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[APP] Is there a need for Dolphin Browser anymore?

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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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?
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
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.

browser lag when scolling and screen accuracy

Anyway to fix these by ediiting the prop build and anyway to adjust the red level in the screen.
These are killing me and driving me nuts!

browser lag is most likely Flash 10.1, install the latest flash or do what I did. Change flash to On-Demand in plugin settings for browser.
and I'm sure there is screen changing things you can do, but I don't do them so can't help ya.

It's not browser lag with flash its in scrolling text btw I have flash 10.2

ianandamy said:
Anyway to fix these by ediiting the prop build and anyway to adjust the red level in the screen.
These are killing me and driving me nuts!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I noticed the red tint today also when my friend was comparing my G2x to his Nexus S...

The page moves quicker if you just move your thumb top to bottom then if you try to fling the page that's what I'm talking about(

Just did browser tests on my galaxy s running team whiskey versus g2x and I am convinced that this browser is not using both cores of the processor

ianandamy said:
Just did browser tests on my galaxy s running team whiskey versus g2x and I am convinced that this browser is not using both cores of the processor
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
obviously since dual-core is not supported on the OS level, it's like having a dual-core processor on windows 95 machine

WHY are you using default browser??
Use xscope or miren browser! They work much better.

I'm not experiencing either of these issues. No red tint, and the stock browser is smooth as silk.

xguntherc said:
browser lag is most likely Flash 10.1, install the latest flash or do what I did. Change flash to On-Demand in plugin settings for browser.
and I'm sure there is screen changing things you can do, but I don't do them so can't help ya.
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Click to collapse
No.
I was just coming here to post about the browser lag. Noticeable lag, BTW.
I went into the T-Mobile store earlier today, factory reset the display G2X (I always do that now, since people like to say "phone prolly was runnign 20 apps from all the other people that played with it") and put Flash to On-Demand. Go to WMPowerUser.com (there are MANY others where this happens), open a blog post and scroll. It's choppy as ****. The Vibrant has the exact same issues (slightly worse). It happens on tons of sites, and I don't think Flash has anything to do with it.
I don't know what the issue is, but I'm about to start looking at the HTML coming to the browser (user agent spoofing on a desktop) to see if it is choking on on some specific elements.
I also noticed the data speeds were simply terrible, slower than my Vibrant (had both my Vibrant and HD7 on me).
Google needs to realize that the overall user experience matters more than how many milliseconds advantage your browser engine has over the competition...

JasjarMan said:
WHY are you using default browser??
Use xscope or miren browser! They work much better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because there are applications/features that tie into the stock browser and using a third party browser just breaks the overall cohesiveness of the user experience.
I've never heard of XScope and didn't think Miren still existed, though, so thanks for that info.
Opera Mobile 11 is better than both of them, and supports Flash...

BOTH browsers are great. MIREN has an option to adjust brightness within the browser which I like to use at night. Xscope has a great developer and has nice features as well. Try both than pick one and un-install the other. Than when an app requires stock browser you will be prompt to select which browser you want to use as default, choose miren or xscope and its that easy!
N8ter said:
Because there are applications/features that tie into the stock browser and using a third party browser just breaks the overall cohesiveness of the user experience.
I've never heard of XScope and didn't think Miren still existed, though, so thanks for that info.
Opera Mobile 11 is better than both of them, and supports Flash...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I like the stock browser my vibrant with bionix 1.3.1 does not do this at all really thinking of takin her back and waiting it out for the Galaxy 2 s

JasjarMan said:
BOTH browsers are great. MIREN has an option to adjust brightness within the browser which I like to use at night. Xscope has a great developer and has nice features as well. Try both than pick one and un-install the other. Than when an app requires stock browser you will be prompt to select which browser you want to use as default, choose miren or xscope and its that easy!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Samsung stock browser has independent browser controls, and does stuff like chrome to phone work with those third party browsers?
I already use opera as a secondary. The others are useless to me.
The constant pops to choose an app front every app with links is county. I like to avoid that situation.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

N8ter said:
No.
I was just coming here to post about the browser lag. Noticeable lag, BTW.
I went into the T-Mobile store earlier today, factory reset the display G2X (I always do that now, since people like to say "phone prolly was runnign 20 apps from all the other people that played with it") and put Flash to On-Demand. Go to WMPowerUser.com (there are MANY others where this happens), open a blog post and scroll. It's choppy as ****. The Vibrant has the exact same issues (slightly worse). It happens on tons of sites, and I don't think Flash has anything to do with it.
I don't know what the issue is, but I'm about to start looking at the HTML coming to the browser (user agent spoofing on a desktop) to see if it is choking on on some specific elements.
I also noticed the data speeds were simply terrible, slower than my Vibrant (had both my Vibrant and HD7 on me).
Google needs to realize that the overall user experience matters more than how many milliseconds advantage your browser engine has over the competition...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can change your user-agent setup in the LG hidden menu. Try that and see if it works better.

