[Q] What browser do you use? - Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

So I've been trying to find a decent browser that's bug free and gives great performance but I'm still looking...
Chrome still has its bugs. Its still kinda jerky and there's a delay with pinch to zoom where it wont start to zoom until after your fingers have moved a certain distance apart which is kind of annoying.
I've just tried firefox but the scrolling is totally broken on that and non responsive.
What do you guys use?

I use Chrome I know its not perfect but I like syncing all my bookmarks and being able to share open pages across my Macbook, N7, N4, and S3
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

Yup, stock chrome for me too. Everyone complains about how much it sucks but it's plenty fast and responsive for my use.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk²

Chrome here as well. It is plenty fast on my N4 and N7. It does chug a bit on the Gnex but still usable.

Add to the fanboyism here, too. I use chrome almost exclusively. I've been known to use dolphin, but like someone said above, I love syncing bookmarks and open pages.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

I use chrome too, it may not be the absolute fastest, but I also use it on my desktop.

Aosp browser, faster than chrome IMO

AOSP Browser 4.2.: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1999303
Better than chrome and syncs my bookmarks from PC.

I use Chrome for most things and Firefox when I need the Flash player. I used to use Boat Browser Lite on my LG G2x, but I find that Chrome and Firefox work well enough that I haven't used Boat since I got my N4.

I use Chrome, but I occasionally use AOSP Browser if Chrome doesn't like a webpage. Oddly enough I use Firefox on my PC :victory:

Chrome, because of the sync between pc, laptop, Nexus 7 & Nexus 4.

Galactic2 said:
AOSP Browser 4.2.: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1999303
Better than chrome and syncs my bookmarks from PC.
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I second this, love the aosp browser so smooth and fast.

I love Chrome ?

Chrome or Dolphin Browser. I'll give Firefox a try.

I don't see why everyone complains about chrome on the nexus 4.
If you use chrome on the desktop, then using it on android is the perfect combination. I do have dolphin installed, but I only use that when I go on sites that need flash.

BTW I think the delayed pitch to zoom is due to screen sensitivity. It doesn't start zooming until a second after doing the gesture
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

italia0101 said:
BTW I think the delayed pitch to zoom is due to screen sensitivity. It doesn't start zooming until a second after doing the gesture
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think it's screen sensitivity, I think they programmed the screen driver that way: it just doesn't register a "zoom" gesture (neither stretch nor pinch) unless your fingers are a couple or three centimeters apart. If you start out with your fingers further apart, it registers the "zoom" immediately, or very close to it. And, if you notice, on a "pinch" gesture the zoom level stops changing as soon as your fingers get within 2-3 cm of each other. (I see the exact same behavior in Gallery, as well.)

chrome since it sync with my pc, laptop and other devices Its little slow but over the time it will be the best browser.

Followomg the crowd with Chrome
A happy sheep
Sywepd form my DsereiS

I'm using Dolphin with my Nexus 4 and iPad. No complaints - they are both very fast except Dolphin on Android has a few 'features' that need to be done away with.

