Is Your Browser Smart Enough for Your Phone?

In this issue of 'Bytes', we are putting an end to a highly disputed matter: 'Which internet browser is best for Android (as of now)'. We are going to review the most popular browsers, their features and conduct some simple speed tests of our own.  We asked out the users, tallied their  votes. Considering these factor's we will announce the name of the 'Victor'.
Google Chrome:

Image: Catninja Designs

The first contender for the title of best browser is Google Chrome. It comes with the Stock browser of android if your device has a Jellybean OS. Like its pc counterpart, it's smooth to browse and swift in loading pages, especially the ones in HTML 5. It has animations that are intuitive and a bit groovy; which we like. For example you can jump around tabs just by swiping from left to right. If you are logged onto your pc's account, all the bookmarks are added to your tab/phone's browser. Moreover, by enabling the sync feature you can access the pages of your cell-phone on your tab or pc. 'To me this is the best feature of all' says Syed Musaddeq Anwar Al Abedin, Lecturer of Engineering at IIUC. 'I use Chrome in both my Xperia Ray and iPad' he added.
Pros:
i. Support an incognito mode to ensure your privacy
ii. Smart suggestions and fast loading of sites
iii. Can easily switch between the mobile sites and regular desktop sites.
iv. Voice activated command with Google Now
Cons:
i. Kills good amount of RAM
ii. No Adobe Flash support (most disheartening of all)
iii. Many of the tweaks and features are hidden under the hood. So some digging required
Our Score: 8.5

    Firefox for Android:

Next on list is Firefox. Fast and simple learning curve is a good part of Firefox (at least to us). It does have a smart search feature to keep your favorite sites even closer. The greatest features of using Firefox are you get access to vast array of add-ons.  Adobe Flash support, a feature that many browsers are discarding now-a-days, can be found in Firefox. The worst part of Firefox is its User Interface (UI).   Like many others out there, Tanver Ahmed Ovi, Director of GREENengine finds Firefox 'the best browser for both on PC and phone'. 'It has some spectacular add-ons and the pages loads fast too' he added.
 Pros:
i. Supports anonymous  browsing
ii. Supports vast array of add-ons
iii. Adobe Flash Support is there
iv. Runs most popular video formats
Cons:
i. The User interface is not at all foxy; rather, it's quite hideous
ii. Hogs RAMs
iii. No gesture support
iv. Reader mode is not what we expected
v. Unresponsive when multiple tabs are loading simultaneously
Our Score: 7.0

       Opera Mobile:

The second contender on our list is Opera mobile. It's very popular amongst users for better speed and saving bandwidth (especially if you are on internet with limited bandwidth). We are reviewing the latest version of Opera mobile (V. 14) which many of you might not be familiar with. Opera opted for the Chromium layout engine (officially known as Webkit) and retired its old Presto engine. As it is going to run the hood more natively on the Android Platform, many will notice the differences very quickly (at least that's what Opera says). The new interface, smart rendering and zooming features has impressed us. Shuvo Roy, an executive in bKash, finds Opera the friendliest browser. “I am an Opera user for the last 4 years. It offers speedy loading of webpages, saves my bandwidth and supports multi-tab. Back then it was the perfect companion for my Music Xpress 5630 and now for my Samsung Galaxy Y” he says.
Pros:
i. Fastest loading out of all (thanks to the server side compression scheme 'Off-Road Mode')
ii. Consumes less bandwidth
iii. Has customizable start-pages and better text wrapping
iv. Offers find in page options, news accumulator etc
Cons:
i. Some unique features dropped (due to technical reasons)
ii. Requires many unnecessary presses associated with the new interface.
iii. Crashes some times and refuses to respond occasionally
Our Score: 8.0

     Stock Android Browser:

Last but not the least is the Stock Android Browser. Though it is mundane and not a fancy looking browser, many favor it over other third party ones. It has some features very similar to Chrome. It takes around 12-15 MBs and can be shifted to the external storage. Farhana Rahman, an MPhil student in Dhaka Medical College, feels most comfortable using this stock browser. 'It's great. It supports multiple tabs, page loading is decent and I can switch to the desktop sites easily' she says.
Though it did have some eyebrow raising features when it first came out, we are not so fond of it. If you are the kind of person who browses in multi-tab too (like us) then this browser is simply not for you.
Pros:
i. Supports full screen viewing
ii. Great text wrapping
iii. Can request desktop sites
Cons:
i. Support only two pop in a row
ii. Slower than most browsers
Our Score: 7.0

   The Final Verdict:

To really check out whether the browser works the same way as the developers claim, we ran a simple speed test.
But first, let's see which browser the users prefer most. We asked around 50+ people from age group of 16 to 51 almost everyone having diverse professions; from high school graduates to directors of large companies. The result that came in was not shocking at all. In fact, the figures are what we anticipated: Opera for mobile got most votes with a whopping 50%; second was Chrome with 26%; the Stock Android Browser was third with 14%. Firefox and others (mostly Dolphin and One Browser) got 6% and 4%, respectively.
We also wanted to do a test drive on ourselves. We used Xperia P, Samsung Galaxy S3 and HTC Desire as our platform. All but the HTC Desire (which was running on Gingerbread) were running on Jellybean. We visited two sites, both of them heavily loaded with content. As for the internet, we used a stable 512Kbps broadband internet with pings of 84ms. We hooked the devices on Wi-Fi and ran the simulations one at a time. The results were indeed reflection of the polls.  Opera had a blazing speed in loading these sites making it the fastest of all. Firefox and Chrome were 2nd and 3rd respectively.   Stock Android browser lagged far behind; took almost double time than Opera to load the sites. Detailed results can be found in our facebook page: www.facebook.com/thedailystar.bytes
Keeping in account standard deviations and other statistical mumbo-jumbos, from the results we can see: Opera, Chrome and Firefox have more or less similar performance while the Stock browser, which got a juicy 14% user vote, performed worst of all. So considering all the specs, performance and public choice; we, without any hesitation announce Opera to be the best browser for Android (as of now).