Look at a logcat when you are browsing around. Absolutely not surprised that it is lagging.

DebauchedSloth said:
Look at a logcat when you are browsing around. Absolutely not surprised that it is lagging.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why what did you see
also what will the hidden menu thing do are you saying that tmobile is throttling the g2x?

omarsalmin said:
I noticed the red tint today also when my friend was comparing my G2x to his Nexus S...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought it had a lot of red tint at first, too. Actually your friend's NS is the problem. The colors on the G2x are accurate.

I also have significant lag in the browse as well. Really annoying to say the least.

N8ter said:
Go to WMPowerUser.com (there are MANY others where this happens), open a blog post and scroll. It's choppy as ****. The Vibrant has the exact same issues (slightly worse). It happens on tons of sites, and I don't think Flash has anything to do with it.
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WMPowerUser is completely smooth for me. Actual blog posts included. I wont presume to know whats causing you guys issues, but I haven't ran into choppy scrolling on a single site yet. Maybe its your connection...

ics browser sucks?

dont mean to be crude but it really sucks compared to old stock gingerbread sense browser. what can i do to get a smooth browser experience with no flickers and slow rendering after pinch and zoom? i tried maxthon but even that is a bit slow in rendering after pinch and zoom. i flashed the downgrade fix but that still sucks. in gingerbread everything was smooth. any help? thanks

walkinhotdog said:
dont mean to be crude but it really sucks compared to old stock gingerbread sense browser. what can i do to get a smooth browser experience with no flickers and slow rendering after pinch and zoom? i tried maxthon but even that is a bit slow in rendering after pinch and zoom. i flashed the downgrade fix but that still sucks. in gingerbread everything was smooth. any help? thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
G'day champ,
I understand what you're saying, I also had these problems. I don't tend to like Maxthon, Firefox is also still in what feels like an early beta stage.
I've moved towards Dolphin Browser HD, and I haven't had any problems with it at all. I'd provide more info, but I'm in a rush.
But let me know how it goes for you, as I'd love to hear your feedback on it.

Are we not liking Chrome, either?

yeah agree , before it was good but now i use chrome beta!

I got ics but I don't have any problems with my browser .

There's nothing wrong with the ics browser on my phone, and I think it's better because it has more functions.

ICS browser works fine for me on my nosense VI rom.

i tried chrome too. not really my cup of tea. im ok with dolphin though. you guys probably forgot what the gingerbread stock browser was like. I jus moved from gingerbread to ice cream sandwich and the difference is huge. i mean this new browser is ok, but i just wish it were more responsive and smooth with the rendering and pinch and zoom

I'm sure it'll be better after official release guys... And chrome is decent but I'm holding untill its released from beta
Sent from my insertcoined Sensation 4G with Beats Audio

I hate that link don't open up to the page I want, when I'm in a third party app.

Finally I am not crazy!!!
Hgaara said:
I hate that link don't open up to the page I want, when I'm in a third party app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes thank you I have been having this problem too. I have only noticed it in Yahoo! Mail though. I have uninstalled it yahoo mail though. I have a full release version of ICS too. You would think they would check that with such popular programs as Yahoo Mail.

Thanks for the info. I've flashed a few ics roms & every1 of them has an unpleasant browsing experience compared to stock GB, especially on the desktop of utube. Does dolphin HD scroll & pinch to zoom smoothly on the desktop utube? I'd like to know b4 I reflash again for the 20th time. Thanx in advance

enserio said:
Are we not liking Chrome, either?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using Chrome Beta, and has so many bugs. I use Opera 11.62 for my computer's browser, but Opera on mobile doesn't like HTML 5. So, I still use Chrome even though it kind of sucks.

Yes it does.
Though this may work better in devices with hardware buttons such as the Sensation (I wonder if it does):
There's no standard menu button and you have to hunt for it in each application, as in all of ICS
The menu "...." icon, in Google's finest new style, is unintuitive and most often hidden
Can't search the page or perform a menu action withotu abandoning my current scroll position
But I've had even worse issues:
I can't find where can I change my User-Agent so that I don't get the crappy "mobile" sites from everybody; I haven't paid 500 € on a large screen phone to get crippled versions
I can't find where can I add custom search engines
Screen estate is often wasted with yet another obnoxious toolbar made of obnoxious Google style icons (i.e. ugly, monochrome, abstract and unintuitive)
And that's just from 5 minutes of use. Back to Opera Mobile — I suggest you do the same; it's faster, has better features and a much better UI (well, anything has a much better UI compared to Google's stuff since Google+).

