't look good.
Dolphin has the tab bar on top, which makes it easier to access, but it isn't done well. I would rather have them remove that and use the tab page they have that is similar to sense previews. It takes up too much space and is IMO ugly.
The guesture menus are a great idea. And they are easy to bring up. Again, however, I don't like how they look. Either they should take up the whole screen rather than just part. Or have a transparent background so that they are "overlaying" the webpages.
Also, I had it FC on me a couple times while loading pages and changing settings. Not an issue for me as its beta.
The one thing I really like about it over any other browser I've used it that you can change the user agent in settings easily! Opera you can, but you have to edit the opera:config and its a pain.
ebbinger_413 said:
I'm not impressed. It is definitely better than the stock browser which is horrid - lack of features and loads extremely slow. However when compared to my daily browser, Opera, it feels gauky.
Compared to opera it loads just as fast, displays flash just as well, webpages look just as good. But the app itself just doesn't look good.
Dolphin has the tab bar on top, which makes it easier to access, but it isn't done well. I would rather have them remove that and use the tab page they have that is similar to sense previews. It takes up too much space and is IMO ugly.
The guesture menus are a great idea. And they are easy to bring up. Again, however, I don't like how they look. Either they should take up the whole screen rather than just part. Or have a transparent background so that they are "overlaying" the webpages.
Also, I had it FC on me a couple times while loading pages and changing settings. Not an issue for me as its beta.
The one thing I really like about it over any other browser I've used it that you can change the user agent in settings easily! Opera you can, but you have to edit the opera:config and its a pain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Remember, its the first beta. It'll get stable over time.
I know, that's why I said the FC's weren't an issue...
Private betas are considered warez, and are not allowed to be posted.
Guys can somebody help me out? I've flashed the very latest 3.32 firmware package from this thread (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1412618) and I've tried out both DarkForest and the very latest Elegancia ROMs. On each, the browser is absolutely awful, Xda for example takes forever to fully load before you are able to double tap to zoom and then scale the page up. And then when you do, the text goes unfocused for a second and then finally scales up appropriately. Also panning around the page tends to get a bit 'sticky'.
This is driving me nuts, the browser in Gingerbread was MUCH more fluid and text scaling was instantaneous. I've tried searching but no one seems to be reporting this issue. Please don't tell me that this is by design? It's really awful, I mainly use my phone for web browsing and ICS has ruined for me a previously enjoyable experience.
Does anyone have this same issue as me?
use google chrome
Browser is super smooth and is loading web pages fast. Perhaps you have high standards.
The only issue I have is, that if I click on a link within a different app, say gmail, it won't take me to the link, but rather the last page I had opened.
ccs16rocks said:
Browser is super smooth and is loading web pages fast. Perhaps you have high standards.
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You didn't answer my question; are you seeing the weird unfocused and then scale up issue when you double tap?
Well, for me in Gingerbread, that NEVER happened, it was much much faster. And I shouldn't have to use Google Chrome, the point is HTC have broken something.
Hgaara said:
The only issue I have is, that if I click on a link within a different app, say gmail, it won't take me to the link, but rather the last page I had opened.
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Click to collapse
Yep, it's a bug with the stock Browser.
Also, can people say exactly which firmware version they are using? Maybe there is a problem with the latest one? I want to try every possible permutation to help get rid of this issue.
Also I found this thread; http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1550841
Seems like I'm not the only one to have seen this issue.
I have absolutely no issues with the ICS stock browser. Since I've tried it, it's the only one I use. I don't like HTC's take on it though.
sshede said:
I have absolutely no issues with the ICS stock browser. Since I've tried it, it's the only one I use. I don't like HTC's take on it though.
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Are you saying that when you double tap to zoom, the text DOES NOT got fuzzy for you for a split second, before properly scaling up and into focus?
If it absolutely doesn't then I'd be very interested to know which firmware and rom you are using.
On Gingerbread you see, this fuzziness 'middle step' never occurred, it when straight into scale.
use a different browser, stock everything is lame I use a different launcher GO SMS for messaging and chrome for web
ICS Browser+
Try ICS Browser+ in the Play Store. I prefer using it over the stock one only because of the added functionality and features. Expanded Quick Controls and Gestures are awesome!
dLeTe said:
Try ICS Browser+ in the Play Store. I prefer using it over the stock one only because of the added functionality and features. Expanded Quick Controls and Gestures are awesome!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But does that fix the fuzziness on double tap zoom? I don't care about extra features really, I care about the rendering and the speed.
