Internet Browsers... so many, what is right for you? Competition among browsers is more fierce than ever. Chrome and Firefox release 72 new versions every week, Microsoft has redesigned Internet Explorer to make it finger-friendly, and as we all race to tablets and smartphones were being tempted with all kinds of alternatives to systems stock browsers. But which is the best browser for you and your hardware? Lets find out. We tested the latest official releases of the big browsers - Internet Explorer 10, Firefox 19, Safari 5, Chrome 25 and Opera 12 - on a Core i5 PC running Windows 8 Pro. Its worth noting that Safari on Macs running OS X Mountain Lion is at version 6, but the PC version and older Mac versions are one behind. Whether youve got a Windows PC, Mac OS X laptop, an Android tablet or something in between, weve got it covered. The best browser for speed Both versions of IE 10 are speed demons, but others have better standards support Every browser we tested felt perfectly snappy in everyday browsing, but as ever we put them through the Sunspider benchmark tests to see how well they fared. IE raced through the tests in 97ms in desktop mode, while the touch-based IE took 113.7 milliseconds. Those numbers are amazing: it wasnt that long ago that IE benchmarks were measured in millennia. Chrome was next, at 147.2ms, Firefox was narrowly behind with 176.6ms, Opera scored 180.5ms and Safari was narrowly beaten into last place with 182.7ms. The best browser for add-ons Firefox 18 is so last week. All the cool kids upgraded to version 19, like, hours ago Firefox has always been the king here, its combination of add-ons, App Tabs for web apps and Greasemonkey scripts making it the power users friend. Thats still the case, but Chrome is catching up fast, its Web Store positively packed. Apple and Microsofts selections are fairly thin, but Operas selection includes commonly used add-ons such as ad blockers, password managers and so on. Opera deserves a special mention here because its more than just a browser. It has integrated email, newsgroups and IRC chat, the Opera Unite file server, Opera Turbo to improve performance on crappy mobile connections, and Sidebar-style widgets for games, web applications and utilities. The best browser for Windows 7 IE enables you to add all kinds of toolbars to its minimalist interface. Dont do it! Safari simply doesnt cut it in this company: its last years browser, the slowest here, and we dont like the user interface very much. Theres nothing particularly wrong with it, but theres nothing particularly right with it either. Long-term browser battle fans will be highly amused by IEs performance these days: its really, really quick, comfortably ahead of its rivals, and now everyones making their browsers as minimalist as possible theres no horrible UI to get angry at unless you start going crazy with third-party toolbars. Please dont. For sheer speed on Windows 7 PCs, IE is the browser to go for. The best browser for Windows 8 If youre sold on the new touchy-feely direction of Windows 8 then Internet Explorer is the star, at least in Metro/Modern mode: its a very nice touch-based browser, although it doesnt support Flash. Firefox has a Metro version in development, but its not quite ready for prime time just yet. In desktop mode its the same story as with Windows 7: Safari knocked out first, IE winning on sheer speed and Chrome and Firefox competing on syncing and extensions support. The best browser for Windows XP Internet Explorer takes an early bath here, because it no longer supports Windows XP or Windows Vista. Our pick here would be Chrome: its system requirements are tiny (Pentium 4, 100MB of disk space, 128MB of free RAM), making it particularly good on even very modest hardware. The best browser for OS X Safari on Windows, partying like its 2012. Apple has clearly lost interest in this one We tried the main browsers on a Core i5 iMac, and while the results were similar on paper - Safari went through Sunspider in a reported 197.4ms, only slightly behind Chromes 164ms and slightly faster than Operas 201ms and Firefoxs 204ms - the reality was different: where the other browsers raced through Sunspider in a matter of seconds, Safari took several minutes. We also found its performance nose-dived when we had more than a handful of tabs open, and opening image-heavy sites such as Tumblr archives was a fairly reliable way to kill it completely. The other browsers felt noticeably nippier visiting the same sites. Theres more to the browsers than just speed, of course. Safari offers a clutter-free reading mode, Reading List for reading interesting things later on and iCloud syncing with iOS devices; Firefox has Firefox Sync; Opera has the Unite file sharing system and Visual Tabs and so on. For simply browsing we think Chrome has the edge here, but you might find that your chosen sync service - iCloud? Firefox? Chrome? - makes the browser choice for you. The best browser for privacy Operas visual tabs are nifty and browsing is a joy. Next years will be Webkit-powered While each browser offers a decent range of privacy protection, theyre not all enabled by default - so for example Firefoxs Do Not Track button is unchecked when you install it, and so is Operas. Safari for Windows doesnt have a Do Not Track setting - as weve already said, its a comparatively old browser - and Chrome buries its privacy controls in the Advanced Settings section. We like Microsofts approach here: its Tracking Protection Lists offer something more useful than a broad-brush Do Not Track system, enabling you to block specific kinds of tracking such as advertisers who really want to flog stuff to your kids. The best browser for HTML5 Chrome for desktop is fast, has excellent standards compliance and lots of add-ons HTML5 is the lingua franca of the modern web, and the better your browsers standards support the happier your online life will be. Using HTML5test, which awards up to 500 points for standards compliance, we found Chrome the clear winner with 448 points and 13 bonus points. Opera had 404 and 9 bonus points, Firefox 393 and 13, Safari (OS X) 393 and 13, Internet Explorer 320 and 6, and finally Safari (Windows) had just 278 and 2 bonus points. The best browser for Android Chrome is a star on Android too, if your OS is new enough Android users are spoilt for choice these days. In our head-to-head of the best Android browsers, several apps shone. Chrome shone for its speed and its integration with its desktop sibling; Dolphin Browser HD for its bulging features list; and Skyfire for its many bright ideas. Once again Chrome has the edge here in the speed stakes, but its worth looking at rivals features before committing to it. The best browser for iPad Browsers are increasingly part of wider systems, so most offer syncing between devices The lack of tabs in Apples Safari drove us daft on the original iPad, but now its got tabbed browsing and iCloud syncing we think its the best browser on the platform, especially on the newest devices. In our experience its faster and more reliable than iCab Mobile, considerably nicer to look at than Atomic Browser, and less likely to dump you back to the home screen for no good reason than non-Apple browsers. Thats unless you use Chrome on the desktop and want to sync tabs, bookmarks and passwords, in which case Chromes the one to go for.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Nov 2013 11:23:40 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015