In the never-ending Browser battle, speed is king. Browser A might be the prettiest, most secure one around — but if Browser B seems faster or more light weight, good ol’ Browser A is going to lose users in droves. This is especially true in the mobile world, where cellular network latency and the occasional peak-hour bandwidth bottleneck add precious seconds over the near-instant connectivity we’ve grown accustomed to.
It makes sense, then, that Mozilla’s latest beta of Firefox 4 for Android is all about the speed. In at least one test, this newest build is clocking in at just over 3X faster than the built-in browser.
Here’s the rundown:
- In the Kraken Javascript Benchmark, this latest Firefox 4 Beta is roughly 3X faster — but to be completely fair, Kraken is built by Mozilla.
- Even in the more commonly used SunSpider test, however, Firefox 4 comes in at speeds twice as fast
- Javascript speeds are great and all — but most people wouldn’t notice the few fractions of a second’s difference we’re talking about here. Fortunately, Mozilla’s also shaved off speed around start-up and general page load, and improved page panning fluidity, memory usage, and text rendering.
Furthermore, Mozilla’s talking up the fact that they’ve just surpassed 100 add-ons, with things like Ad Block Plus and a User Agent Switcher already in the stable. Of course, they don’t mention the one plug-in that the default browser has that Firefox for Android does not: Flash.
Ready to give it a spin? You can nab the latest Firefox for Android Beta by pointing your handset’s browser right over here.