data usage: firefox vs default browser - Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi there, just wondering what Browser I should be using, when I'm wanting to use less mobile data.
Which browser zaps less data between the two? If you know another browser that zaps even less, then that'd be fantastic, too.

Related

What's your favorite web browser?

I don't like the sluggishness and jerkiness of the stock browser. Is there a better third party browser that you particularly like? Is there anything that uses multitouch gestures?
eaglesteve said:
I don't like the sluggishness and jerkiness of the stock browser. Is there a better third party browser that you particularly like? Is there anything that uses multitouch gestures?
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I've settled on Skyfire. It's not perfect, but it's the best I've found.
MacGuy2006 said:
I've settled on Skyfire. It's not perfect, but it's the best I've found.
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Will try out everyone that you guys recommend.
Skyfire has at least one advantage over the ****ty native browser - it supports file download other than apk file, whereas the ****ty native browser can't even support file download. I can't believe how crippled it is, and wonder if that **** is from Google or Samsung.
With Astro filemanager the native (google!) Browser is able to do that too.
bayerischbeer said:
With Astro filemanager the native (google!) Browser is able to do that too.
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Thanks for this info bayerishbeer. Will get Astro filemanager right away.
How's opera mobile on the Galaxy S?
drleospaceman said:
How's opera mobile on the Galaxy S?
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Is Opera mobile available for Android? I can't find it in the Market Place.
theres no mobile, only mini, and its not that great, dolphin is pretty good tho
soraxd said:
theres no mobile, only mini, and its not that great, dolphin is pretty good tho
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Have used Opera mini on iPhone. It's really really lousy.
Will try out dolphin. Thanks!
edit: is it Dolphin Browser HD? or Dolphin Browser? What's the difference? I see.... HD is for Froyo.
The browser is bad? I'd always thought the Android browser was one of the best mobile browsers.
I never liked Skyfire on Windows Mobile - it's actually sending you screen grabs from rendering happening on their servers, so it was always laggy and slow to pan and zoom for me. Opera Mini is good if you don't have 3G data, since it's preprocessed and sent in a compressed form, but because the phone is rendering this custom preprocessed data and not the original HTML it doesn't support dynamic features.
Mithent said:
The browser is bad? I'd always thought the Android browser was one of the best mobile browsers.
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By iPhone standard, it is.
Mithent, are you using the stock browser? You've explored most of them I presume?
The stock browser works best for me. I've tried Dolphin, Opera and Skyfire and they all seem sluggish... Steel is good too.
Skyfire is sluggish, stock browser works great, no need to change it and it download all you want just learn how.
No problems with the stock browser here. It flies compared to Skyfire and works just as well as Dolphin.
Opera Mini 5.1 along with "Make it Default Browser"
Why?
- Opera is clearly the fastest in loading/displaying pages. Absolutely no contest
- 90% of the time I'm no under HSDPA coverage or Wifi, so moved megabytes matter
If only Opera Mini would get pinch zoom, then it would be perfect for me.
I don't need Flash or in-browser JS, which Opera Mini lacks.
For those occasions when in-browser JS is required, I use the built-in browser. Much better than Dolphin HD, which is very sluggish.
Try xScope. It works for me and somewhat better than Dophine.
I'll try all of them. So, the new ones that just cropped up are:
- Steel
- xScope
- Opera Mini (I hope it is not like the one on iPhone).
Thank you guys.
eaglesteve said:
I'll try all of them. So, the new ones that just cropped up are:
- Steel
- xScope
- Opera Mini (I hope it is not like the one on iPhone).
Thank you guys.
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I've taken a look at all these, and the one that I like the most is xScope. It is very similar to the Atomic Browser that I use on iPhone. The things I like about this browser are:
- I think it is faster than the stock browser and smoother too.
- One quick gesture to reveal the web address bar, and autotically hide it when page is loaded to give as much real estate as possible to the user
- One stroke gesture to move from tab to tab, exactly like what I was having in iPhone.
- Multitouch zooming, one finger zooming, as well as double tab to zoom in and out.
- Able to download more file types, although still not covering as comprehensively as what the Atomic browser for iPhone could.
- Able to open link in the background by long press. This usually is the way I consistently beat Opera Mini in terms of loading speed. In a forum like this, I open all the links that want to visit first, and buy the time I finish reading the first tab, the others are already fully loaded waiting for me to read. That means zero loading time effectlvely for all the links. Opera Mini can't do that.
- I wish there is a gesture (such as double finger swipe down) to close the current tab like what Atomic browser could do.
- Coupled with the higher resolution and bigger screen size, I feel that it is even more enjoyable surfing on Samsung Galaxy S than my 3GS.
I'm pretty happy with it for now, and would make it my main browser, until better one comes along.
One question: What is the difference between the free and paid version? What additionally benefits are there going to the paid version?
eaglesteve said:
Mithent, are you using the stock browser? You've explored most of them I presume?
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I've not had much personal experience with it - I still have a Windows Mobile phone at the moment, but will be getting a Galaxy S soon (will be as a carrier upgrade next month). The opinion I had of the stock browser was what I've seen of it when compared to the iPhone's Safari and Opera Mobile on WM (IE isn't worth thinking about), so was just a little surprised and wondered if it wasn't so great in real-life use. I didn't know you had to go through hoops to download things with it.
I'm afraid I'm not familiar with other options for Android, but I've tried Opera Mini and Skyfire on Windows Mobile. Given the nature of those applications, I doubt they're very different on Android.

