Meet Apple Safari 6, World’s Fastest Web Browser?

By | June 13, 2012


Meet Apple Safari 6, World’s Fastest Web Browser?Probably not.

During the WWDC keynote, Craig Federighi, Apple’s vice president of Mac Software Engineering, has made some bold statements regarding web browsers.

According to Craig, in addition to a new, Core Animation based scrolling architecture, which will deliver a silky smooth scrolling, Safari 6 will also have the “fastest JavaScript engine of any browser on the planet” and “lightning fast page loading,”

Here is a slide to support their claim and no, it does not include the Internet Explorer 10:

Meet Apple Safari 6, World’s Fastest Web Browser?

A few more screenshots:

Meet Apple Safari 6, World’s Fastest Web Browser?

Meet Apple Safari 6, World’s Fastest Web Browser?

Safari 6 Changelog

– A smart search bar, think Google Chrome
– iCloud integration
– Twitter integration
– Tab synchronization across all devices
– Additional HTML5 standards support
– Several multi-touch gestures

What do you guys think?

[Picture Source: TheVerge]

[Thanks, Blake]


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 career 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.

Comments (76)

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  1. Ichann says:

    OK. So apart from scrolling and javascript performance (redundant)

    What does it bring?

    Does it use SPDY or something to accelerate page loads?

    • Tell me one page that uses SPDY, besides Twitter.

      • Ichann says:

        Google?

        At least this is an feature. Instead of upgrading something.

        That was an example btw.

        Safari like IE doesnt have many features. It is limited. Good for a basic browser I guess.

        • Przemysław Lib says:

           yeah! Google powered services gain some nice boost. And Google can turn it on on its web-apps hosting services (google sites, google app engine, etc.) So audience is not small at all!
          Also if SPYDY would get into HTTP spec I think that apache code for it would surface minutes after ;)

  2. Apple said it’s the fastest. That makes it fact. Do we really need to prove it?

  3. Grrblt says:

    I don’t get why Apple don’t just patent “fast browser” and sue the hell out of every other browser. I mean, it’s their standard business strategy for every other product, so why not here too?

  4. Whyamiusingthis says:

    They did not include Opera in the benchmark?

    • Shane Bundy says:

      And Opera has a pretty good JS engine, even if it’s not the fastest in SunSpider. It’s pretty efficient everywhere else.

    • MacVities says:

      Why would you include a browser that’s faster?
      Everything Apple does is about cherrypicking data to brainwash idiots.

      • Hiram says:

        They used the SunSpider benchmark in which Opera is generally the slowest browser of them all. But I certainly agree with you in regards to them cherry picking things as that benchmark is basically made by them and it’s widely regarded by both Google and Mozilla as outdated and nearly obsolete.

        • Przemysław Lib says:

           And funy fact is that they do not provide VERSION of Safari, which is still probably in beta or alpha state. And this is plain stupid. You do not compare FF13 or Chrome 19 since Sfari will be compared to FF17 and Chrome 24 at arrival date. (Ok I have made those numbers, cause I do not really know when safari will be released, but they still show the picture quite nicely)

        • Ichann says:

          Have you guys noticed how opera runs sunspider? The UI goes ape-shit

        • Well every time I tried FF, Opera and Chrome in Spidertest, Chrome always comes the slowest.

  5. Js9ty says:

    apple also said at ipad 3 keynote that people plays more on iphone/ipad than ps3/xbox 360.

  6. Shane Bundy says:

    Hey Apple, try telling Opera about smooth scrolling. :L

  7. AllTheWay says:

    Hey look what i found

    http://i.imgur.com/2bVOl.jpg

    • Shane Bundy says:

      That was actually true back then. Apple just say it and hope you believe it. ;)

    • Hiram says:

      According to most synthetic benchmarks it actually was the fastest at that time. However, currently the opposite is nearer to the truth.

      • AllTheWay says:

        Replacing “10.50” with “12”

        how about it?

          • jayjam says:

            Good point. It disproves your own claim. Although Tom’s Hardware’s tests are pretty lame.

          • Hiram says:

            In what way does this disprove my claim?

          • Hiram says:

            Woops, I made a mistake – I accidentally included a link to their XP edition of Grandprix which is was fairly silly as it was done on basically a decade old hardware. Here’s the correct link: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/chrome-17-firefox-10-ubuntu,3129-7.html

          • Hiram says:

            I should also probably state that when I made my claim I made it with Maxthon in mind as being a major browser. So, going by the fact that Chrome,Firefox and Maxthon are all generally faster on synthetic benchmarks than Opera and that there are 6 major browsers(IE,Chrome,Firefox,Safari,Opera and Maxthon), Opera would end up in the lower half of the list. That would make my claim that Opera is nearer to being the slowest rather than the fastest major browser very much true.

          • jayjam says:

            It disproves your claim because it pretty consistently shows Opera near the top of the list, and never last.

          • Hiram says:

            When a list is compromised out of 6 browsers and Opera is generally in the 4th place that means it’s closer to the bottom than the top.

          • jayjam says:

            A list comprised of 6 browsers? Learntocount.

            Opera is usually in the top 2-3, as your links show too.

