Even though many users find Android’s standard browser to adequately suit their needs, there are just as many who prefer browsers created by a third-party developer. The following are five of the newest Android browsers, any one of which will make a great alternative to Android’s default one. It all depends on your personal preferences and needs.
The Coco Browser
Designed straight from the Droid’s standard browser, Coco browser takes the basic functions of its predecessor in order to bring more fun to the Android web-browsing task. The biggest features that give this browser distinction are its Google account synchronization capability as well as its tabs feature. Another positive aspect of Coco is that it does not take up a lot of the phone’s memory, allowing everything to function smoothly.
The Dolphin Browser
This browser feels like the usual types of browsers one uses on a PC, except with typical features found on a mobile device. There are many features supported by the Dolphin browser, such as common command shortcuts, zoom, multi-touch pinch, cache/history saving to the SD card, tab browsing, sharing pages, marking pages and themes. However, even though the Dolphin has a sophisticated interface, it tends to load web pages somewhat slowly.
The Opera Mini Browser
Most people who are familiar with smartphones have heard about the Opera Mini web browser for mobile phones. It’s history in the mobile device industry is long standing. Also, it is known to have a better and faster interface in comparison to the Android default browser.
Not only does the Opera Mini offer great features, but also does an excellent job of optimizing the Droid’s screen space. And when it comes to web page loading, Opera Mini surpasses the other browsers on this list as it compresses pages to simplistically present them, which is ideal for loading pictures. Bottom line – the Opera Mini works great and looks great.
The Skyfire Browser
Skyfire first found a following by Symbian phone users but the version made for Android is still a solid performer. In order to make the format more user-friendly, Skyfire displays web pages and video content in a reduced size. And similar to the Opera Mini, Skyfire translates videos through its server before displaying it on a user’s Droid. While most people agree that Skyfire is a decent mobile web browser, it is currently in the beta-testing phase, which means there are features that require improvement.
The xScope Browser
The xScope Browser seems to have a promising beginning on the Android market. It carries such features as multi-tab browsing and pinch-to-zoom. In addition, xScope is a file and task browser. Currently, this browser comes in a free, lite version as well as paid version that costs a mere 99 cents.