Battle of the mobile browsers

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askelon

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#230361 21-Feb-2018 08:05

For years I was a stalwart chrome fanboi. Chrome on everything. Desktop, tablet and mobile. Around 6 months ago I have Firefox a go and have found it to be my daily driver on everything.

The one thing I have found with both Chrome and Firefox on my mobile is they are slow as hell. Especially Firefox. It will take seconds to load new pages etc. Chrome was a little quicker but still left me waiting.

Along comes opera. Originally I installed it on my tablet - Opera mini to be more precise. Works damned well on it. Sooooo I thought ok let's try it on my phone and omg it's quick. I'm using normal opera as my daily on my phone now.

One thing I have noticed between all 3 is how they load geekzone. I use the desktop site as I just don't like the mobile one (no offence intended I just find the desktop one easier to use).

Other than zooming in to see the various discussions on the front page chrome works by far the best. I don't need to zoom in on discussions. It just resizes to suit on its own.

Firefox is a whole other beast. Doesn't auto size anything meaning I have to pinch zoom then scroll left and right to read anything. A really unpleasant experience on top of it being slow at loading etc.

Opera still requires pinch zooming but resizes the text automatically.

So right now I'm stuck between Firefox and Opera. If Opera had reasonable syncing with the desktop app and a reasonable plugin system on desktop (to be honest I haven't checked!) I think I would switch everything. If Firefox resized correctly and fixed the horrendous page loading speeds I'd stay.

For the record I'm using a redmi note 3 phone. Whilst it could be phone related Firefox is also problematic on my quad core atom tablet.

robjg63

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#1961310 21-Feb-2018 08:16

I believe opera uses chrome internally as it's 'engine'.
At work I have found that generally Firefox is the most rock solid browser to use.
If you ever have a site that plays up under IE or chrome, it is usually ok in Firefox.
Also found chrome (while I tend to use it most personally) is inclined to release bugs which they fix/unfixed with each release. I think they have the concept of frequent releases and less QA (than chrome).

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

askelon

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#1961311 21-Feb-2018 08:21

I don't mind chrome on mobile but am preferring Firefox on my desktop. What's really needed is a universal sync system for mobile / desktop. I used to use xmarks premium but found it very average after it was taken over by lastpass

heapsort

245 posts

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#1961319 21-Feb-2018 08:46

I use Firefox for Android on my mobile phone, including for the desktop site of Geekzone forums. Seems fast enough to me. Forum posts generally look fine without excessive pinch zooming if the application's Accessibility setting "Use system font size" is turned on. Without that, yeah the zooming would be a bit tedious.

But for quick opening of links e.g. from apps and email messages, my default browser is set to Firefox Focus. It's simple, fast, blocks trackers, and doesn't pollute my browsing history in regular Firefox.

MikeAqua

7773 posts

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#1961334 21-Feb-2018 09:04

I use dolphin on my mobile. Seems fast.

Mike

freitasm

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#1961342 21-Feb-2018 09:17

I use Opera. It reflows text in discussions, which Chrome doesn't.

tripper1000

1617 posts

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#1961344 21-Feb-2018 09:17

I consistently like opera on the mobile devices - it's invaluable on older, low powered devices.

I consistently change on desktops though. Updates stuff up one, so I switch to another. Currently on the fence with all three - favourites/bookmarks have gotten very convoluted on Firefox and Chrome doesn't do flash, or whatever it is, and Opera now has an algorithm that ensures that when you close a tab, the one it switches to is never the one you expect.

qwerty123

147 posts

Master Geek

#1961377 21-Feb-2018 10:01

Also noticed that Firefox is very slow, but Chrome loads pages as fast as Opera. I prefer using Opera when on mobile data just because it has built-in ad blocker and saves me tons of data. Android Chrome unlike the desktop version doesn't have extensions.

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Stu

Hammered
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#1961423 21-Feb-2018 11:03

As above, Opera wins due to text reflow. Although I do use Chrome for Facebook, as I have the app disabled (Samsung bloatware, can't be uninstalled without root).

People often mistake me for an adult because of my age.

Keep calm, and carry on posting.

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MikeAqua

7773 posts

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#1961428 21-Feb-2018 11:16

The thing I don't like about chrome, is I can never find how to exit the browser (without shutting down the app form the OS). It's also gotten more difficult to clear data.

Mike

Rikkitic

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#1961442 21-Feb-2018 11:40

No phone, Opera on both tablets.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

allan

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#1961470 21-Feb-2018 12:28

Opera on Android mobile. It's the only one I've found that flows the text when resizing. Invaluable to get text readable from some sites.

Chrome used to do it several generations ago of course, put the puritan view they now appear to have is that all web sites should be designed to suit mobile devices. Unfortunately all web sites aren't listening.

DavidShah

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#1963705 25-Feb-2018 07:47

By far I've tried almost every browser out there. Yes that includes SeaMonkey, Vivaldi, Epic, and many more. But undoubtedly I've always sticked with Google Chrome :)