We’ve been patiently waiting for Chrome for Android for several years now, and last night, Google finally answered our prayers. Those of us with an Android 4.0 phone at any rate: if you’re running “Ice Cream Sandwich”, it’s a fast, slick browser that lets you conveniently open pages from your dekstop, other phones, tablets and even Chromebooks, with slick card-based tabs. You can download it here.
But what if, like the 99 percent of Android users without Ice Cream Sandwich yet, you can’t install Chrome for Android? The stock 2.3 browser is still pretty poor, but never fear: here are five alternatives worth checking out with many of the same skills.
Dolphin Browser HD
Dolphin Browser HD has been a stalwart of our Best Android apps 100 list ever since we published it more than a year ago, and with cause. It’s blindingly fast, with built-in Adobe Flash support, and visible tabs at the top of the app, which is extremely useful if you own an Android phone with a larger screen. You can set your user agent to desktop, which you can’t yet do with Chrome for Android (It is in Beta), and it has plug-ins, including ad-strippers and more. Just one catch: you’ll need an Android phone with a WVGA resolution or higher.
Firefox
We ignored Firefox for Android for quite some time when it launched a few years ago – it was just a bit too bloated. It’s since come of age: it’s speedy and feature packed. Perhaps best of all, it offers similar sync skills to Chrome for Android, letting you seamlessly share links between Firefox on your phone and Firefox on your desktop – and you don’t need Ice Cream Sandwich to do it, just Froyo and up.
Best Android apps of all time: Top 100
Opera Mini
Chrome is famed on the desktop for its speed, but in truth, Chrome for Android isn’t necessarily any faster than its rivals. If you find yourself regularly with just 2G signal, in your office, home or on the commute, you’d do well to check out this old classic. Why? Because it’s still the best at stripping out clutter, with server side rendering minimising the amount of data that actually needs to be sent.
SkyFire
SkyFire became famed for converting Flash video on iPhone, but on Android, it’s more noteworthy as a “social” browser than anything, in the vein of RockMelt. There’s a Facebook Like button built in, plus a search bar that can search through Google, Facebook and Twitter. It also keeps your Facebook feed loaded in the background, so you can glance quickly whenever you choose. Anyone who’s witnessed how slow the official Facebook Android app can be will know this is a good thing.
NetFront Life Browser
The little known NetFront Life Browser is another one well suited for those suffering from a poor 3G connection. It’ll load a snapshot of a page after a few seconds whil it continues to render, so in most cases you’ll be able to start reading in short order. Perhaps its best selling point however is Evernote integration built in. If you’re a fan of the cloud note stashing service, you’ll love this one’s ability to save snippets of web pages. Chrome for Android can share site URLs to Evernote, but not sections of a page.