Whats your choice of browser?

We have a few browsers to choose from, stock, Dolphin HD, Skyfire and the upcoming Opera Mobile and Firefox Mobile
Stock browser is not the fastest according to some tests, the champion goes to Skyfire
Dolphin HD beats stock over functionality from my own use, but is the slowest among the three
Opera Mobile is known to consume 80% less data, but user comments are not so positive
Firefox mobile is now available for G2, haven't try yet
So whats your pick?
Almost every site I would go to has an app so there is no need for my browser, so I stick with stock since its not used often...
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
o>c said:
Opera Mobile is known to consume 80% less data, but user comments are not so positive
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Let me clarify:
Opera Mini is browser, which compresses data - when I was using Galaxy i7500 it was the fastest browser (not only in downloading pages, but in rendering too).
Opera Mobile is normal browser, not compressing data. I did not test it, but comments aren't very good.
I been using Dolphin HD. I like the side bar bookmarks, and the gestures. Plus it is faster than the default, IMO
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
I am digging dolphin HD too on the g2.
I tried dolphin when I had a slide and it was HORRIBLY slow (even overclocked to 844mhz). It's smooth like butter on my g2 clocked at 1.497 and flash works great.
I have been loving the Firefox, get all my bookmarks synced without any other crap app. The Beta2 release is a bit better than the first, but little things still dont work correctly. For me the only thing not working properly are the shift and alt keys of the physical keyboard. They work but you have to hold them down while pressing the other key. Not a biggie, and the browser runs smooth as glass for me.
i use skyfire in desktop mode for facebook and everything
Love Dolphin HD for the plugins like desktop mode and speed dial. Also I'm digging the gestures and themes. And of course the tabbed browsing with thumbnails available is fantastic! Best over all experience if you have good data speeds.
I did numerous speed tests using a stopwatch with Dolphin versus stock on very large pages. It was basically a tie with flash either enabled or disabled.
Opera Mobile is VERY fast! Great card style thumbnails for window switching (stock neeeeds this). But no flash, desktop mode, and doesn't render the whole page at once. The partial rendering adds speed but if you scroll quickly its annoying. Still has a few kinks. I recommend keeping Opera handy for super slow connections.
I have Firefox, Opera and Stock installed. And honestly I use the stock more often than any other browser. It seems that the other browsers are terrible at compatibility when browsing non-optimized sites. I use forms a lot and they are awful.
In Firefox each time I typed something into a form-box or selected something from a drop-down menu it had to reload the page. Frustrating to say the least. At least in Firefox they work; in Opera, the forms work half of the time. If I can't log in, what's the point?
Stock may be somewhat slower at rendering, but its compatibility saves me a lot of time.
I've been testing the default, Skyfire, and Dolphin HD for 4 weeks and I typically choose Dolphin now as my GoTo browser. Here are the three main reasons:
1. I need the ability to Toggle between Desktop and Mobile on various sites
2. I tweet about a lot of Websites and the Dolphin Tweet plugin actually grabs the Title of a page while simultaneously shrinking the URL, yet still allows me to edit.
3. I also read a lot of pages and if they don't have a mobile version, I use a plugin for Google Mobilizer to strip away formatting and make it easy to read.
Since I have a G2, I use Menu+S to pull up Share options with Dolphin Tweet. I also use Menu+M to use Google Mobilizer. Keyboard shortcuts are handy.
As for speed, they are all pretty comparable. I still use Skyfire on Flash Video sites.
Hope this helps!
Ghostcreamy
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
why are you leaving out xscope? its a perfectly legitimate browser which is the fastest by far.
Firefox is a little late! Dolphin was firefox to me when I had the G1, firfox should just but dolphin and change the name.
ms93 said:
Let me clarify:
Opera Mini is browser, which compresses data - when I was using Galaxy i7500 it was the fastest browser (not only in downloading pages, but in rendering too).
Opera Mobile is normal browser, not compressing data. I did not test it, but comments aren't very good.
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Anyone know if the Opera mobile will the same kind of forum posting that mini can do? I HAVE to use opera for posting online for school as no other browser will handle the way it works.