I haven't had any of the probs you mentioned. I've been using the ARHD 6.5.1 ROM for ICS. However, are you using the stock HTC Browser or the AOSP one? Its easy to confuse the two. The HTC Browser is 'stock' for an HTC phone but its NOT the real ICS browser that Google makes. Once I figured out how to get the AOSP one in my ROM over the HTC one, I've switched to that every time I loaded a new ROM. I feel that its better than the HTC one and I think its hardware accelerated too, but I could be wrong. There's another thread somewhere on how to switch the browser.apk files that I've posted in before. Maybe that could resolve your issue? Also it could be possible that those ROMs removed something or did a tweak that could be causing your prob too.
vgpclife said:
I haven't had any of the probs you mentioned. I've been using the ARHD 6.5.1 ROM for ICS. However, are you using the stock HTC Browser or the AOSP one? Its easy to confuse the two. The HTC Browser is 'stock' for an HTC phone but its NOT the real ICS browser that Google makes. Once I figured out how to get the AOSP one in my ROM over the HTC one, I've switched to that every time I loaded a new ROM. I feel that its better than the HTC one and I think its hardware accelerated too, but I could be wrong. There's another thread somewhere on how to switch the browser.apk files that I've posted in before. Maybe that could resolve your issue? Also it could be possible that those ROMs removed something or did a tweak that could be causing your prob too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I've just flashed LeeDroid, and it does exactly the same thing, so that's 3 roms now all with the same issue. I tried ICS Browser+ just now which I believe is pretty much the stock ICS AOSP browser, and it was the same deal. I also earlier found a flashable zip file which installs the AOSP Browser and I gave that a try, I still got the split second fuzziness on double tap or pinch to zoom.
I'm wondering if I might have had a bad firmware flash and it's broken something; I've tried re-flashing the latest ICS firmware but nothing improved. I think I'd like to go back to Gingerbread and start again, but I have no idea where the Gingerbread firmware can be found.
One other thing, do you use the 'fomat to fit screen / text reflow' option? I've noticed that turning it off speeds things up a bit, although there is still a slight moment of fuzziness during the zoom after double tap.
I've also got ICS installed on my HTC Desire and it does not have that issue, but it mentions in the changelog that a fix was applied. This leads me to thinking that it is a problem with the ICS version of WebKit. But, you say you don't have any issues, which is baffling. Which version of the ICS Firmware are you using?
What you're seeing is normal for ICS. The reason it does that is because it is rendering the page into an array of images - this is called a backing store. It is much easier to scale and transform an image than it is to redraw the page for every frame of a scroll or zoom animation. This makes for better frame rates during scrolling and zooming, at the cost of that momentary pixelation when you zoom in. A lot of people whined about the non-smooth scrolling in older versions so I guess they decided to go this route with ICS (which, by the way, is what Apple does in iOS, and if you've ever used an iWhatever you'll see the same thing when zooming in).
More information here:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5310/samsung-galaxy-nexus-ice-cream-sandwich-review/5
And here:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4686/samsung-galaxy-s-2-international-review-the-best-redefined/4
This is not unique to Sense ROMs either, I'm on a de-Sensed ROM at the moment and even then the browser does the same thing. In any case, personally I find the scrolling much smoother than before, and I think it's a worthwhile tradeoff.
I don't know if it works on Sense 3.6 ROMs, but try typing "about:debug" in the address bar, hit enter, then go to Settings>Debug and then uncheck "Enable OpenGL Rendering". Then you get no pixelation on zooming in, but the scrolling will be slower.
jedininja666 said:
Are you saying that when you double tap to zoom, the text DOES NOT got fuzzy for you for a split second, before properly scaling up and into focus?
If it absolutely doesn't then I'd be very interested to know which firmware and rom you are using.
On Gingerbread you see, this fuzziness 'middle step' never occurred, it when straight into scale.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do see what you're talking about, but the pixelation is only for like 2 milliseoconds, so who cares.
