THE Browser for X

[sic0048]

a bit off topic, but what is the deal with the gestures in dolphin? It seems like having to push a button on the screen, then doing the gesture, I might as well just push the button itself..

Using gestures is still faster however. Sure you can left swipe and get immediately to the bookmarks, but you still have to scroll through them.

 

[kriscad]

Billy Mays here with Xscope!

hahaha!

 

[Jayme]

Sorry to have impugned your reputation

Damn! Never wrote 'impugned' before in my life. Had to look up the spelling Had no idea it was spelled like that.

thats great!

 

[j_ryan]

I thought I was the only xScope user around here. It's by far my favorite browser, with the stock browser in a distant second place. I love the tabs and overall simplicity. Dolphin HD was too difficult to use and Opera was ridiculously buggy.

 

[kwest12]

Disclaimer: I tried out xScope as soon as I got my DX on about August 8th. It is possible something may have changed, but I'm too lazy to check the version history right now

Abridged version of my xScope analysis:
There are some great concepts associated with this browser, but the implementation just isn't quite there yet.

Long Version:
Issue #1) I did side by side testing and the stock browser consistently won the race. This really was surprising to me bc I'm always hearing about how fast xScope is

Issue #2) Concerning the double-tap-then-slide-to-zoom feature: I absolutely LOVE this concept, but the way it works is buggy at best. Not only did it really get jumpy a lot of them time, but other problems abound as well: it seems like half the time it was either registering me zooming out inside of in, not registering anything at all, or even registering a link click. If they can work out the bugs, that feature alone will sell me on their browser.

How it boils down) The most important things to me are loading speed, smoothness of scrolling, scrolling speed, and zooming responsiveness/accuracy. The extra features are nice, but are definitely secondary concerns. xScope still needs to nail down the basic stuff that makes a browser good before I'm willing to switch.

Quick analysis of other browsers:
Disclaimer: I haven't even tried any of the following browsers personally, but I read waaaaaay to much about this stuff (aka I let other people do the testing for me).

• Dolphin is known to be significantly slower than stock.
• Opera Mini sends your data through its servers, compresses the data and then sends it back: I'm not willing to accept that sort of privacy intrusion in exchange for added speed
• Fennec has just entered alpha and I don't want a buggy browser
• Skyfire: I don't know all that much about this one, but I can only assume that a which essentially tries to feign having Flash is going to be buggy and slow.

Take home message: as of right now, I don't feel that there is an acceptable browser replacement for stock on Android (at least when it comes to the DX).

 

[pm1066]

This. Glad I'm not the only one tired of the buggy "jump in and out and all over hell and gone" zoom implementation. I'm also just not seeing a blazing speed gain either. The bookmark management is just bad, in that you need to do bookmark management, but the gui is too limited to let you do it.

I hope they work it out. Not ready for prime time yet, IMO.

 

[B1llK]

billy mays here with xscope!

lol!

 

[Stealthman]

Not a fan myself. I have tried all of the browsers out there and end up back with stock every single time.

me too

 

[atiroch]

I saw the thread and decided to finally try xScope and I must say, it's much better than the stock browser or Opera/Skyfire. Also, I've got the 2.2 manual update and Flash loads twice as fast and is smoother in xScope than in the stock Browser. Also, it's the Chrome of mobile browsers in terms of screen real estate. Hides the task bar and all controls when not used. Nice!

 

[Jim Dawson]

Hey Billy Mays, how do you hide the tabs in xScope?

 

[Deathshead]

the only thing that pisses me off with Xscope is that it keeps reverting the user agent id back to android when i set it to desktop i want it to toggle on and stay on..


Other than that its the best browser out so far for this platform.

 

[e5116]

I personally use xScope almost exclusively. It's the best combination of simplicity, speed, and features that I've found. I think the implementation was fantastic on almost all accounts, except for bookmarks, which could use some improvement. I also did some speed tests of my own...it went like this from slowest to fastest.

Slowest to fastest browsers based on my tests:
Skyfire
gap
Dolphin HD
gap
Stock/xScope (essentially tied; stock ever so slightly faster)
gap
Opera mini (destroys all in speed, but not all pages render correctly)

Opera mini is the way to go if all you care about is speed, but not all pages render in the way you would think since it has a server processing it and compresses it in a certain manner, so flash/images/layout, etc. might be messed up. Stock and xScope were essentially a wash in performance, but I liked the additional features xScope had. It's super simple, but has all the necessary components like tabbing, favorites, multi-touch zoom, the one finger zoom, "smart" zoom, clicking links, copy and pasting text, searching text, history, custom skins, auto-hiding toolbars, and more.