Galaxy note text based browser, not mobile optimised pages

1) Looking for a web browser that can surf with images, and flash animations turned off while surfing to decrease my bandwidth.
2) If that browser can also load pages not optimised for mobile browsing but real PC type browsing, it would be great. I mean, I do not want to have mobile pages at all, just should load real web pages and should not give away that I am using a mobile. I do not like mobile optimised pages at all.
Thanks in advance
The best 2 browsers in my opinion is OPERA BROWSER and DOLPHIN HD. You can disable flash player in the settings and use desktop profile on both browsers.
thanks for the answer.
There I have another question, a couple of years ago I used a certain canadian company phone with a certain push email service, tested it also with google push email free service. I was able to read all my google emails with very little bandwidth usage, of course all in text only. Is there an application for Gnote to make this possible for me?
When I am in 'minimalist' mode, I browse with opera mobile, graphics off, flash browsing off, with the 'green on black' mod to conserve battery life.
Almost all browsers allow you to disable graphics/flash, although not that many have a nice 'flip the colors' to get rid rid of the white web backgrounds that drain your battery hard.
- Frank

[Q] Browser choice for I9505 variant

I have a hard time deciding between different browsers
For example:
Chrome
Pro:
- bookmark sync
- well designed interface
Cons:
- no flash
- poor performance (easily noticeable)
Stock browser
Pro:
- good performance, except for some sites where is performing incredibly bad (I don't use it anymore because of that)
Cons:
- no flash
- no bookmark sync
- no full screen (?!)
- no auto hide for the navigation bar (?!)
Aosp browser
Pro:
- bookmark sync
- even performance on all sites.
- full screen
- good layout
- flash (not working 100%)
Cons:
- No specific problems but not the best performer among all browser. In fact, is quite lacking optimization for S600.
Others like Boat browser for example, I don't like the pop-up menu that you have to use while in full screen mode.
I am looking for a browser optimized for snapdragon 600, to allow full screen, bookmark sync with desktop chrome, and to be easy to use.
I like and use Opera, can be customized, speed never thought about it, can sync bookmarks
[email protected] said:
I like and use Opera, can be customized, speed never thought about it, can sync bookmarks
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No flash, no full screen, performance is decent in Google Octane and Mozilla Kraken but is a disaster in Sunspider 1.0.
Syncs bookmarks with Opera desktop ... not a user.
I have smearing issues while scrolling, fuzzy text and slightly lagging while zooming in/out.
I'll pass.
rsndetre said:
Aosp browser
Cons:
- No specific problems but not the best performer among all browser. In fact, is quite lacking optimization for S600.
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Hmmm, odd. I find this browser to perform very well. Well, wayyy better than the stock browser for sure. YMMV, apparently
I recommend dolphin browser. If also supports flash again since today's new update :thumbup:
Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda app-developers app
I performed some tests like html5 and few others (you can find them on the web by searching) to compare my stock browser with chrome, firefox and opera. I ended up by using stock browser because it performs well during tests and beats everyone in html5 support. Yes, I know that it is not so elegant like others but it performs good. And for when I need flash player I use FF.

My magazine and then flipboard data intensive?

Has anybody noticed that my magazine and flip board use a lot of data? Well it's mostly the Flipboard app. I can read the news for maybe 20 minutes and goes through a few articles and it can rack up almost 50 megabytes of data whereas if I use my browser (Opera) I use maybe 10 megabytes of data for the same amount of reading. It looks great but not easy on the monthly data allowance.
Agreed - they are data and processor and battery hogs.
If you need your news updates I'd rather suggest MyBoard (added by Samsung to S5 in Germany, don't know about other markets) or very similar Taptu app - they work great with minimum data usage. If you configure them to open stuff with internal browser it'll be even lighter on the data usage.
Anyhow - in most cases the articles load without pictures - and I'm happy with that - and if you want to access those just tap on the bottom to open in browser (internal to the app or external - in your case and mine Opera).
Hope this helps
Thanks good to know I'm not the only one. I don't really need it that much but just pass time while I'm waiting for something. Looks like I will stick with my browser instead of using flipboard.

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