I'm looking for alternative browsers, the default Opera install just does not cut the mustard. It's slow and it feels like it was written with hacks rather than good coding. I tried their beta, it's somewhat more responsive but there's no pinch zoom and the backbutton harware key does not work.
PIE is crap.
What alternatives are there?
Opera Mini 5 is my favorite
DrBytes said:
I'm looking for alternative browsers, the default Opera install just does not cut the mustard. It's slow and it feels like it was written with hacks rather than good coding. I tried their beta, it's somewhat more responsive but there's no pinch zoom and the backbutton harware key does not work.
PIE is crap.
What alternatives are there?
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I am using Skyfire on my Kaiser, not sure if it will work on HD2 though. Will try it if it ever arrives!!
Skyfire works on HD2. see HERE (towards the middle of this video)
Skyfire doesn't have support for higher resolutions yet -but they say it's coming soon.. You can still use it -I guess it works on Leo (I use it on my Topaz -but with grainy result)
Related
Hi,
Just wondering if anyone has tried this browser on their HD yet? I really want to try a different browser as Opera is just a little bit annoying with the freezing thing!! I really want to have a go with Skyfire but until they do an update for WVGA screens I can't.
So how does Netfront compare to Opera?
So no one has tried netfront then on the HD?
May have to be a guinea pig then lol
AFK_Matrix said:
So no one has tried netfront then on the HD?
May have to be a guinea pig then lol
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please do because i have used it in the past on my Kaiser and liked it from what i remember.
Ok just had a little play with Netfront 3.5. Here is a brief review, please ask any questions you may have.
Pros:
1. Loads very quickly compared with Opera
2. No freezing when scrolling (very annoying on Opera!)
3. The highlighting on this is much better than on Opera. I can actually see if I have selected a link (highlights the link in blue when touched)
4. Renders webpages fine, only thing being is the text is noticeably different. Although it actually makes it easier to read this way.
Cons:
1. No on screen zoom, you have to go through the menu everytime.
2. It will only zoom to 125% which maybe ok on smaller screens but means text is still quite small on the HD
3. Won't turn into landscape, cant even use Gyrator 2 as it doesn't see Netfront in its applications list
So at the moment its not a replacement for Opera but if they solved the cons for this then I would use this over Opera in a hearbeat.
I am going to see if there is a feedback email or something on the Netfront webpage.
it runs and it's quite fast. but I don't like the usability some how so I stick with opera. but it's not bad.
worth to give it a try.
I like it. It's fast, though page redraws are somewhat flickery. Once the page has loaded it's very fast.
I did notice, however, that this beta version is due to expire on the 30th Nov 2008! :-(
J
One other thing - if you're interested in other browsers on the HD, there's also the webkit-based Iris Browser:
http://www.torchmobile.com/
Again, I prefer Opera, but it's good to try alternatives.
Still waiting for an HD-compatible version of Skyfire!
J
I think not being able to zoom (or having to go through menu's) would be a deal breaker for me
new iris web browser is now out.....go try it http://www.torchmobile.com/
way better than that piece of &%&% skyfire. i think it rivals opera mobile but it depends on your taste. works in full wvga. zooming works a little different, you have to double tap. if you double tap and hold it will zoom in or out more...
so far i have not come accross any sites that redirect you to the mobile version. loads pretty fast. Youtube still does not work natively though.....
It does render really well, a bit sluggish across anything but wifi though for my tastes.
If there's something that netfront doesn't work with then I use this as a standby..
I tried one of the early betas and didn't like it but this latest release is pretty nice. The only thing I think it needs more work on is the initial rendering speed. It doesn't seem to render anything until about 90% of the data has been downloaded. The final render is accurate for all the sites I've been to on it, scrolling is really smooth with no "checkerboard" in sight and zooming is good too.
Looks good ! It can work on some sites no other browser I tried could (Opera mini & mobile, IE).
I've tried Iris on my Xperia. is is realy fast, the ui doesn't look as sleek as opera (yet)
Ok here goes,
I prefer IE to Opera because,
1. It plays flash video natively, not only does it play flash video (even two at a time!!! Now thats how to show off to your iphone buddies down the pub ) but panning around a page that contains flash works smoothly as well, as I've enabled flash in Opera too and to be honest disabled it again as it was pants! I couldn't scroll around without weird glitches all over the place.
2.) It's way smoother, scrolling and zooming, I dont think Opera is using any kind of GPU acelleration but IE does.
Now here's the big Con,
No pinch to zoom! serriously I've searched the forum and cant find any way of re-eanbling pinch to zoom in IE as it was in the pre release ROM's. Surely theres a hack to bring pinch to zoom back to IE, have I missed it??