          • Hiram says:

            You have probably not bothered to look at my other comment, but that’s OK. You are correct in saying that Opera is generally in the third spot in the links that I have provided, however those links do not include Maxthon which I and many others consider to also be a major browser. So basically if we were to include Maxthon as a major browser, we would then have 6. And as Chrome,Firefox and Maxthon are generally faster in the majority synthetic benchmarks that would relegate Opera from the third to the fourth place. Here’s a link to the latest Maxthon release if you wish to test it for yourself: http://forum.maxthon.com/redirect.php?tid=82387&goto=newpost#newpost

          • Hiram says:

            In the majority *of*

          • jayjam says:

            Maxthon is definitely not a major browser, and all it does is ride on the optimizations performed by Apple and Google.

          • Hiram says:

            I believe it’s market share is significant enough to justify calling it a major browser. And I don’t think that them utilizing tools that are already available and building upon them is necessarily a bad thing. Also, I provided you with that link for a reason, that reason being is that you can do the tests for yourself and confirm the fact that Maxthon is indeed faster than Opera in the majority of synthetic benchmarks. And while I would certainly like for Maxthon to be included in future Grandprixes, I hardly made anything up.

          • jayjam says:

            Maxthon isn’t even visible in the global stats. Its market share is about 0.000000000001%.

            Your subjective opinion about Maxthon’s speed is about as reliable as your claims about its huge market share. Yawn.

          • Hiram says:

            http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-CN-monthly-201204-201205 China is one example where Maxthon has a fairly decent marketshare. And with your claim of “0.000000000001%.” I see that you have abandoned all pretense of nicety and having any interest in changing your mind. So by the fact that tomshardware didn’t benchmark Maxthon, all tests, even though they are the same ones as done by tomshardware are subjective? I have provided you with a link to Maxthon and you may test it on all the benchmarks listed in tomshardware. Chances are that you won’t and you will continue being an Opera fruitcake like you have always been.

          • Hiram says:

            Also, Maxthon’s UA is changed according to the engine it uses, so it’s very difficult to get accurate information as to what is it’s exact marketshare might be.

          • Hiram says:

            http://marketshare.hitslink.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=2&qpcustomd=0 Look down, so as you can see there are  Chrome 18 and IE8 Maxthon editions which add up to around 0.35%, however that list is missing the IE9 maxthon edition and the new Chrome one, so it’s unknown as to what it’s exact marketshare might be. Suffice it to say that it’s certainly larger than your estimate.

      • hotteamix says:

        Oh look a fraction of microseconds difference.

        Chrome lag like btch on heavy page trying to scroll thing. THAT’s far more important to me than a nanosecond difference.

        FF is not bad, nothing can replace trahs bin, panel, memo and feed reader on Opera though.

        • Hiram says:

          Milliseconds, not a fraction of microseconds. And those do add up substantially when using whole applications written in JavaScript. I’m not trying to be mean to Opera but, if any browser “lags like a bitch trying to scroll” that would certainly be it.

          • hotteamix says:

            Show me such JS heavy site that’s noticeably faster on Chrome than on Opera.

          • Hiram says:

            These are the first ones that come to mind: Google Docs, Twitter, Gmail

          • hotteamix says:

            Those google are because of SPDY, and Twitter is just as fast here (thanks to HTTPS improvement of O12).

          • hotteamix says:

            …If you can notice any different in JS execution on those sites, you’re probably using ancient machine. Page loading is fast due to SPDY on google sites, and Twitter is slow on any browser.

          • Hiram says:

            To both hotteamix and Guest: I’m not talking about the loading of the page, I’m talking about the execution of functions within the page. And Chrome is certainly faster.
            Also, my desktop while hardly new, isn’t that slow.

      • jayjam says:

        “abandoned all pretense of nicety and having any interest in changing your mind”

        Says the “currently the opposite is nearer to the truth” guy.

        Also, Maxthon having 3% in China does not make it a major browser. No one is using it outside of China, and within China most people are probably using phones rather than PCs to get online. So 3% of a handful of people is still tiny.

        Look, you can keep trying to push Maxthon, but no one is using it, it is not a major browser, and it is not being tested in benchmarks. Sorry dude.

        • Hiram says:

          Look at my other my comments, I’ve provided you with a global, while not entirely accurate market share as well: http://marketshare.hitslink.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=2&qpcustomd=0 Chrome 18 Maxthon + IE 8 Maxthon = ~ 0.35%, but that’s also not including the IE9 and the newer Chrome editions and also not including the custom UA strings that are available. So it’s probably somewhere around 0.5%. I gotta say it’s fairly funny that saying that Opera is closer to being the slowest rather than the fastest browser around is now a personal offense to an Opera fruitcake.

  8. Denny Kluge says:

    Smart search bar, tab synchronisation. Well, Chrome has this for a while :-) So Apple is just catching up.

  9. Mikah says:

    Guessing they base their claim on just the one test probably SunSpider  & if it true?  they won’t be fastest for long.

    • Hiram says:

      You are probably correct, as them using SunSpider explains IE9 being in the first place on their chart.

  10. cyberstream_us says:

    It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything from Safari…

  11. It will bite Opera 12s very dust!!!

  12. Yoyo says:

    Safari and Opera display widnows outlook live(which my uni email use) in wrong way.
    had to use Comodo Dragon or Chromium to display web page right ….. is it sad that IE and Google both hates use browser sniffing and stuff like that.

  13. NoBigGovDuh says:

    Fake chart, IE9 is not faster than chrome or FF. I think Apple and Microsoft are 69ing now.