The stock browser isn't too shabby in my opinion either, but xScope offers a few more functionalities without compromising performance. I use skyfire for watching videos sometimes as it works better. I have Dolphin HD installed, but really haven't used it at all. Seems almost too "feature-rich" and messy. I want a simple interface that has the functionality I want and good performance. I agree with the OP and xScope has been the best browser based on what I look for.

 

[DrWurm]

Hey Billy Mays, how do you hide the tabs in xScope?

Billy Mays here, I don't think you can hide them if there are multiple tabs up. Not yet anyway, send an email to the dev if it bothers you.

 

[jreed2560]

anybody know the code you type in the browser address bar to unlock more settings?

 

[Willyg44]

I didn't find the browser to be any faster than stock. The only thing I liked was the tab style. Not enough to make me use something other than stock.

 

[DrWurm]

anybody know the code you type in the browser address bar to unlock more settings?

Good question. For the default browser, it's "about:debug" Don't know if xScope has extended settings or not, but "about:debug" doesn't work. What are you trying to change anyway?

 

[jreed2560]

thanks drwurm. I was trying to change the setting to automatically open the full versions of websites instead of the mobile ones. for those that don't know. its under UAStrings, just change it from Android to Desktop.

 

[DrWurm]

thanks drwurm. I was trying to change the setting to automatically open the full versions of websites instead of the mobile ones. for those that don't know. its under UAStrings, just change it from Android to Desktop.

I've noticed the stock browser doesn't seem to make this setting stick, though. I think whenever I start a new session, I have to redo it.

Also, xScope has this option built in to the standard settings and it sticks. Just sayin'.....

 

[imadreamer143]

hmmmm. I downloaded xscope and wasn't really a fan. I was a loyal dolphin user until I was reading this thread about how it's not even really much better than stock. =\

 

[DrWurm]

hmmmm. I downloaded xscope and wasn't really a fan. I was a loyal dolphin user until I was reading this thread about how it's not even really much better than stock. =\

Just want to make sure you (and others reading this) made sure to read the xScope tutorial. If you did, and didn't like it, cool beans. If you didn't, and didn't like it, there's a good chance you missed a bit of what makes it great.

 

[Jim Dawson]

Hey Billy Mays, how do you hide the tabs in xScope?

Billy Mays here, I don't think you can hide them if there are multiple tabs up. Not yet anyway, send an email to the dev if it bothers you.

I was asking because of your earlier statement:

"When viewing a single page, xScope can be set to have no visible interface. That means no tab bar at the top, no address bar, and no notification bar. "

I have a single page up and still can't hide the tab bar.
Edit: Oops, I found it , thanks.

 

[hoosurdady]

Not a fan myself. I have tried all of the browsers out there and end up back with stock every single time.

same

 

[kushineris]

I also have to agree with the op. I started with doplhin on my eris then when xscope came out i was instantly pulled in by the simple interface yet also had extra features i liked. Especially having the tabs. It is fantastic on my x although i do find myself still using the stock browser sometimes as well.
Well have to see how this firefox mobile will be though.

 

[kwest12]

I'd like to hear from those of you who are talking about how great xScope is in regards the the three following points I made earlier:

1) The 1 finger, double-tap-and-slide method of zooming still appears to be extremely jerky and inaccurate (if it even registers at all).
2) The regular pinch zoom was not nearly as smooth as the stock browser and again is quite inaccurate.
3) The page loading is slightly slower than the stock browser.

Do you agree or disagree with these 3 points? If you agree, then I assume you just value the features such as tabbed browsing over the zooming stability and loading speed, correct?

 

[e5116]

I'd like to hear from those of you who are talking about how great xScope is in regards the the three following points I made earlier:

1) The 1 finger, double-tap-and-slide method of zooming still appears to be extremely jerky and inaccurate (if it even registers at all).
2) The regular pinch zoom was not nearly as smooth as the stock browser and again is quite inaccurate.
3) The page loading is slightly slower than the stock browser.

Do you agree or disagree with these 3 points? If you agree, then I assume you just value the features such as tabbed browsing over the zooming stability and loading speed, correct?

I haven't had problems with zooming either the 1-finger or pinch zoom way...Based on my tests, the page loading is slightly slower than stock (on the order of 4 seconds per every 30 seconds of loading), but faster than SkyFire or Dolphin. The additional functionalities make up for the slightly worse performance in my mind. So, I guess I disagree with your first two points and somewhat agree with your third.