I've just installed and tried this.
http://www.opera.com/mobile/download/
As with the previous Beta, the menus look great, are very finger friendly and the start page is fantastic and customisable.
However I am now unable to turn to landscape. I can't find a setting for this but I'm sure in the previous beta I was able to do this without tweaking.
The graphics look great and it now supposedly supports Flash. Youtube was ok, though I still feel the resolution is far from good enough. But I was unable to play music in myspace flashplayers or view videos on Kontraband.
The final major downside for me is that they still haven't sorted pinch to zoom on this browser.
it's getting better but still more work to be done. I think I'm going to roll back to the earlier version.
Until pinch zoom is implemented Opera 10 on the HD2 is irrelevent without a stylus. There are some things you need to zoom close into to finger press or use the fine tip of a stylus for. The currently limited zoom of 10 makes this impossible on some pages for people with large fingers.
Yes .. some pages just need a bit of zoom in, some just a bit of zoom out. It seems however free zoom is not part of Opera 10 at all.
But majority of the sites do work well. The text is fit properly into the window without any need for horizontal scrolling. And flash support is a definite plus. Even I would like to use pinch to zoom, but still feel that the new opera is a good all purpose browser which doesn't makes me shift to my iphone for web browsing. And lastly, if you don't already know, you can apply Pinch to Zoom tweak in BsB for Opera!. It works well for me.
gags9999 said:
But majority of the sites do work well. The text is fit properly into the window without any need for horizontal scrolling. And flash support is a definite plus. Even I would like to use pinch to zoom, but still feel that the new opera is a good all purpose browser which doesn't makes me shift to my iphone for web browsing. And lastly, if you don't already know, you can apply Pinch to Zoom tweak in BsB for Opera!. It works well for me.
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Yeah, I even use BsB Tweaks to enable pinch to zoom for Opera Mini 5 Beta 2... It does work, BUT it is not NATIVE pinch to zoom: It will enlarge the whole app (including Menus etc) and not just the page. But for those situations where you need to tap a check box that is far too small to hit without zooming in, even the non native pinch to zoom works great!
Yes, the tweak does take care of some zoom tuning necessary for the tasks not adequately covered by the tap zoom. I myself use tap zoom and use pinch zoom only for fine adjustments. Best of both world's with flash thrown in the bargain!
I actually want to go back to the previous beta. I'm using the bsb tweak to zoom but I don't find it works that well to be honest. very fiddly and double-tap zooming seems better.
craigpyro said:
I've just installed and tried this.
http://www.opera.com/mobile/download/
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uhm, in this thread you can find a comfortably repacked version of opera mobile 10b3 with promptless cab and included flash lite... and I'm using it instead dof the bundled 9.7 since a week or so
ephestione said:
uhm, in this thread you can find a comfortably repacked version of opera mobile 10b3 with promptless cab and included flash lite... and I'm using it instead dof the bundled 9.7 since a week or so
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does the Beta 3 repackaged with flash, support pinch and zoom?
Am I missing something?
I have the same standard Opera installed from day one (i.e preinstalled)
and can pinch zoom the webpage, very well in fact.
and no, i havent installed any tweaks cab's or modded the registry.
MidnightDraven said:
Am I missing something?
I have the same standard Opera installed from day one (i.e preinstalled)
and can pinch zoom the webpage, very well in fact.
and no, i havent installed any tweaks cab's or modded the registry.
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that is opera 9.7, not opera 10
jigners said:
does the Beta 3 repackaged with flash, support pinch and zoom?
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no it does not
MidnightDraven said:
Am I missing something?
I have the same standard Opera installed from day one (i.e preinstalled)
and can pinch zoom the webpage, very well in fact.
and no, i havent installed any tweaks cab's or modded the registry.
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That's Opera 9.7. We're talking about Opera 10 beta 3, a new release in development from Opera. HTC will need to take Opera 10 (when it is released) and add their pinch-zooming functionality to it before (and if they choose to) update the HD2 with it.
Ah ok.
My mistake.
So I downloaded the latest version of Opera Mobile (10) from Opera's website but I've noticed now that it is not compatible with the zoom slider on the bottom; it does not give you the option to minimize when you click on exit like 9.7 does; and it always uses the whole screen so it's slightly harder to multitask.
Is there a TP2-specific version that retains all the previous compatible features of 9.7?
Thanks!