Related

Chrome performance

Is it just me or is chrome a fairly laggy experience with browsing? I mean I love everything abut it except that its very laggy with scrolling and loading on the nexus 7 . My evo 3d is smoother when browsing and its not even comparable with the new ipad. And i cant compare chrome on my 3d because I get tons of graphical glitches. I just feel that for being the standard browser on this device it should perform better. The aosp browser that comes with cm seems much faster and smoother but I get a lot of "this page is not responding" errors with it.
Chrome Lagging & Other Disappointments
ncfastls1 said:
Is it just me or is chrome a fairly laggy experience with browsing? I mean I love everything abut it except that its very laggy with scrolling and loading on the nexus 7 . My evo 3d is smoother when browsing and its not even comparable with the new ipad. And i cant compare chrome on my 3d because I get tons of graphical glitches. I just feel that for being the standard browser on this device it should perform better. The aosp browser that comes with cm seems much faster and smoother but I get a lot of "this page is not responding" errors with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it's not just you. I have the same problems on my 12-day old Nexus 7. This is my first tablet and the whole experience has been disappointing. I will be returning it and begin a whole new search . I have never and do not own an Apple anything but more and more it seems I may end up with an iPad. But I'm not willing to give in just yet. The touch screen is a disaster. Although there may be a fix in these forums, I guess my thought process is, "why am I fixing a brand new tablet?" I didn't expect perfection with this first release but the basics like touchscreen, Chrome & speakers should not be problematic.
Try a different browser, Dolphin is really good, Firefox is good, Xscope (I think it's ugly) I hear works well, Tint, Boat (iOS Safari like), etc.
I've noticed that some web pages just don't work well on mobile, the newer XDA themes (the current one and the previous) have been laggy on every Android device I've read it on. The old yellow theme is perfectly smooth. Android Central can get laggy too, but there are tons of other pages with lots of content that are like butter. I dunno.
Chrome is pretty laggy in my experience. I just found out that the AOSP browser is actually better than Chrome in terms of speed and consistency. It even supports Flash!
Erm... Works fine imo? Switching tabs can have me waiting seconds fora page to render but besides that everything seems pretty close to optimal.
Imho Chrome isn't ready for daily use. Just installed dolphin, very fast, my browsing experience improved a lot.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
I use Chrome on my Nexus and it's smoother than the stock browser,IMO. No lag or other issues at all. Very quick and snappy.
[Sent from my Nexus 7. Pardon errors.]
It lags for me when I open 9 tabs.
Will the next nexus have a longer screen?
I get some severe hitching sometimes where a page will start to load then I attempt to scroll and the UI doesn't respond for seconds. I kind of get that sometimes in other programs but Firefox or Dolphin seem much better about never freezing up for long periods and you can actually scroll when the page is still rendering. I use Chrome mainly because it has excellent integration with the desktop version which actually might be contributing to that problem. I was thinking about turning off the sync of things like omnibox history to see if it would make it get stuck less doing whatever it's doing. More likely though it's a problem with how it's rendering the pages and fitting them for the tablet but I can't do anything about that so I try to change little settings.
TheGag96 said:
Chrome is pretty laggy in my experience. I just found out that the AOSP browser is actually better than Chrome in terms of speed and consistency. It even supports Flash!
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Click to collapse
I agree 100%. After playing with everything on the market I have not found anything that handles flash as well as the older browser.I miss the full screen mode in firefox but being able to have flash work correctly is more important to me than full screen browsing or syc. Google should have left Crome as an add-on and used the regular browser on the N7.
Try firefox , it's awesome. Despite all good things about Firefox on android I still hate their UI .