I've choosen for myself "ICS Browser+".

After JellyBean ICS+ doesn't work

After I installed the latest update which I think is JellyBean the ICS+ browser doesn't work. I uninstalled and reinstalled and it just crashes when the program is ran. Dolphin and Firefox still works, but I was getting used to the ICS+ browser. Anyone else have this problem or are there any other browser alternatives out there? Dolphin is really nice and I'll probably stick with that if I have no choice. Hey, at least flash works! I bust my girlfriends chops all the time about her iPad not having flash and some of her web pages just look horrible with Safari. She could never find an alternative browser for her iPad. Apple makes it very difficult to find programs that replace the core stuff on the iPad. A huge negative and one of the many reasons why I love Android so much better then ios.

opentoe said:
After I installed the latest update which I think is JellyBean the ICS+ browser doesn't work. I uninstalled and reinstalled and it just crashes when the program is ran. Dolphin and Firefox still works, but I was getting used to the ICS+ browser. Anyone else have this problem or are there any other browser alternatives out there? Dolphin is really nice and I'll probably stick with that if I have no choice. Hey, at least flash works! I bust my girlfriends chops all the time about her iPad not having flash and some of her web pages just look horrible with Safari. She could never find an alternative browser for her iPad. Apple makes it very difficult to find programs that replace the core stuff on the iPad. A huge negative and one of the many reasons why I love Android so much better then ios.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, for me it's the same.

Did you read the app description in the Play Store? It says "Not compatible with Jelly Bean"...
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

Stock browser is just as good now imo. What are you missing that ics+ gives you?

It was called ICS+ (Ice Cream Sandwich +) for a reason. It was an extension of the ICS browser. I used myself as my primary, but yest with Jelly Bean the ICS browser is different, and as stated before it is shown in the app description that it will not work on JB. Now that said. I do hope they might make a JB+, but really the JB browser works just the same for me, without the home button.

sbdags said:
Stock browser is just as good now imo. What are you missing that ics+ gives you?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree.
Stock in JB is just fine.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda app-developers app

sbdags said:
Stock browser is just as good now imo. What are you missing that ics+ gives you?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One of the features that I miss to this day is an extended version of "Quick Controls" -- the controls option you can turn on in Settings / Labs that displays a semi-circle pop-up menu when you tap right right or left edge of the screen. In the stock browser, the menu is very limited, with just a few functions. In ICS+, you could choose to add / activate numerous functions and customize your installation pretty extensively. It was very powerful, and very useful. At the time, it became a must-have feature for me, and I wound up preferring ICS+ to Dolphin, Firefox, Maxthon, etc. Really miss ICS+ and hope dev considers implementing a JB version.

jonstrong said:
One of the features that I miss to this day is an extended version of "Quick Controls" -- the controls option you can turn on in Settings / Labs that displays a semi-circle pop-up menu when you tap right right or left edge of the screen. In the stock browser, the menu is very limited, with just a few functions. In ICS+, you could choose to add / activate numerous functions and customize your installation pretty extensively. It was very powerful, and very useful. At the time, it became a must-have feature for me, and I wound up preferring ICS+ to Dolphin, Firefox, Maxthon, etc. Really miss ICS+ and hope dev considers implementing a JB version.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I use these as well but there are over 15 given in the new stock JB. If you use quick ics browser you can configure them as well.

sbdags said:
Yes I use these as well but there are over 15 given in the new stock JB. If you use quick ics browser you can configure them as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes....I went back and checked. Some of what I was missing is in the fly out sub menus.

sbdags said:
Yes I use these as well but there are over 15 given in the new stock JB. If you use quick ics browser you can configure them as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also, see this thread for info on a setting in the stock browswer that really speeds things up-- http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1923285
If you're not rooted you can't use browser2ram, but honestly, I don't think it's needed to apply this tweak. Good luck!

