By The folks at Dolphin Browser are working on a new rendering engine, it seems. Dubbed “Dolphin Engine,” it apparently bests Google Chrome Beta for Android and the browser within HTC Sense.
While these tests weren’t necessarily scientific, Dolphin loaded The Verge in 12.8 seconds compared to 18.7 seconds and 20 seconds on Chrome Beta and HTC’s Sense browser, respectively.
The margin wasn’t as wide in their test for the New York Times, though, with a load time of 8.6 seconds against the 9.2 seconds and 9.9 seconds of Chrome and Sense, respectively.
And beyond load times, the browser is said to feel a lot smoother. Scrolling is said to be as good as Chrome beta, and flash videos played without any lag or hiccups.
We always appreciate performance improvements in any app, but when it comes to the browser we appreciate them more than anything. We look forward to getting the new engine in upcoming versions of Dolphin Browser. [The Verge via Dolphin]
Good to hear, hopefully this competition will push Google to imrove Chrome Beta before its release. I assume it’s releasing with Jelly Bean. I’ve used it on my Incredible 2 in CM9 and it’s sluggggish compared to the built-in ICS browser.
Hmmmmm the fact that flash works on it might make me switch back to it from chrome
Sounds good. I tried most android browsers and kept coming back to dolphin. I think it has best UI and set of features but speed was just average. hopefully this new engine will address that.
Would be great to know what device this was tested on.
I never uninstalled Dolphin but I use the stock CM7 browser most of the time.
Will give Dolphin HD a test ride after the update for sure.
even opera beat chrome beta.
Did they try it again the Galaxy S2 or S3 Web browser? I feel like it’s still king.
I’m hoping they release this soon. The past few updates have been blah.
am i the only guy using the stock browser? fastest ive used. no issues with flash or hulu. i use opera on the side due to the stock browsers inability to download files from file sharing sites megashare and rapishare tho..
Yeah I use stock HTC browser on the LTEvo… it’s more stable and yet still faster than the other browsers I’ve used… But maybe I’ll go back to Dolphin to try out the new engine to see if its better…
On pre-ICS versions, the stock browser is not nearly configurable enough. When mine crashes, for example, and it does crash at least twice a week on my 2.3.6 Galaxy Note, all tabs I had open are gone. Opera and the others can be re-opened to loads the tabs it was displaying before.
Even brushing against the back button can lose all your tabs and get you back to your start page with the stock browser.
I’ve used Dolphin HD since I got my first Android, because the stock browser didn’t have enough features, seemed slow, and had a separate brightness control and wouldn’t default to ‘auto’ or whatever I had set already.
Best browser in my opinion. Now if it was also THE fastest? Then beat browser in fact.
I’ve got Dolphin, Firefox, Chrome Beta and the stock browser on my phone and tablet. For organization, useful plugins and the most usable interface, none of them beat Dolphin. I’d really like Flash pages to work better, though. They’re all crap for flash in iframes like you get on the desktop version of Gawker sites or the chat sections on Ustream and Justin.tv.
SG3 stock browser loads theverge in 6-7 sec on wifi?? Liked dolphin browser on my HTC desire but switched already on Nexus S. Good browser but not that close imo :-)
I don’t understand the hate for the stock ics browser….to me it is still the best browser out there. I tried Dolphin, dolphin HD and still have chrome installed to follow its progress. But I notice no speed difference in the way chrome loads webpages and the fact that it is missing flash is a big deal for me and the way it has to re-render parts of the webpage when I scroll up adn then down annoys me.
I’m sticking with stock ICS browser untill another browser comes along that at least incorporates the awesomeness that is its thumb menu
I just tried it.
It was laggy and crashed while loading The Verge… uninstalled 40 seconds after it was installed.
The stock browser is much faster and doesn’t ask for the authorization to read my sensitive logs data.
(Galaxy Nexus)
I switch between 3 browsers depending on the scenario. Chrome for times when I intentionally want to block Flash (quick news story stuff, etc), Opera for Flash intensive stuff, and Sense’s browser for whatever is left.
Is ICS required to benefit from the Dolphin engine?