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Android tablets: It's the browser

russellbeattie.com

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Re: Android tablets: It's the browser

#61

Post by pauljonas »

Oddly, I prefer the Nexus 7 Chrome browser experience over iOS iPad. Yes, there is some choppiness in that Android Chrome seems not to properly format via viewport on some sites but the big griefs are absence of "full screen" and no easy goto top of page function (like you can in iOS). Other than that, I prefer Chrome on Android:

* I like its tabs model better and the OS integration (easy to bounce between apps as the browser is a utility that is often popped in and out from another app)

* Most important, it uses the OS wide font size setting and this to me is the biggest advantage over iOS -- it probably just a factor for someone with poor eyesight like me, but I need bigger text and pinching and zooming on page parts just not a joyful exercise.

Re: Android tablets: It's the browser

#62

Post by corresation »

I've been a pretty vocal fan of Android for years, but I was oddly in limited company when panning Chrome for Android when it came out. It seemed that every Android advocate, and even its worst critics, were falling over each other to declare it a new panacea.

It was a marked setback from the already weak native browser (I use Android phones, tablets, and iPads. There is no doubt that later versions of iOS shot it far in the lead for browsing). It seems to be a universally single-threaded browser. I'm not talking about the native limits of JavaScript...but rather every part of the browser. If a page has an HTML5 video...there's a several second pause of the entire browser while it considers existence. Layout, loading things...everything seems to stall the main thread. It is abysmal.

Re: Android tablets: It's the browser

#64

Post by SirPulse »

phaus wrote: post #41
SirPulse wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft's browser doesn't get much love here but browsing is a lot of fun on Surface. First its a full desktop class browser with flash support (albeit only on some sites) the second is the full screen dedicated to browser as opposed to space eaten up chrome around the client area. It matters when your screen is small. And finally buttery smooth scrolling as good if not better than iPad.

Maybe the Metro browser in RT is different from the one in Windows 8 pro, but I find it to be infuriatingly horrible.

Interesting, What part of it?

Re: Android tablets: It's the browser

#65

Post by russellbeattie »

fencepost wrote: post #55
rubbingalcohol wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dolphin isn't great IMO. There are some real good ideas in it from a usability standpoint, and then others that are just face-slappingly aggravating. Chrome is the best browser I've used for Android and it has problems that annoy me to no end as well. I don't think the author mentioned this, but one huge annoyance is that the tab bar is always visible no matter where you're scrolled on the page. Vertical screen real…

I've tried other browsers and I keep coming back to Dolphin because it has some things that nothing else has that I've found. (This is on ICS) * Gesture-based commands . I read a lot of long text pages (OK, very long text pages), and I love that I can tap in the bottom left corner and swipe a V to go straight to the bottom. The reverse gesture also works, and there are both forward and back options as well, though I…

Interesting! After reading this I just re-tried Dolphin on my new Nexus 10 and it's much better than when I tried it previously. I'm not sure when they changed the UI (it's a lot cleaner than I remember), but it looks like they launched Jetpack just a few days before my review, so I totally missed it.

I'll have to use it a bit before forming an opinion (already noticed some shearing when pages redraw), but it's definitely much improved. I wish I had noticed before my post. Thanks!

Re: Android tablets: It's the browser

#67

Post by scubaguy »

eitland wrote: post #34
rubbingalcohol wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dolphin isn't great IMO. There are some real good ideas in it from a usability standpoint, and then others that are just face-slappingly aggravating. Chrome is the best browser I've used for Android and it has problems that annoy me to no end as well. I don't think the author mentioned this, but one huge annoyance is that the tab bar is always visible no matter where you're scrolled on the page. Vertical screen real…

Dolphin isn't great IMO. There are some real good ideas in it from a usability standpoint, and then others that are just face-slappingly aggravating. Would you mind leaving a short explanation? Dolphin has been my favourite for a while now because it is well rounded and has brilliant Lastpass integration.

I think Dolphin is noticeably faster than Chrome and I appreciate the fact that it supports plugins. However, I recently noticed that it auto plays HTML5 videos which is quite annoying, whereas Chrome requires a manual "start" (at least on USA Today's mobile site).

Re: Android tablets: It's the browser

#69

Post by kyriakos »

Galaxy S3 and Nexus 7 experiences: Chrome on S3 is the fastest browser I've used on a mobile device. Works fine on Nexus 7 as a main browser I haven't noticed any lag (at least nothing that I could notice).

Regarding the bar in the middle of Techcrunch page are we certain is a problem with the particular browser and not the website?

Re: Android tablets: It's the browser

#70

Post by lucasr »

Firefox for Android developer here. First of all, thanks for the feedback. Just a quick reply/update on some of the points raised in the post:

1. We're currently working on a new iteration of the tablet UI which will replace the sidebar on portrait with a horizontal scrolling strip that goes away when you select a tab (see meta bug 817675). The sidebar will not be "stuck" by default anymore and will slide away once you select a tab (see bug 817728).

2. We mitigate things like this with anti-phishing/malware protection and the identity status icon. However, this is not guaranteed to cover every possible case. Anyway, I filed bug 839994 to get some discussion going.

3. I agree that the current approach is not ideal if you want to browse through your desktop/mobile bookmarks very often. The current UI is more oriented towards finding your bookmarks through the awesomescreen search. Two points about this: the UX team is working on a new design for bookmarks/reading list. It will definitely involve an overhauled UI for accessing bookmarks. In the shorter-term though, we'll be working on a new iteration of the start page that gives you quick access to your bookmarks from there (no extra taps). Work on some of these changes has already started. For instance, you can now 'pin' sites on your start page.

4. This is fixed in Aurora/Nightly builds (see bug 786982). You can close the last tab. You'll see the start page when you do so.

Hope that helps. We're an open source project. Next time, I strongly suggest you to file bugs. We're happy to clarify and re-discuss design decisions whenever necessary.

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