7 Best Mobile Browsers

Just until a few years back mobile web browsing seemed to be a futuristic discussion. You had to wait for minutes just to access the Google page itself. Moreover the small screen could not give the same excitement of desktop web browsing. But with exponential growth in technology, life seems to be much easier nowadays. Today when people find it hard to get settled before a desktop, automatically switches to a more mobile and handy device. There came the need and the importance of mobile web browsing. Nowadays people find it much more pleasing to browse the web through their mobile phones where phones have also become smart enough to replace the traditional desktop browsing. So it has become a challenge for the software companies to come up with a much more competitive and user friendly product which can really win over the users.

Today there are scads of mobile phone browsers which are special in their own way. Some are really fast whereas others are much easy to use. Here are some of the best browsers for mobile which will really impress you.

1. Firefox Mobile:

Mozilla Firefox is a household name for internet browsing as it is one of the most trustworthy and user friendly browser. Developer Mozilla Corporation extended its service to phone browsing which was named as Fennec. It comes from the Fennec Fox, a small desert fox (just as the Fennec Browser is a small version of Firefox browser).Firefox for mobile versions use the same Gecko layout engine as their Firefox counterparts. Its features include tabbed browsing, password manager and location-aware browsing. The most interesting feature of this browser is that it can synchronize with the user’s computer Firefox browser using Firefox Sync. The only drawback of this browser is that it does not support Symbian, Apple and Blackberry platforms.  

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2. Opera Mobile:

Perhaps one of the most well known mobile web browser from Opera Software, it has excellent features like password manager and pop-up handler, and it supports copy and paste, address auto-complete, zooming, history, and bookmarks. Opera Mobile uses the Presto layout engine and supports many web standards. As of version 9.7, it can use Opera Turbo that compresses web pages via Opera Software’s “Turbo” servers, thus reducing download size. Because web pages are compressed, page loading times are improved, and bandwidth consumption is reduced by up to 80%. The latest release from Opera is the Opera 11.  

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3. Internet Explorer for Mobile:

Formerly known as Pocket Internet Explorer, IE for mobile is an excellent browser from Microsoft based on Trident layout engine. Similar to the computer version, this browser runs on Windows platform supported phones. The browser support multi-touch gestures including pinch-to-zoom as well as tap-to-zoom for desktop web sites.  Bing Search is tightly integrated with Internet Explorer Mobile. IE Mobile can display websites in both “mobile version” and “desktop version”. The latest release from Microsoft is the IE Mobile 9.

4. UC Web:

This browser was first released by UC Mobile back in 2009. Since then it has released a lot of versions and is known for its reliability. The browser is available for a number of platforms, including Java, iOS and Android. It works on both low memory phones and high-end phones. The web page is compressed and rendered by a server and then it is provided to the mobile. Thus the mobile does not handle the web pages rather they are handled by the server itself, similar to the operation of a thin client. UC Mobile released the latest version named 7.7 in May, 2011.    Download

5. Bolt:

BOLT is produced by Bitstream Inc., the company which previously produced the ThunderHawk for Mobile network operators and handset manufacturers. BOLT can be installed on Java-based handsets with Java MIDP 2 and CLDC 1.0 or higher support. BOLT also has a specially optimized version for BlackBerry smartphones and works with Windows Mobile and Palm OS devices that employ a MIDlet manager or Java emulator. BOLT was built using the WebKit rendering engine to display a full Web page layout as found on desktop web browsers with tab facilities.    Download

6. Mobile Safari:

This is exclusively for the Apple supported phones. This browser comes preloaded in all the versions of Apple phones supporting iOS. This browser has an excellent feature to display websites like YouTube and has the capability to provide HD browsing with the help of Retina Display which helps in rendering the text and images perfectly and clearly. The features extend to zooming capability and excellent touch-based user interface. Moreover it can be synchronized with the PC browser.

7. Skyfire:

A browser from Skyfire Labs, Inc, it supports Android and iOS supported mobiles. It used to support Windows and Symbian platforms as well but in 2011, it was discontinued. Skyfire comprises two distinct generations of mobile browser technology. In Skyfire’s first generation (1.x) browser, a web page is fully rendered by a server separate from the mobile device, similar to the operation of a thin client. Skyfire’s second generation (2.x) browser employs a hybrid approach, using a conventional rendering of Web pages on the handheld device, but streaming video from Skyfire’s servers.  

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These were the best 7 mobile phone browsers I could figure out. As there are copious such browsers and all are great, some of you may disagree with me. In that scenario I would really love to know your opinions about my list and your favourite browsers.

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