Android Web Browsers

[kexolino]

I've been experimenting a little with them lately, and I tried the plain ole' stock Android browser, Chrome, Firefox and Opera.
On my phone (Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro) Opera is the worst (bad speed and clunky UI that takes up too much space), then comes Chrome, which to me is pretty much the same as the stock browser, maybe a little prettier, but a lot slower, so not my choice either.
The stock browser and Firefox are the two that I switch between all the time now. The stock browser is, well, stock, so there's nothing special about it, it has OK speed and an OK interface.
I love how Firefox looks and behaves, and it's a lot faster than the other 3 too, my only problem with it is that it still feels like it's just beta (it has no text wrapping, font size is all over the place, etc.).
So, what do you people use?

[dkeg]

chrome,
next browser,
opera.

thought FF pretty much sucked ass

[wuxmedia]

last time i used FF it took frikkin ages to startup. I don't think I even bothered to load a page..
I just use chrome.
I used opera for a bit - that was Ok but I don't have a lot of room in my tablet.

[kexolino]

Yeah, a month ago I removed FF after about 2 minutes too... Now it works fine.

[wuxmedia]

yes, this was sometime ago.
TBH I'm all synced up in google's ass anyway, so...

[rhowaldt]

doesn't this also depend on your carrier and phonemodel and Android version? i don't think i even have the stock browser, i just have Chrome and it works great.
i used to use Dolphin, which was way better than the stock browser at least.

[machinebacon]

I'm using UCbrowser if I don't accidentally go Chrome, and it works quite well - FF was a pain when it was in Beta, but the newest one wasn't all that bad. Opera is a pain. Dolphin I tried too but never found it a real improvement. Galaxy Tab PT 1000, Gingerbread

[rhowaldt]

oh yes, for me it is HTC One, Android 4.3 (IceCream Sandwich, i believe...)

[wuxmedia]

2.14 Android 4.0–4.0.2 Ice Cream Sandwich (API level 14)
2.15 Android 4.0.3–4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich (API level 15)
2.16 Android 4.1 Jelly Bean (API level 16)
2.17 Android 4.2 Jelly Bean (API level 17)
2.18 Android 4.3 Jelly Bean (API level 18)
2.19 Android 4.4 KitKat (API level 19)

one of these? 8P

Acer Iconia B1 - Android 4.2

[dkeg]

I just made next browser my default. And it has pocket !

[kexolino]

oh yeah, I forgot too add too, I run Cyanogenmod 9.1 (Android 4.0.4). It's significantly less bloated than Sony's rom

[bones]

Android 2.3.6, stock browser. Thought about trying something else, but as I don't www on my phone much, I don't care.

[ninjalulz]

Chrome, I have Google all up in my ass with it on everything with the option. Runs excellent on my phone, LG Nexus 4 on Kitkat.

[bizcuit]

One called Lightning, no ads, has a text-only mode, easy to block images in the settings on/off, switch off or enable javascript, search in page feature, block 3rd party cookies. Lotsa goodness, lotsa people have downloaded it etc. Really haven't fully explored all it can do. In the about section of it, says it's based on a Mozilla v2 license.

This also brings up one of my pet peeves, prefetching. Not sure if Chrome does it as extensively on mobile but wouldn't be surprised in the least. Been meaning to see what Firefox tweaks I can apply in about:config settings on the mobile browser. Also just found out there's a mobile version of noscript for FF.

I'd tried it ( FF mobile) and liked it well enough. But had mostly abandoned it to look for lighter ones. Going to reinstall it soon though and actually take the time to learn to use and tweak the thing. Been using FF too long to just give up on it, esp due to laziness or ignorance.

Am sure plenty of tweaks I'd learned on desktop are still valid on the mobile platform. Just didn't want to spend the time to learn proper optimization of it on mobile.

Agree with you on many of the bigger name mobile browsers. Too much crap packed into their UI's. Out of the box probably using way more resources and data than I'd find acceptable and for all that not even keeping pace in terms of speed. No thanks. So for now Lightning is staying primary and plan to add FF, as backup unless/until I can manage to tweak it to be better than the rest the pack.

Lol ... at which time the good ole fox would regain it's status as Alpha browser. Also +1 Machine on UC browser, it was #2 for awhile here. Liked it fine still always looking for greener pastures and will keep on looking.

[ivanovnegro]

Used Lightning and a similar browser on my older phone. It was relatively painless but on the new one I switched to Firefox. It just supports more sites I browse and I love that I can use uBlock on it. It still is slow as hell compared to Chrome and some lighter browsers but at least it uses less resources and gives me an ad blocker. I also still dislike webkit browsers.

FF has this read mode that I finally use, on mobile it makes sense, and a nice tab switching mode.
Other than that I hate browsing the internet on a phone. It is mostly news sites.

[bizcuit]

Update: Starting to wonder if I'll get the chance to mess with FF mobile. Stumbled on some fairly recent stats and looks like Mozilla is in trouble. Their browser market share has been dropping like a stone for quite awhile. Starting to look like Chrome is the new IE, arghhhhhh. Pushing the competitors out on mobile and desktop.

Damn google, making Chrome default on most Android devices. Smart move though sheesh. Hoping it doesn't become a Microsoft/IE situation like it was for a long time. Only with Google in the drivers seat.

Nooooooooo, my opinion of Chrome mobile ( well and Chrome desktop) is that they both suck for the most part, shrugs. Though Mozilla's code is open source, guess somebody will keep it alive in whatever form. Just worried that if market share drops too far, Mozilla might not be able to afford to keep putting resources into dev'ing it. At least to the same extent, as they have up till now. No more FF !?!!?

Noooooooooooooooooooo ! again. :/

[bizcuit]

More random babble, ironically Mozilla no doubt still gets lucrative revenues from Google Inc. Though it's got to be falling off, Firefox's market share is set to hit single digits, if it hasn't already. Gotta hurt going from 25%+ to 8-9% and projected to continue declining.

Personally would like to see Moz adopt a more agreesive stance in terms of ootb configs/settings. Always noticed FF's tendency to be more conservative, so basically think FF tends to ask or leave it to end-users to tweak settings, whereas Chrome just tends to take liberties. Appropriating sys-resources and more aggressive default configs.

Don't know why it isn't standard for Moz to incorporate a script or whatever which could run during the install process and optimize for the target system/device.

Stuff like that's been feasible forever. Doesn't make much sense to me to have the most configable web browser on the dang planet but leave it mostly to endusers to optimize it all for themselves. Guessing it's news to nobody people tend to be lazy.

[noo_b_nomnoms]

I use Orfox with Orbot (Tor). Works pretty well for me. Otherwise Chrome on a Kyocera Brigadier.