Gadgetory

one of the great things about Android is that if you don't like the stock services or applications you can generally find a replacement fairly easily I'm Taylor Martin this is pocket now and this is another look at Android web browsers one of the awesome features of Android is the fact that if you don't like the stock applications you can generally find replacements in the Play Store third-party browsers for instance or some of the most popular applications out there now with the jellybean update google changed the stock browser to chrome which has a long list of features that really set it apart from other browsers however there are some features from the old stock browser that are missing and what are the most complained about things and chrome is performance when you tend to zoom quickly or scroll quickly you get a little lag and you get a little bit of what some people refer to as checker boarding now with chrome it doesn't necessarily just play a checkerboard but you do have a lot of white that displays when the page cannot render quickly enough from the cache but there are some awesome features such as your tab sync with chrome and requesting the desktop site and even your bookmark sync with your google account but some people don't feel that outweighs the performance bugs probably the most popular third-party browser is dolphin it's available for iOS and Android and it has a bevy of unique features that really set it apart from the competition one is performance it is extremely fast and there is very little checkerboard or lag when quickly zooming or scrolling there's also a gesture navigation option which you can slide from the left or right side of the page and access different panels tap in the lower corner and you have quick access to voice search and a quick shortcuts through gestures you can draw a letter and open up Google search from the right side if you switch you can access your add-ons which there are dozens maybe hundreds maybe even thousands of different plugins that you can install that really add to the experience I for one use LastPass religiously and there is a LastPass add-on which is awesome and backing out of the application you can also clear cache in history quickly and easily another one of the most popular Android browsers out there is Firefox much like its popular desktop version Mozilla created a mobile version for Android users like dolphin it has add ons and plugins that really add to the experience and like chrome it features tab sync with the desktop version of Firefox it also has a request desktop site function which will get you from the mobile version of a site to a full version however if the site does not support that function you are stuck with the mobile site unless they provide a link directly to the full site unlike dolphin however Firefox suffers from some serious performance issues scrolling is inconsistent pinch-to-zoom suffers from some serious lag and scrolling quickly reveals some checker boarding and some other performance flaws I've had issues with the browser jumping up when I'm scrolling down and other really weird quirks the final browser will talk about in this video is skyfire it is definitely not the most powerful browser out there and it's not the most amazing it's more so a social browser than just a web browser as the developers built this with sharing in mind it suffers from some performance issues zooming is a little jumpy less so than firefox pinch-to-zoom is not nearly as jumpy as it is on firefox however zooming out requires several pinches you can't just pinch really quickly and zoom all the way out you have to pinch about three four maybe five times but as you notice this application is set up more for sharing than anything you have your native android sharing options but you also have one click sharing for liking on Facebook sharing to facebook twitter and other social accounts this browser also has flash built in which is very important for some users since chrome nor android officially support flash anymore and now for the good stuff a head-to-head battle between all four of these browsers I cleared the data and headed over to the Verge's homepage to see which one would be first chrome took the crown by just a slight margin over dolphin Firefox came in third and then skyfire came in last as it's still loading while the other three are fully loaded it also zooms in all the way by default so you have to pinch to zoom to get it all the way out after the page fully loads google also recently launched a beta version of Chrome which fixes some of the performance issues and lag there is less checker boarding when you're panning and zooming around and it performs better overall however it's still a beta and there are some bugs so if you've been thinking lately that chrome is lacking features and the performance isn't exactly what you need never fear there are plenty of browsers out there and the Play Store that performed just as well if not better and offer a bevy of awesome features like plugins and add-ons as always be sure to LIKE the video and if you haven't already subscribed to our channel and follow us on any of your social networks of choice thanks for watching and I will see you next time smartphones tablets wireless technology if that's the kind of stuff that get your flag wavin pocket now has you covered we've filmed over 2500 videos from in-depth reviews of the newest devices to special features like after the buzz 2 news and entertainment like the pocket now daily broadcast and the pocket now weekly podcast and we're adding more every day we've been around for over a decade but the adventure is just beginning join us for the journey subscribe to pocket now