stock browser vs chrome

Both from a factual view and a personal preference view what do you guys think is the better browser of the two?
I found with the jb update the Stock browser began to load faster than chrome although the keyboards generally still worked badly in forums, swype being worst.
With chromes new update I find it to be about equal. I've tried running the ms fish HTML test on both and it doesn't run well on either so I didn't find that a good test to give any solid facts but right now I prefer chorine purely based on using it to write in forums but other than that they seem to perform roughly equal as far add I can tell. What do you guys think?
To be honest I have not found any better than stock. I don't care for gestures, synch or any fancy features, all I want I a fast browser that doesn't lag while reading and rendering pages. Stock is awesome, chrome not so much. Flash seems to work on stock and if it didn't video and mx player do a good job.
I'd like, however, that it would organize pages as opera mobile does. Opera's brilliant in this. Sadly is rather buggy in other departments. That's the only thing I'm missing. Other than that, stock is just about perfect and that's what I use.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using XDA Premium App
Some good points well made, since Google make both browsers its strange that they should be so different though maybe stock is optimised to each device and chrome is one size fits all.
I love a lot of things about chrome but for raw speed as far as I can tell like you say, stock is the Best in that department. Difficult to Test without 2 phones
stock browser all the day
its faster smoother have more feature like full screen mode
but chrome has cool feature too but its suck :silly:
The stock app is awful, I have Firefox, Chrome and Skyfire installed on my S3
None. I don't like the stock browser's messy menu configuration. Chrome is just... odd. I rather enjoy Dolphin, but I've been using Boat Browser for a while now, and I've grown fond of it...
dodgebizkit said:
Both from a factual view and a personal preference view what do you guys think is the better browser of the two?
I found with the jb update the Stock browser began to load faster than chrome although the keyboards generally still worked badly in forums, swype being worst.
With chromes new update I find it to be about equal. I've tried running the ms fish HTML test on both and it doesn't run well on either so I didn't find that a good test to give any solid facts but right now I prefer chorine purely based on using it to write in forums but other than that they seem to perform roughly equal as far add I can tell. What do you guys think?
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Click to collapse
Chrome causes S3's running Jelly Bean to reboot when you use cut and paste, so I'd have to vote for the stock browser, or dolphin, or firefox, or any other browser.
Seriously, try it. Load up Chrome (on your GT-I9300 Galaxy S3) and long-press on an area of text, select some text and then either press on the selected text or press the copy icon (two overlapping rectangles). Do this between 1 and 20 times and your phone will reboot. It's great!
after so many months, the chrome browser sucks, i admit it looks nice, cool features, but its so laggy, even scrolling mobile sites, its a joke, i feel sorry for the nexus 4 owners
Nothing beats the fluidity of the stock browser. Sure, it might not be fully compatible with all the websites but it is miles better than having frustration over laggy scrolling found in Chrome.
Moreover, the browsing convenience and speed using Quick Controls is unmatched.
I don't know why Google doesn't implement these things in Chrome.
Stock is noticeably smooth in scrolling.
i think stock is better but chrome has better sync abilities with desktop
Back before I was an android user (and therefore didn't pay much attention) I'm sure I read that they intend to eventually replace stock with chrome as default browser in android... Is there any truth to this? I hope not, while I love having chrome I like to have the choice, and the different things that stock browser has.
I really want to like chrome... I really do. I keep giving it a chance for a few days every time they push an update out. The deal breaker for me is the lack of full screen mode and the relatively choppy scrolling in general - emphasis on 'relative' ! I guess if the stock browser wasn't so smooth (and very fast to use with quick controls) I would be perfectly happy with chrome.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
The new JellyBean stock browser seems very nice, has some features from ICS Browser+, this is from my limited time playing with it at least. Which of them all probably would make this one my favorite browser, but of course it could be because it is new.
thaBuzzed said:
I really want to like chrome... I really do. I keep giving it a chance for a few days every time they push an update out. The deal breaker for me is the lack of full screen mode and the relatively choppy scrolling in general - emphasis on 'relative' ! I guess if the stock browser wasn't so smooth (and very fast to use with quick controls) I would be perfectly happy with chrome.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
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Click to collapse
Couldn't put it better myself. I also "give it a chance" every now and then... but get annoyed about the same things as well as lack of flash support.
When referring to "stock" browser, I feel the cm10 stock browser is also far superior to stock Samsung however...
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
kickassdave said:
Couldn't put it better myself. I also "give it a chance" every now and then... but get annoyed about the same things as well as lack of flash support.
When referring to "stock" browser, I feel the cm10 stock browser is also far superior to stock Samsung however...
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1, totally agree. Though since I am making UCCW theme's, I kind off have to link my widgets to Chrome for universal support
Still use the Stock CM10 browser more though. Chrome sometimes feels slow and not so smooth when scrolling.

