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why cant we get a great browser

Opera Mini is the one I use most often on my phone. It is blazingly fast and saves your data as well. It is not a full featured browser and for certain sites, I use the stock, Dolphin HD or Opera Mobile browser.

On my tablet, I've used Opera Mobile for a while, but am now trying out Dolphin HD and Dolphin for Tablets beta. Opera Mobile is rather lacking the ability to allow me to enter any comments on sites that use Disqus. It also does not allow me to enter messages in the Wizards of the Coast forums.

So far, Dolphin is a bit cooler than the stock browser on my tablet. The tablet has a faster processor than my phone, so the speed advantage of Opera Mini is not as significant on my tablet.

So far, there is not one tablet that does everything that I need. For that reason, I have not set a default browser. When I jump to a web site from any app, I have to select a browser.
 
mrqs said:
doesn't opera mini just save on bandwidth rather than processing?
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It does both. saves on data and local processing. Because all the real work of rendering full data intensive web-pages are handled by Opera's servers, and they send a compressed version for the Opera Mini client to render. I suppose it's thin-client cloud computing.

I ran into an interesting thing with Opera Mini though. I originally installed it on my phone in the UK, but when I travelled to China, tried to use it, it said I had to download another special version for use in China.

Apparently what was happening, people where using Opera Mini to bypass the GFW censoring in the PRC. Think the regular version communicates with Opera's servers in Sweden, while the special Chinese version is hard-coded to communicate with servers in Beijing. Probably had to do that so they could legally distribute it in China.
 
mrqs said:
doesn't opera mini just save on bandwidth rather than processing?
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It does both. Opera's servers do the rendering and then compresses the data and sends it to the phone. This means the phone's processor doesn't have to do the processing. It would appear that Opera's servers are much faster at rendering the pages than my phone. The net result is that the image appears on my phone using Opera Mini faster than with other browsers.

My tablet has a better processor and more memory. Opera Mini is still rather quick, but not a lot quicker than using another browser.
 
translate.google.com/translate_tools <<<open this in opera go down to review your site and click on translate using opera. notice how no languages come up. do the same in dolphin and bamn you can translate.

personally dolphins gui works for me but this is a preference. im just hoping that someone at dolphin and opera look at this and can fix the issues so that all that is left to compare to good browsers is the gui
 
@stunt the issues im pointing out shouldnt be compared to a desktop. dolphin has a bug in one area opera in another area. both areas are light and maybe they just didnt notice them. i brought huffpo up with dolphin months ago but the customer service annoyed me to the point i really started trying other browsers heavily. so far dolphin is my favorite gui but i run into too many sites that its a big issue for me.
 
alisagarner said:
I am satisfied with the opera browser. And after all mobile browsers are for mobiles which has limitations. No matter haw smart the phone is the browser will have some limitations in future also.
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The issues I'm pointing out safari on iphone doesnt have so its not an issue with capability.
 
Hrethgir said:
Haven't seen anyone mention XScope. I've been using that one for quite a while now, I really like it. Tried others, but kept going back to XScope.
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Agreed. I have tried all the major browsers as well as some of the lesser known ones, and XScope is by far my favorite. It is fast but not compressed looking like Opera mini, and is full featured but not as heavy and bloated like Dolphin. Love the pin-zoom feature, and the built in file manager is nice too. I never understood why this browser wasn't more popular. I guess it's not the prettiest one out there, but the free black glass theme looks a lot nicer.
 
Lol either someone at dolphin is watching this thread or enough people complained but dolphin just pushed an update that almost resolved my biggest issue with dolphin. It created another more minor issue but 80% there guys as it has some minor issues especially in conjunction with the google translate. If nobody is watching this thread then im glad you guys are finally making headway
 
I use the Maxthon browser that aamikam puts on his roms. I really like it. Works for everything I do on the mobile net. Even opens my corporate web client on the phone without issues.

I used Dolphin HD for a hot minute, kept doing stuff with gestures I wasn't aware were gestures. lol
 
lef i hope so and wait to see but it makes me sick that safari a desktop browser i put slightly above ie works better than all the android browsers including the ones listee here. btw have you clicked on the links i provided and varified that stock ics works perfectly?
 
gran i check every browser that gets listed on here. overall it seems to support basic standards better than the other browsers listed here it still fails. combine the two sites i listed android developer and translate and it chokes just like the others except a refresh and it works alright unlike the others. its closer but we need to get a great browser that at least fundamentally works no worse than safari. please as a dev im begging all the browsers to get together and fix the fundamental issues as i cant have a seperate ss for every different android browser
 
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