Android Browsers: Skyfire vs. Dolphin HD vs. Opera Mini vs. Mozilla Fennec

By | September 30, 2010 | 13 Comments

Android Browsers: Skyfire vs. Dolphin HD vs. Opera Mini vs. Mozilla Fennec

Guys at PCWorld benchmarked Skyfire 2.0, Dolphin HD, Opera Mini, Mozilla Fennec, Android 2.1 and Android 2.2 stock mobile web browsers.

As you can see from the results above, Opera Mini and Skyfire 2.0 took the lead, followed by Android 2.2, Android 2.1, Dolphin HD and lastly, Mozilla’s Fennec (Alpha) browser.

Interestingly enough, Skyfire 2.0 beats Opera Mini when loading pages directly from the web (they both compress content), while Opera Mini performed better during cached pages load test.


About (Author Profile)


Vygantas is a former web designer whose projects are used by companies such as AMD, NVIDIA and departed Westood Studios. Being passionate about software, Vygantas began his journalism carrier back in 2007 when he founded FavBrowser.com. Having said that, he is also an adrenaline junkie who enjoys good books, fitness activities and Forex trading.

  • Ichan

    Yes but skyfire is horrible.

    • nobody

      why it is horrible? i use it on my galaxy s and droid(s) and it works quite well. and unlike opera mini it is easier to turn it off (opera mini almost always require taskKiller.. as ‘back’ button has only like 20 levels and then loops, leaving you no other choice)

      • Ichan

        It is funny how there is at least one person in this world who would oppose a belief when they believe so passionately that their own belief is correct.
         
        It was an opinion. I do not like the rendering. I do not like the interface. I DO NOT LIKE IT.
         
        Since you are the only one to oppose me, you must be the only one here to like it.
         
        And no person should ever need more than one device to do one thing.
        Mobile enthusiast? Huh!
         
        I like talking in bullet points/dot points. Got a problem?

        • nobody

          so do not write ‘it is horrible’ but ‘i do not like it’
           
          and devices.. some are gifts from carriers, some are testing samples that again are now gifts and i can keep them, and some i just bought because i felt like it and i could. this work has lots of good sides :)
           
          and opera mini is direct competitor to skyfire (not only in this test) and it has some better and some worse qualities than the other browser. so that why it is mentioned. got problem?

          • nvm

            Skyfire is a media player on top of a browser (the stock Android browser). Opera Mini is a proxy browser. Not really direct competition.

        • Ichan

          By your previous response it sounds to me that you carry 24 phones on you at the same time.
           
          If this is true than I see no point. I feel like killing a lot of people. Does that mean I should?
          I’ll start with Vygantas for ignoring my plea for a damn edit feature.
          Don’t worry though. I wont kill you. I need someone to entertain me at least.

      • Ichan

        Who ever said anything about Opera mini?
         
        You do not need to justify why skyfire is better by introducing Opera mini into the equation as doing so will negate all the advantages skyfire apparently has over mini.
         
        Dare I say I prefer the symbian browser to skyfire. Dare I say
         
        Dammit! Where is the EDIT button

        • TJ

          Wow. Just wow. There are so many problems with what you’ve said in these comments that I don’t know where to begin.

          Here are just one thought: How could someone say that skyfire is BETTER without saying what it’s better than? Answer, they can’t. Saying something is better assumes a comparison.

  • nvm

    Skyfire sucks. The stock Android browser is miles better. Skyfire is nothing but a media player built on the stock Android browser, and only causes clutter, slowdown, and crap like that.
    Also, I hear that Skyfire is spyware. Even if it uses the standard browser engine, it still reports everything you do to Skyfire. And they sell the information to advertisers, because that’s the only way they can stay in business.
    It’s one of the reasons they pulled out of basically the whole world except the US and parts of Europe. Advertisers weren’t willing to pay for data collected for users in other countries.

    • AB

      if skyfire is just a ‘media player on top of stock browser’, then why is it much much faster than the stock browser??

      • Stevejobs

        Well, if you were to look at the stats, you would realize that it is NOT that much faster, as well as the fact that you yourself are incompetent. It loads slightly quicker because it is not incorporating the media into the browser, rather, loading it independently. My opinion. Ichan – Rock on.

  • http://andresderojas.wordpress.com Andrés de Rojas

    Seems Mozilla has a lot to work on that Alpha version.
    I don’t like Skyfire…I’ve been using Dolphin and I like it, although I didn’t know about this speed issue!

    • Foo

      I can’t see any information on which version they used… there were some major changes done recently.

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