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Which browser is best (Chrome or Safari) on the Air?

S

Sangdushi

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 9, 2011
128
0
just ordered the baseline 13". so damn excited...


I watch a lot of flash videos, and my online homework website needs flash too so I NEED flash. I tried the htlm5 youtube program on my current pc laptop but the videos were all 280 or 320p and looked bad so I don't think I want to do that. although I haven't tried it on safari so I wouldn't know if it's different.

I think I would rather use chrome because I'm used to it but I don't want to miss out on all the multi touch gestures optimized for safari. or should I just install the flash plugin? I keep reading so many threads about people uninstalling flash completely on their macbooks so I'm starting to think it works horribly on the mac and don't want to suffer from lower battery or performance issues.

what do you guys use?
 
You won't miss out on the multitouch features in Chrome, but they won't be as smooth as in safari. Safari 5 is a lot like Chrome in terms of UI, so you won't need to relearn a browser. I can't say for the flash though, as I am on a MacBook Pro, but I don't have any problems with flash (I guess I'm lucky:D).

It all comes down to personal preference, I prefer safari because of the smooth multitouch gestures and apple support. If you like Chrome better, great, use it.
 
About flash, you should install ClickToFlash.
It blocks all flash content (like annoying ads) and when you need a flash video or site, you click to unblock it. Easy and useful.
 
I love my safari.
But its a RAM eater.
Open the browser and already eats 1.7GB.

Chrome, not my fav but is sure is light.
Only 600MB when opened.

It depends on which one you like the most.
 
Safari's not bad...I go back and forth between Safari and Chrome but I prefer Chrome most of the time.

EDIT: now that swiping gestures in Chrome are back I'll probably be using Chrome 99% of the time.
 
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Nothing is as stable fast and fun as Chrome.

The Google Chrome Web Store finally has a very wide array of extensions and apps now that are even more useful than the Firefox selection.

iReader is awesome for stripping away all the ads so you can read a web page fast.

They have terrific extensions for Evernote, Catch, and Simplenote.

Many of the extensions offer a lot of automation, saving valuable time.

A great Screen Capture extension by Google, and on and on.

Chrome is the first browser I use nearly exclusively, even though I have all the popular ones installed.

It's really sped up and improved my work flow tremendously.
 
I like Safari but its performance in Lion leaves a lot to be desired. Some extensions seemingly stop working and memory management is worse, unfortunately.
 
Safari is the only OS X stable release browser that is 64-bit, RAM-permitting, it is the fastest at rendering pages. Otherwise, Chrome has more feature and is a little more stable.
 
yusukeaoki said:
I love my safari.
But its a RAM eater.
Open the browser and already eats 1.7GB.

Chrome, not my fav but is sure is light.
Only 600MB when opened.

It depends on which one you like the most.
Click to expand...
What the hell? I have 6gb on my windows laptop and Chrome with 2 tabs only takes 113mb!! I thought Mac OSX was lightweight :S I don't get it...
caonimadebi said:
Safari is the only OS X stable release browser that is 64-bit, RAM-permitting, it is the fastest at rendering pages. Otherwise, Chrome has more feature and is a little more stable.
Click to expand...

Sorry but chrome is the fastest browser (in rendering pages obviously).

I just tested my Chrome browser. Spammed ctrl+click on the MBA forum (opens the link in a new tab), I opened 38 tabs. Chrome uses around 500mb for that...
 
I find it hard to fault Chrome. I get the odd crash now and then but I'm never sure whether it's me opening 30 pages at once; and whether it's the browser of the MBA crying for help.
 
Loving safari. If it starts to hog too much memory the simple solution is to restart safari and reclaim a huge chunk of that memory back. I usually only need to do it once. But then again I usually don't have a ton of tabs open.
 
Cheffy Dave said:
If you like BeachBalls, go with Safari, otherwise Chrome is the one, and the speedster is the new Chrome Canary Beta, both work flawlessly in Lion, without spinning BeachBalls:cool:
Click to expand...

Been using Chrome since day one; on my MBA 13 inch i5 256Gb, Safari has been perfect no "spinning BeachBalls" although for sites with heavy flash usage Chrome Canary is a better option
 
I like chrome, however the gestures don't work with the magic mouse. Safari recognizes them, but not chrome. The gestures work with the trackpad. Am I missing something, or chrome doesn't recognizer magic mouse gestures?
 
orfeas0 said:
What the hell? I have 6gb on my windows laptop and Chrome with 2 tabs only takes 113mb!! I thought Mac OSX was lightweight :S I don't get it...
Click to expand...

Safari =/ Mac OS

This would be akin to saying Windows 7 is crap because IE is awful.
 
What about Firefox?

Not sure if I should have started a new thread for this but I'd like to ask how Firefox compares too?

I really like how Safari interfaces with my new i7 Air (multitouch, smooth scrolling, fullscreen, etc). But, I'm completely addicted to Firefox Sync and how it syncs everything (passwords, history, bookmarks, etc) between all my computers and browsing sessions. Safari also seems to be more efficient on my Air, battery seems to last a little longer.
 
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I don't have an Air right now, just a 13" MBP, however I have two coworkers who also use the 2011 13" MBA. And they run similar to me. All three of us use Chrome as our main browser, but fall back to Safari for other tasks.
I purposely run each in it's own space on Lion. I only run flash apps in Chrome, and use Safari for a second google profile I have. It also is needed for the Java support for work I do.

If I could completely get away from Flash I would probably only run Safari. Likewise if I didn't need Java for work I would likely only run Chrome.
I abandoned Firefox 3 1/2 years ago and I doubt I will go back. Lately it seems like they are suffering from an identity crisis, trying to be like all the other guys. And their "version update of the week" has been a major turn-off for network admin work I do. I can't get Windows PC's who are running it updated fast enough.

The way I see it they are all tools in the drawer, run one or the other...or both.
 
I was using Safari when I first bought the machine, only because Chrome hadn't been updated to fully support Lion. Now that it has, I'm back. It's faster and lighter and just all-around better.
 
I also use chrome canary build; chrome is my browser of choice on ubuntu and windows too

I'm still amazed how many mac users don't realise you simply cannot compare RAM usage between OS's. OS X handles ram in a completely different way to Windows.
 
orfeas0 said:
Yea but he said that chrome on mac takes 600mb. For chrome on windows to take 600mb it requires 40 tabs open.
Click to expand...

So? That has nothing to do with my point, or the one he tried making. He was talking about a OS's memory management based on its browser. A browser does not make an OS.
 
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