Android's Fastest Browser

This is last part of the "updated for Google I/O" series. In previous installments, I discussed Google+ and Currents; in this one, I will test key ingredient of every modern operating system: web browser. Rather than talking just about latest Chrome update, I will try to find which browser is the fastest. Today's contenders are: stock ICS browser, Chrome, Firefox, Opera Mini and Mobile, and Dolphin.

There is a lot of different benchmarks that test different capabilities of browser, like page rendering or JavaScript speed, but I will test something different: how fast they are for everyday usage. Depending on your habits, test might be completely useless, but it could give you idea what to look at when choosing the browser. Here is how I use it. In the old desktop days, we had applications. Then applications moved slowly to web and become web applications running in browser. Now we are moving away from browser to mobile devices, with restricted screen size, input methods, and available hardware resources, which brings us back to applications, this time optimized from smartphones. Whenever I have to do something complicated with web application on smartphone, it is hassle. Having mobile application is a big help, so all important sites made mobile replacement of their web UI. If everybody avoids web applications on smartphones, what is the use of web browser?

In my case, I use it for reading. It also comes handy if I get link from social network, if I have to open full article from Currents, or if I search for something, I rarely start from browser. That defines my use case: launch browser and open single page as quickly as possible. To test this, I will measure how much time it takes to open it from Google+. Here are the results in seconds:

Browser	Wi-Fi	2G
Browser (stock)	12	46
Chrome	10	49
Dolphin HD	9	38
Firefox	11	30
Opera Mini	8	13
Opera Mobile	10	19

I must admit that I had my personal favorite before test, Opera Mini. I always felt that it is snappier and smaller than the rest. I did Wi-Fi test first and similarity of the results surprised me. OK, it takes 50% more time for the slowest browser compared to fastest, but that's two seconds up or down with most browsers performing similarly. I knew I didn't took everything into account, so I retested with 2G connection. I use it when I don't have access to Wi-Fi to conserve battery. Here results were strikingly different: Opera's Turbo technology really makes the difference. However, if page has some dynamic content updated using JavaScript, it will not work. What you get is static HTML.

My final recommendation is Opera Mini: it performs similarly as others on Wi-Fi, but it is much faster on slow connections. It takes 3.8x more for the slowest browser to finish. If you are not on flat data plan, you will also appreciate less traffic. Owners of less powerful devices will like low memory consumption. Would you like to know more?

Other browsers have specific advantages of their own:

• Chrome synchronizes with desktop Chrome and knows how to log you in to Google's services using your Android Google account.
• Dolphin supports plug-ins, which can be very handy if you use tools like LastPass. It also has most robust scripting engine, only one that could run full version of Google+.
• Firefox has nice UI and plug-ins, but it is in too early stage to evaluate it properly.

Opera is undeservedly underdog of the browser world. I have a high opinion of desktop version as well. It runs much smoother than both Chrome and Firefox on my laptop. I always wonder why people praise Chrome's speed; it doesn't run well under heavy load. I would use Opera as my main browser if there were no two issues that stops me:

• Some sites refuse to work with Opera (and with Chrome, for that matter)
• It doesn't support some Microsoft proxy authentication schemes, hence no browsing inside corporate network. Pity.

This concludes software review batch. I hope that my next topic will be Jelly Bean review. Let's see is it butter or margarine.