Best browser for N10

I'm just looking for a good browser to use on a regular basis while Google gets their act together and fixes the freezing and crashing issues that exist with Chrome and the N10. What have you found works best with the N10? I'm using Firefox right now, which is fine but I would like to use something that handles tabs better.
Thanks.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using xda app-developers app
If you like the feel of the normal stock browser on the phones I would suggest giving ocean browser a go. Personally I use that and chrome. Ocean is noticeably faster but some pages it looks a bit strange, like the screen ratio is a bit off. Hard to explain but other than that it's great. I'm hoping chrome will become decent with a few updates
If you are rooted you can download and copy the good old stock android browser into /system/app. Its extremly fast and fluid.
I highly recommend Scope Browser. I thought is was my Tablet causing crime to crash and lag. Been using it with no complaints. Its a paid app, but the dev keeps it updated
I really enjoy using the boat browser.....best one I have tried so far.
i agree with boat browser
i agree w/ dolphin and boat
they give the best desktop-like experience so far
You can't really go wrong with the ocean browser. Its the fastest browser experience on any android tablet IMO. Almost on par with the iPad
I've settled on the Boat browser after Dolphin and Opera abandoned Flash for I want a desktop experience similar to using Windows on my laptop without needing to install loads of apps to use some sites like Apple.
I tried the Ocean browser but gave up after it crashed when selecting full screen mode and there was no option to have desktop mode on all the time and got fed up re-selecting desktop mode every time a site changed it.
I paricularly like the Boat speed dialer implimentation and I use it for all of my book marks. It does mean that I need to return to the speed dial page for my bookmarks but because I have set that as the Boat home page then that is easy and quick to do.
It means my book marks are all stored within the browser and are not taking up space on the Android home screen which I can fill with app short cuts.
It also means there is no need for multiple tabs to be open at once for the Boat speed dialer page becomes the multiple tabs.
The bookmarks can still be saved as they are seperate from those on the speed dialer page.
AOSP Browser for me. There's something about the AOSP browser that I just love. dunno what it is though!
I love the layout of ocean, but for me, its not any faster than chrome on 4.2.1
for me its ASOP or Ocean they seem to be smoothest
I like chrome's layout, where it has the back and forward button built into the address bar which is nice since the N10's centered buttons are not rhe best design choice. But its really glitchy sometimes. It will run fast and smooth on some websites, then just call it a day and slow way down on others.
Dolphin Browser Beta has great potential it's quick scrolling and zooming, almost never stuttering. But Is very much a Beta and likes to close itself when things don't go quite right.
Regular dolphin browser felt the slowest on my N10
Ocean is Very fast and I love running it in full screen. But I've had some issues with websites not loading correctly.(scored 1,037 on Peacekeeper)
Boat is good all around. Stable, decent interface. it just seems to be a bit more sluggish than ocean and Dolphin Beta.
I did find another Post where someone figured out how to fix the Opera 12 User interface so it's not tiny. I'm giving that a shot for sure. Opera runs great on my O-Gnote.
I think any of these four is a Good choice depending on who you are and what you like.
I want to root and put the AOSP browser on there to try it, I'm just really gun shy with rooting.
ShaolinRaiden said:
I like chrome's layout, where it has the back and forward button built into the address bar which is nice since the N10's centered buttons are not rhe best design choice. But its really glitchy sometimes. It will run fast and smooth on some websites, then just call it a day and slow way down on others.
Dolphin Browser Beta has great potential it's quick scrolling and zooming, almost never stuttering. But Is very much a Beta and likes to close itself when things don't go quite right.
Regular dolphin browser felt the slowest on my N10
Ocean is Very fast and I love running it in full screen. But I've had some issues with websites not loading correctly.(scored 1,037 on Peacekeeper)
Boat is good all around. Stable, decent interface. it just seems to be a bit more sluggish than ocean and Dolphin Beta.
I did find another Post where someone figured out how to fix the Opera 12 User interface so it's not tiny. I'm giving that a shot for sure. Opera runs great on my O-Gnote.
I think any of these four is a Good choice depending on who you are and what you like.
I want to root and put the AOSP browser on there to try it, I'm just really gun shy with rooting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Boat is the only one which provides a Flash player desktop experience off the shelf.
I've only tried Chrome and Dolphin so far. Dolphin was much faster.
do any other the browser do Tabbed browsing?
I used AOSP or ocean, ocean is really good for stock
Gaugerer said:
Boat is the only one which provides a Flash player desktop experience off the shelf.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's true, ocean does default to the android agent.
I don't mind Boat at all. It's very good and is still installed on my N10 so I can bounce back and forth. I just find myself going back to Ocean more often because I like the popup controls. You mentioned before it was crashing on you, I haven't had that issue so far.
I do agree with your earlier post, being able to set the user agent to desktop by default would be a nice option to have in ocean instead of having to hit request desktop site everytime.
---------- Post added at 10:50 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:43 AM ----------
ady702 said:
do any other the browser do Tabbed browsing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The best options for Tabbed browsing (in my opinion) are Boat Browser and Dolphin Browser/Beta

Loving the stock browser

I'm really enjoying using the stock browser on my One, it's a real plessure to use. As I do a lot of web browsing on my device this is very important to me. Plus the gorgeous display makes happy that I went and got myself the best phone on the planet.
ye its amazing cant wait to get my own one!
faster than chrome and/or dolphin?
I know on phones the stock browser is usually hardware rendered but these days chrome/dolphin are lightning quick
Can't remember if it came with Chrome or not. If it did then I must have removed it as a matter course.
Sent from my Tricked out HTC One via xda-developers application
It comes with Chrome pre-installed. Stock is slightly faster and supports Flash, but I prefer the Chrome integration across devices.
It looks great for sure. Does it still have text reflow?
Stock has yes.
I never thought i would switch from Chrome but the stock browser is extremely smoother and faster for a fairly intensive project i'm working on
The text reflow is perfect on the stock browser, that's why I'm using it.
I've also noticed it supports 16 tabs/windows at the same time!
I was getting pretty fed-up with the 5 tab limit on my Sensation ...
I must admit it's better than the S3 stock browser. I migrated to Chrome and prefer this day to day.
Is there a way to quick change tabs? It's one of the reasons I like chrome (swipe to change tabs)
But I am loving Chrome :victory:
I'm an avid chrome user but since getting this phone I've actually has no reason to actually use chrome over the default browser. It performs exceptionally well. Best stock browser I've used to date.
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app
Does it support flash like Samsung's stock browser ?
pinch to zoom
Hello can somebody tell me that it lags if you use pinch to zoom?
And do you always need to pinch to zoom when you load a page to fit the screen see below what i mean
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XfzNMLDX7s
Let me know please...
john291 said:
Hello can somebody tell me that it lags if you use pinch to zoom?
And do you always need to pinch to zoom when you load a page to fit the screen see below what i mean
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XfzNMLDX7s
Let me know please...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont know if you have to zoom out evertime when you load a page.
But as i tested the one in an o2 store, there was NOT A SINGLE LAGG in pinch to zoom or scrolling. It was the best browser i´ve ever experienced on any phone (tested the s3 and ip5 in the same store for example).
shox22 said:
I dont know if you have to zoom out evertime when you load a page.
But as i tested the one in an o2 store, there was NOT A SINGLE LAGG in pinch to zoom or scrolling. It was the best browser i´ve ever experienced on any phone (tested the s3 and ip5 in the same store for example).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thx for your reply..
Strange that all those movies on you tube show the lag..like below here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XfzNMLDX7s
AW: Loving the stock browser
I like the stock browser as well, I.a. for it's flash capability. Funny thing: The Dropbox status (where you can see, who and which programs actually have access) recognizes the browser as SAFARI!!!
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium

