5 Browsers to Consider as an Android User

One of the nice things about browsing the Internet on a mobile device is how many options there are in terms of browsers. However, when trying to select the best, it may not be a bad strategy to stick to familiar names. Here, we review a few solid options that you may consider.

Firefox Quantum
Not too long ago, Mozilla implemented updates to its Firefox platform, adding the features of Quantum. This improved performance on the backend and gave the browser a new user interface. So, while Firefox was once considered slow, it now can hold its own against the likes of Google Chrome.

However, the real star of the story is the new rendering engine, Stylo, speeding it up by two times. It also offers the only extensions offered by an Android browser in addition to assorted add-ons. You can also theme your browser, and your account allows the browser to sync to your desktop version of Firefox. This gives you access to your bookmarks and browsing history.

Firefox also focuses heavily on privacy features, including tracking protection and automatic data wiping when the app is exited.

Brave Browser
While Firefox Quantum has boosted speeds, Brave functions even faster, aided by its built-in privacy features. These include tracking protection and popular extensions usually found on the desktop versions of Chrome and Firefox. The privacy settings are also customizable to the user’s preferences, including activating fingerprint protection - this will prevent a website from collecting information from browsing habits, something that not many browsers can do. As an added plus, these preventions will speed up load times. It also comes with its own cryptocurrency that it grants to websites based on how long their users spend browsing.

Overall, if privacy is your primary concern, Brave is probably the browser for you.

Google Chrome
Chrome is currently Android’s default browser, and for good reason. After all, if you developed a mobile operating system, you’d want your applications to be the ones that people would use on it, right? This has led to quite a bit of integration between Google’s OS and the apps that Google develops. From the Assistant taking browsing habits into account as it responds to auto-detecting the need to translate a page, the purpose behind Chrome is to optimize the experience for the user.

When it comes to browsing speed, Chrome is the winner, other browsers maybe outperforming it on a few sites, but not consistently enough to take the lead. This is a relatively recent change, too - for a long time, Chrome’s performance hopelessly outpaced other browsers.

For the user with only basic mobile browsing needs, Chrome is more than capable of fulfilling their requirements. It is also friendlier to those who are still bound to a data limit, as all data is compressed if the Data Saver option is activated.

Samsung Internet Browser
In their browser, Samsung offers a few notable benefits to the user. One of these benefits is the capability to install an ad blocker of your choosing from a selection offered by Samsung. While content blockers are the only available extensions for the Samsung Internet Browser, there are apps available that can keep your other data private as well.

In addition to its available security, Samsung Internet offers useful navigation features and a better video-viewing experience. Users can swipe through their tabs in both the URL bar and the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, and a button just above the bottom toolbar will send the user straight back to the top of the page.

As for viewing video, Samsung Internet enables Picture-in-Picture mode, and its Video Assistance will not pause the video when adjusting the video’s size/orientation or when casting it to a Google Home.

Microsoft Edge
After Microsoft’s attempt to carve out a section of the smartphone industry fizzled out, they changed tack, and now are more focused on ensuring that their solutions play nice with other operating systems. This meant bringing a trimmed-down and very fast version of the Edge browser to the Android OS.

The mobile version of Edge can be synchronized with a user’s browsing on the desktop version, allowing a session to continue on-the-go and when back at home base. By logging into a Microsoft account, all of your data can be synchronized as well. Edge also offers a complete dark mode, for those that prefer white-on-black text to the usual black-on-white.

Finally, Edge is also capable of using Adblock Plus to offer native ad blocking. All in all, these features and functions make the mobile Edge browser a tempting choice for those who prefer the desktop Edge experience as well.

At the end of the day, the browser you decide to use will be just that - your decision. For more help with any of your other business technology decisions, OnSite I.T. is here. Give us a call at (403) 210-2927.