Nick L said:
What you're seeing is normal for ICS. The reason it does that is because it is rendering the page into an array of images - this is called a backing store. It is much easier to scale and transform an image than it is to redraw the page for every frame of a scroll or zoom animation. This makes for better frame rates during scrolling and zooming, at the cost of that momentary pixelation when you zoom in. A lot of people whined about the non-smooth scrolling in older versions so I guess they decided to go this route with ICS (which, by the way, is what Apple does in iOS, and if you've ever used an iWhatever you'll see the same thing when zooming in).
More information here:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5310/samsung-galaxy-nexus-ice-cream-sandwich-review/5
And here:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4686/samsung-galaxy-s-2-international-review-the-best-redefined/4
This is not unique to Sense ROMs either, I'm on a de-Sensed ROM at the moment and even then the browser does the same thing. In any case, personally I find the scrolling much smoother than before, and I think it's a worthwhile tradeoff.
I don't know if it works on Sense 3.6 ROMs, but try typing "about:debug" in the address bar, hit enter, then go to Settings>Debug and then uncheck "Enable OpenGL Rendering". Then you get no pixelation on zooming in, but the scrolling will be slower.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you SO MUCH! This is exactly what I was looking for, I searched around but had you not said this, I would never have known.
I can live with the slightly jerkier scrolling, in fact I don't really notice it. What I did notice was the slow zooming and rendering, but thanks to you that's now fixed. Cheers!
this is why i don't use custom ROMS. to many bugs/issues and no matter how much someone that makes a roms and tests it, they will never have a perfect product. Let me ask a few questions that may get your attention. One big issue for me is that how do you know that the folks that make these things aren't embedding malicious software in there? How many people pay bills or access their bank accounts with their phones and how do you know that the ROM isn't sending your data back to it's creator?
No worth the risk for me.
jhowle9475 said:
this is why i don't use custom ROMS. to many bugs/issues and no matter how much someone that makes a roms and tests it, they will never have a perfect product. Let me ask a few questions that may get your attention. One big issue for me is that how do you know that the folks that make these things aren't embedding malicious software in there? How many people pay bills or access their bank accounts with their phones and how do you know that the ROM isn't sending your data back to it's creator?
No worth the risk for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The risk is just about nothing, and you think carriers or manufacturers make a perfect product?
I'm pretty disappointed. Before today I was using aosp browser on my gnex, and using double tap after pinch to reflow text. In kit Kat on my new n5 however, it appears to be broken on every browser I try. I have tried cm11 aosp, chrome, dolphin (with and without jetpack), boat, next, naked, and lightning. This is a critical feature for me, as I find side scrolling on websites to be retarded, and changing text size usually causes sites to look weird and text to overlap.
I am on the latest purity ROM.
Is there anything I can do? What does everyone else do? Can you guys just read tiny text, or do you side scroll?
Help please!
Opera. Turn word wrap on in settings.
You might star the issue at https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=62378 and maybe Google will pay attention and fix this
First off, I did a search and got no results with regards to this.
This morning I got a couple of updates including Maps and Chrome. Maps seems to be more stable and much smoother i.e An Improvement over the previous.
Chrome is now an absolute basket case!! It now functions in a small window. You can expand it, but you don't get a FULL screen. Those who like to use landscape, FORGET IT!! it will not landscape. Oh and to top it off the refresh function has gone and still a lack of close button!!
NOT GOOD GOOGLE. IF IT AIN'T BROKE.......
Found a work around
I'm having the same problem and found this on chromes dev site:
All of you having issues with small screen, are you rooted and using xposed framework? This is the reason and not chrome. Clicking home and open chrome from recent apps helps in my case.
That worked for me but you'll have to keep doing that every time you close out chrome. Any xda devs know why this is happening and a fix for it?
Same Issue
ledeuce4 said:
I'm having the same problem and found this on chromes dev site:
All of you having issues with small screen, are you rooted and using xposed framework? This is the reason and not chrome. Clicking home and open chrome from recent apps helps in my case.
That worked for me but you'll have to keep doing that every time you close out chrome. Any xda devs know why this is happening and a fix for it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I been having the same issue as well. I have to back out and go back in to the app to fix it. Whatever the case it's annoying.
It's going to be fixed in the next Chrome update.
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=423685