I just installed Opera 10 on mine last night.... and I uninstalled it within 15 minutes of use. Opera 9.7 native to the rom is slow and buggy. PIE functions far better IMO. However, Mini is still the first go-to browser for me. It just flat works and is fast. I still keep PIE as the default browser, and use Skyfire for when I need to view desktop version of sites. So I rotate between those three depending on what site I need to view.
Hmm ok thanks for the input. I installed Mini the other day but it looked and seemed to perform exactly the same as Mobile 10 so I uninstalled it (didn't see the point of having both installed). Maybe I'll give it another chance. I used Skyfire on my Titan but haven't tried the latest versions on this phone yet so I'll give it a try.
PIE seems to run really slow for me.
unL33T said:
Hmm ok thanks for the input. I installed Mini the other day but it looked and seemed to perform exactly the same as Mobile 10 so I uninstalled it (didn't see the point of having both installed). Maybe I'll give it another chance. I used Skyfire on my Titan but haven't tried the latest versions on this phone yet so I'll give it a try.
PIE seems to run really slow for me.
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Yes PIE is slow, and it sure looks a whole lot like Opera 9.7 IMO. But it does function better for some sites. For example, if I'm on Youtube's site, PIE will open up the video links in Steaming media, Opera Mini will not. But Mini flys through most wap/mobile sites, and that is why I use it 75% of the time. Skyfire can be slow too, but it will open up a site like a desktop... for the most part.
Opera 10 from what I can tell, is a bloated version of Opera Mini.
I too tried Opera 10 a while back and got rid of it quickly - however, I have come back to 10 and have learnt to live without the zoombar, since it is faster and takes up less RAM I was finding Opera 9.7 would often quit, even if I wasn't trying to multitask, whereas 10 deosn't seem to, even if I hit the Windows hard key and open up emial or calendar etc.
Wow, 9.7 closes on you? I have yet to have an application close on this phone even when I have lots of stuff open. But I've been running mostly MightyROM since I got it.
Opera 10 only has 2 levels of "zoom". It does not have a scalable zoom, so there is no way to make it compatible with the zoom bar on the TP2.
redpoint73 said:
Opera 10 only has 2 levels of "zoom". It does not have a scalable zoom, so there is no way to make it compatible with the zoom bar on the TP2.
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Actually, O10 has 7 levels of "zoom" within the settings tab. OMini has "text size" for it's pseudo zoom.
Skyfire for tilt2
is skyfire working for anyone on their tilt2?? i loved skyfire when ti was workigmn but a month ago it quit due to the iphone introduction to skyfire. All i want to do is listen to my www.skysports.com/radio on the tilt but no luck lately. tried opera mini but no luck
I would like to ask to anyone who uses Opera10 or 9.7 on your TP2 : How in the world can you cope with the scrolling thing with this browser? I mean the scrolling is really sluggish - I move up with my fingers, the scrolling is delayed by some seconds, and when I tried to scroll left/right/down, the scrolling respond after some seconds and the page scrolls by itself in all directions since it remembers the movements made of my finger.
I find this browser sluggish and very difficult/annoying to use - how can you guys still be using Opera 9.7/10?
I have never had those problems with Opera 10 on my (T-Mobile) TP2 running WM 6.5. It works fine for me.
Telyx said:
I have never had those problems with Opera 10 on my (T-Mobile) TP2 running WM 6.5. It works fine for me.
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Are you sure the scrolling is smooth with Opera10? I've tried on 2 tp2 and the results are the same. I think it's called ghosting. The finger scrolling lags and is a pain to browse the whole page.
Opera 10 working fine
I too had experienced some issues with the early builds of Opera 10 both beta and finals, but I have come back to it and use it a good 98% of the time when I want to surf the net on my phone. Seems that they may have fixed the issues with the lag from the early builds.
Then again, it just may be the ROM that I am using.
Seriously???
I don't know how you can think 9.7 is faster or better than 10!?!?! Simple one click zoom, fast page load times, speed dial on homepage. 10 is alot better, besides, if you want to minimize, just hit the end ket and go into task manager in upper right corner. There is also a TRULY final version on opera's website....it is very stable and smooth. I too had issues with the beta and switched to skyfire (mistake) but when the final came out, amazing.
I have a tip......its seems that whatsoever version of roms..the integrated Opera browser seems to be slow and not working well. So I removed it from my programs and downloaded Opera Mini 1. This browser is with in 2 sec on a website page. My advice?.....dont use the browser on the ROM ..it doesnt work well...
opera mini best
imm useing opera mini on my tilt 2 with no problems whatsoever. best web browzer that is compairable to a computer browzer iff u overclock urr device. iff there was a way to make the zoom bar compatible with opera mini even to just 1 or 2 zoom levels ide b happy.