A browser just as smooth as safari (iOS) internet explorer (windows phone )

I'm so disappointed by chrome , I've been using it for quite a while ,it was unusable on my galaxy nexus ,then it got almost OK on the nexus 4 and now I have my nexus 5 and the performance is still poor , the scrolling is not smooth , its choppy ,sometimes the websites stop responding , the app feels ... Heavy
Ive been using Firefox for a few months and although the scrolling is noticeably better than chrome's it still has its issues , sometimes the text looks blurry and until it fixes itself you can't click on links on the browser , I attached a picture so you guys can see , pay attention to the "next page"button (on the bottom with the rest background ) ,it became unclickable , Firefox crashes sometimes too .
To make things even worse the aosp browser which performance was light years ahead of Chrome's now shares Chrome's poor performance because Google made some changes and now it uses the chromium engine
I don't know what to do ,I become so upset when I use the browser on iOS /windows phone , I love kit Kat but seriously Google make chrome on android just as good as chrome on desktop :banghead:

You tried chrome beta, it's actually a lot better
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

italia0101 said:
You tried chrome beta, it's actually a lot better
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't notice a big difference vs the regular chrome ,all I knew is that it had more features and with the features side I'm really satisfied ,I'm upset is with the poor scrolling performance and the lack of smoothness :'(
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I'm giving chrome beta a chance , maybe it's placebo effect but I feel it is a bit more responsive than the stable version , something I don't understand is why does the browser refreshes every time I switch to another app and then come back to the browser , it doesn't even remember my scrolling position ,very annoying , I don't understand 2 GB should be enough to keep the browser in memory :/
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Use Next browser, been using it since I got the Nexus, works really well and the start screen looks really professional, you can open it up and google search something straight away, really handy

Try Dolphin
I have tried various browsers including Chrome, Opera, Opera Mini, and Maxthon, but settled on Dolphin on my One S and, now that they've fixed some KitKat bugs, on the Nexus 5.
Dolphin is fast and smooth (ver. 10.2.1) although the UI is a bit awkward. Not as bad as Chrome's though. Unfortunately Dolphin doesn't even have a way to import bookmarks from other Dolphins on the same device. Nevertheless, it does seem very good, and much better than Chrome.

Chad_Petree said:
I'm giving chrome beta a chance , maybe it's placebo effect but I feel it is a bit more responsive than the stable version , something I don't understand is why does the browser refreshes every time I switch to another app and then come back to the browser , it doesn't even remember my scrolling position ,very annoying , I don't understand 2 GB should be enough to keep the browser in memory :/
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine doesn't do this - mine doesn't auto refresh or lose it's place. Have you installed a custom ROM or kernel on your Nexus 5 or running stock? Is Chome up-to-date? (an annoyingly stupid question but has to be asked)

Try Boat browser. You won't be dissapointed.

You might like Mercury.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

no need to use chrome anymore, theres 'boat' loads of browsers! pardon the pun! waiting for a ported AOSP browser for n5

FourPointedFreak said:
Mine doesn't do this - mine doesn't auto refresh or lose it's place. Have you installed a custom ROM or kernel on your Nexus 5 or running stock? Is Chome up-to-date? (an annoyingly stupid question but has to be asked)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have stock rooted 4.4 on my nexus 5 , I'm using chrome beta right now but I'm quote sure it was the same with the stable chrome and yes , they're updated , I update my apps like a freak

GalaxySN00B:0 said:
Use Next browser, been using it since I got the Nexus, works really well and the start screen looks really professional, you can open it up and google search something straight away, really handy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried, i like it haha but damn the UI it's a complete ripoff from IOS' safari, i didn't see a big difference regarding scrolling performance (vs Chrome) but at least it never froze like Chrome does

UPDATE: I take it all back; I accepted an update for Jetpack and now none of the Dolphin browsers I have--Dolphin, Dolphin Beta, Jetpack--will play html or flash videos. I am trying UC Browser which is really fast, even compared to Dolphin, but doesn't seem to respond automatically to links from other apps--e.g., google's gmail app or the google search app that came on the N5; you have to copy and paste the url manually into the browser. Obviously unacceptable.

The stock browser.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.android.browser
It's extremely smooth just like the stock s4 browser

MrAndroid12 said:
The stock browser.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.android.browser
It's extremely smooth just like the stock s4 browser
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1000 times this ^^

Chad_Petree said:
I tried, i like it haha but damn the UI it's a complete ripoff from IOS' safari, i didn't see a big difference regarding scrolling performance (vs Chrome) but at least it never froze like Chrome does
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Puffin browser is next on your list to try.
Other option, UC Browser. to me they both are some of the fastest.

MrAndroid12 said:
The stock browser.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.android.browser
It's extremely smooth just like the stock s4 browser
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Forgot to mention that native flash is also supported.
Just grab a apk from adobe

Have you checked out opera beta? If you haven't but decide to, make sure you visit opera:flags There are some options that can improve the experience.
koeASOP 4.4.2 w/ Franco kernel

Anything, but chrome.
Sent from my N5 cell phone telephone....

If you're going to use the stock browser I suggested extracting apk from a Cyanogenmod ROM and installing it in your rom. All its option works including Private browsing. It works perfectly well compared to the one you download from play store.