Browser Bedlam Battle, Part 2

And we are back for part 2 of the battle royale between mobile browsers. I’m still awaiting word back from HTC about my new Touch Pro but I’ll let that slide…for now.

Access NetFront 3.5 (Technical Preview)

From the guys who made Palm’s proprietary OS comes this simple but elegant solution. The first screen shot is the default view when a web page is loaded. The second screen shot is what happens when you double tap the screen. A full view of the web page is placed in front of the viewing area, allowing you to use your fingers to slide the viewing box (the red outline) to the content you want to see. Double tapping a second time on that box zooms you into that content area.

Pros:
• Easy to use because of similarities to Pocket I.E.
• Fast and smooth finger scrolling.
• Simple interface for power users who don’t need a lot of bells and whistles.
• A small page map appears as you scroll, so you always know where you are on the page.
• Tabbed browsing.

Cons:
• The options can be a little confusing and the browsing experience is not too customizable for the uninitiated.
• No option to default web pages to a zoomed out view.
• Some websites still default to their WAP pages instead of directing to the full web page.

OS Capability: Palm Garnet OS, Windows Mobile, Symbian (Nokia), BREW (Some Verizon and Sprint devices).

For more information & free download visit the Access site.

Opera Mini 4.1

This is a Java based browser that is essentially the “mini” version of Opera’s full browser, but it’s not mini in terms of browsing experience.

The first screen is the default web page view. As you can see it is a much more full view of the webpage albeit very small font. The second screen is zoomed in after the requisite double tap, as usual.

This was recently released officially. Read on for the link.

Pros:
• Opera Mini is FREE!
• Java-based, so any phone with a java engine can run it - from a RAZR to a full PDA.
• If you have a touch screen PDA, it is very finger friendly and responsive to action.
• Has same zooming effect as Opera Mobile 9.5.

• Has the same “favorites” synching capability as Opera Mobile 9.5.
• Fastest web page loading and rendering I’ve experienced.

Cons:
• If you are using a touch screen PDA and have not used java apps through an emulator, it can take some getting use to.
• Does not reorganize text on zoom in as well as Opera Mobile 9.5.
• Does not handle AJAX web pages too well.
• Seems to freezes if any notification (i.e. new text message) overtakes the screen.
• NOT available for any Verizon phone EXCEPT for Verizon Blackberry phones. With the coming Verizon-Alltel merger, this could be a big negative. Verizon & Opera will have to work together to find a way to bring service to this soon to be mega provider.

OS Capability: Any java enabled phone including Motorola, Samsung, LG, Blackberry, Palm and HTC phones.

For more information, phone compatibility & the free download, visit Opera’s site.