What Browser do you use on your Pixel Phone?

Just curious as to if you all still just chrome? i noticed that Chrome uses alot of battery and wanted to know if there are any better ones out there for battery life?
Chrome. Even if it uses more battery (which I have never noticed), it simply works better than any other browser - and that means more to me than a couple % on battery.
Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
Dolphin. Works fine for me.
Samsung Internet is honestly the best for general user experience.
Using Chrome Beta. If you use it on your PC it's the best combo. It's fast and looks pretty good.
Gesendet von meinem Pixel 2 mit Tapatalk
Edge. It's a solid mobile browser!
Samsung internet browser. With add-on. Really fast and solid. With night mode look even better.
Brave - based on Chromium, includes adblocker and anti-tracking built in.
Dolphin
I'm still using Dolphin as my main browser for Android. I have ran into a problem with its ad blocker on 8.0 and 8.1 in that it crashes the browser. I noticed that the app hasn't been updated since July 2017 which suggests it isn't fully compatible with the newest versions of Android. Since I'm now rooted, the adblock problem isn't an issue for me.
chrisnewton said:
Just curious as to if you all still just chrome? i noticed that Chrome uses alot of battery and wanted to know if there are any better ones out there for battery life?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Microsoft Edge. Works really well. I like it better than chrome
Opera, in Tablet UI mode.
I like having a tabbed interface, and it's my favorite of the browsers out there that offers a true tabbed interface.
Edge on Android uses the same rendering engine as Chrome... So the only difference from Chrome is the front end features.
There are no benefits in speed, battery, or memory usage.
Really the same as any of the other browsers that use blink as their rendering engine...
Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
Brave. Build on Chrome(ium), adblocker and anti-tracking tools built in.
Chrome for the best compatibility on sites. I find Firefox best for add blocking with the add blocker plugin which stops adds and videos from auto starting. Opera is fast and allows text refomatting when zooming in. They also offer a free VPN companion app for those times when you don't want snoopers. I use all three of them.
I like Firefox, but last time I used it on Android it seemed pretty slow. But it has been a while, so maybe I'll try it again.
Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
JasonJoel said:
I like Firefox, but last time I used it on Android it seemed pretty slow. But it has been a while, so maybe I'll try it again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Pixel 2 is powerful enough that Firefox runs OK. Not the fastest, but more flexible than most.
Chrome annoys me because it won't let me set my own startup page from the phone, and I've no interest in signing-in and linking to settings I've set from a computer (I don't use Chrome as my desktop browser anyway, and don't want to clutter my phone with the bookmark collection I have there so am not interested in syncing between devices). Edge is the same, but at least it lets me turn off the "news feed". I just dislike corporations who think they know what I should want and make it harder than it needs to be to override them.
Aloha ! The best
Firefox. Not because it's the best (although with the latest version it has improved a lot), but because it's my everyday browser and all devices sync between them.
I mix Firefox beta, chrome, and Firefox focus. At high DPI setting, regular Firefox gives me tabbed interface. Focus for quick private search. Chrome for best compatibility with tricky webpages.
I don't have objective measurements, but Focus and the latest Firefox beta feels very snappy, on Pixel 2, or 1, or even 6P.
Chrome basically because of chromesync between phone, windows and os x.
And password sync with android
Sent from my Pixel 2

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