iOS browsers comparison (August 2012)

Internet usage is growing very fast. It also applies to mobile Internet. iOS is one of the most popular operating systems, so we decided to find out which browser is the best.

We had evaluated browsers by different parameters, like price, size, functionality, performance etc. 

Here is brief description of the most important browsers results:

 Safari

Safari - iOS default browser showed very good results. It is preinstalled, so you will not have any problems with finding, buying and installing it. Also it is the fastest browser on iOS, because only Safari has access to Nitro Javascript engine. It has some disadvantages in functionality (it still has not got synchronisation with desktop version and has limit on tabs), but if you do not care about it, this browser is the best choice.

 Opera Mini

Opera Mini - one of the most popular alternative browsers do not show itself. Because of it specificity it had got stuck in almost all performance tests. However it is free, small and has some good features like synchronization and data compression.
 iCab
iCab is the most functional browser for iOS. Despite of its functionality it is not very big. On the other hand it is paid and a little slow.
 Google Chrome
Google Chrome has appered on iOS not long ago, but it has become one of the most popular browsers. It is free and with clean interface. Although it is not so fast like desktop version it has synchronization with it, which can be important if you use it on your computer also.
 Mercury Pro
Mercury has very nice interface and some cool features, but it is paid and very big.
 Dolphin Browser
Dolphin is one of the most popular free browser. It is quite fast for alternative browser, but it has not got very much features except gestures and voice search(voice search is paid).
 Puffin Browser
Puffin is one of the few browser supporting flash. However it is paid and had stucked with lot of performance tests, if you need flash on your iOS device this is just what you need.


Here are summary results of the most popular browsers:

Full version of results is here

Comparison was made on: iPhone 3GS running iOS 5.1.1


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