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The Great Android Browser Face-Off

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You might be satisfied with the stock Android browser, but what if we told you there was a better way to surf the web on your phone? Here are six other web browsers for Android, tested and examined.

Standard Function Performance

There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to scroll through a web page or zoom in to click a link and having the browser stutter. It’s just as bad to change your smartphone’s orientation from portrait to landscape and have to wait for the web page to reflow – or worse, have to reload the page to fix reflow errors. These three basic functions and their performance are key.

Function PerformanceScrollingZoomingLandscape/Portrait Reflow
DefaultSometimes ClunkySometimes ClunkyResponsive/Accurate
Dolphin HDSmooth Once LoadedSmooth Once LoadedJumpy, but Effective
Opera MobileMostly SmoothMostly SmoothResponsive/Accurate
FirefoxVery SmoothSmooth but Slow to ReflowResponsive but Slow to Reflow
Dolphin MiniSmooth Once LoadedSmooth Once LoadedJumpy, but Effective
Opera MiniVery SmoothVery SmoothResponsive/Accurate
SkyfireSometimes ClunkySometimes ClunkyJumpy, Slow to Reflow

The default browser is by far the worst in this category, constantly balking when navigating through complex web pages, or even pages with just a few handfuls of photos. Its ability to change orientation is amazingly snappy, though.

The Dolphin browsers clearly use the same engine to poke through a web page. As long as the page isn’t still loading, things function smoothly.

Opera and Firefox are clear leaders here. They each have a few minor quirks, but are very effective overall.

21 Comments Comment from the forums
  • 04 November 2011 11:30
    You said stock browser, how about the hardware accelerated browser on the Samsung Galaxy S II?
    Reply
  • 04 November 2011 17:05
    Nexus S has a single-core A8 processor ... which probably is the most widespread platform. But I don't think that the browsers' performance on it is representative for the dual-core A9 platforms that are all the rage this days. Not to mention that the customizations to the default browsers that are made by Samsung or for the Tegra2+Honeycomb platforms. I think there are both dual-core rendering optimizations, and specific GPU optimizations in the default browser for Honeycomb+Tegra2.

    I think you should mention that you were testing on a popular platform, but a slightly older one.
    Reply
  • darkchazz 04 November 2011 19:45
    KeyboardWarrirorYou said stock browser, how about the hardware accelerated browser on the Samsung Galaxy S II?Agreed, I have the S2 and the stock browser is silky smooth there's not a single hint of lag even when viewing hd flash video on youtube.

    Also I wonder why toms keeps praising firefox, it's very laggy even on the simplest websites , half baked, and crashes alot.

    Opera mobile is my alternative browser of choice, it's very smooth with excellent text reflow..
    I like Dolphin hd as well but there's a bit of lag when scrolling especially on complicated websites.
    Reply
  • 04 November 2011 20:38
    I wonder why Miren Browser wasn't mentioned. I have been using it for quite a while and am very happy with it...
    Reply
  • andywork78 04 November 2011 20:41
    Tom's you forgot xScope and Boat. Does are good Browser too~ ^^
    Next time if you have a chance please test does browser too please
    Reply
  • neve 04 November 2011 22:39
    I've tried most of these and I keep returning to xScope
    Reply
  • gstar42 05 November 2011 00:25
    I would like to know which browsers route all page requests through their own servers rather than directly from the specified URL. This is a security issue.
    Reply
  • 05 November 2011 03:45
    I think you have to take into account the installed size and startup times for these packages. According to the market Firefox takes over 14 MB while Dolphin HD is around 3.25 MB. On an HTC Desire Firefox takes up 20% of the total available app space, is incredibly slow to start, shows a splash screen and does some strange font rendering where they blur into view as if they were bitmapped images. If I'm trying to hit a website while out and about on 3G, that's insta-fail. Dolphin starts instantly and does none of that stuff. I'm counting that as a solid win for Dolphin.
    Reply
  • gnfishin 06 November 2011 07:58
    I assume the mobile page load speed tests were on 3g, however, I would like to have had the comparison made on LTE mobile (Verizon), as well. It is possible that the variations between browser page load speeds might be closer on the substantially faster Verizon 4g LTE network. While not available everywhere, yet, it is available in all major cities and all major airports and is expanding rapidly.
    Reply
  • 06 November 2011 17:27
    As for the comparisons, it is very hard to do them, as none of the contenders are perfect but take very different approaches (see Mini for example), and you try to display pages that are meant to be for PCs. And for example in scrolling tests did you disable Flash? Because other way comparison to non-Flash supporting Firefox is not fair. In my experience, Opera Mobile's scrolling performance is superior to every other browser, and has the only scrolling experience without checkerboard. Opera Mobile also has Websocket support disabled by default (for security reasons).

    juliantz: I see your point but comparing Dolphin to Firefox/Opera for size is not valid, as Dolphin uses the default browser's engine (see HTML5 results for example), hence it saves some space as - the main - parts of it are already there in the Android system. Opera Mobile has a ARMv5 version available, which cuts down size significantly, see here: http://my.opera.com/operamobile/blog/the-components-of-opera-mobile-11-on-android
    Reply