Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

rm2092

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 30, 2008
402
2
Yes Dolphin is faster then Safari, the down side to using it is there is no option to set as default browser.
 
Dolphin has such an horrible UI. It's like the devs know nothing about design standards or even care.

I didn't pay good money for an iPad with a retina display to be staring at a complete UI diasaster.

Did you run any web benchmarks on these two browsers or is this some random claim?
 
Out of curiosity I decided to see if your claim of Dolphin being a faster browser is true and ran the BrowserMark bench tool on both.

Higher is better in this bench test.

Safari scored a 99114
Dolphin scored a 54779

Not only did Safari beat Dolphin, it completely destroyed it.
 
Why is safari so much faster than all the app store browsers? I tested atomic, icab, and mercury on browsermark and safari got almost twice the numbers they did. I love the gestures / features on the others but safari is so much faster
 
I agree with the OP. My anecdotal experience is that Dolphin is at least as quick. Makes sense that Safari would be faster, but I can't tell the difference.

However, I like most of the Dolphin UI. I love the swipe bars.

Considering Safari was about 5 years late to tabbed browsing, something universally appreciated by everyone except Apple loyalists, I wouldn't call it a masterpiece. Let's be honest, Safari is reliable. But it is entirely vanilla.
 
It's my best preferred browser and those tripping about BrowserMark, just try the app before you start tripping. It's probably the best browser ever. End of.
 
Why is safari so much faster than all the app store browsers? I tested atomic, icab, and mercury on browsermark and safari got almost twice the numbers they did. I love the gestures / features on the others but safari is so much faster


Because Apple is only allowing Safari to use the Nitro JavaScript engine to be used in Safari. Everything else must use the older iOS 4.2.1 JavaScript engine which isn't as fast.
 
Because Apple is only allowing Safari to use the Nitro JavaScript engine to be used in Safari. Everything else must use the older iOS 4.2.1 JavaScript engine which isn't as fast.
Also hide some other APIs, e.g. Most third-party browser lags when scrolling. Not developer's fault.
 
Also hide some other APIs, e.g. Most third-party browser lags when scrolling. Not developer's fault.

Exactly. Another VERY unfriendly step from Apple. Devs have been asking Apple for at least a YEAR to lift this deliberate(!) limitation, but no... well, Apple can "thank" their own stubborness if more and more people goes for Win8 / Android instead.
 
Apple can "thank" their own stubborness if more and more people goes for Win8 / Android instead.
Um, maybe just Android?

Seen what Microsoft is doing with IE on the ARM processors (i.e. tablets)?

Both Mozilla and Google have expressed concern over Windows 8. Microsoft's next big operating system release restricts access to certain APIs and technologies browsers need - only making them available to Internet Explorer.
http://www.osnews.com/story/25935
 
So get back to the post, no browser could be faster than safari on iOS. All the other can only win by extra features, but I'd rather use workarounds with safari, speed and smoothness are the most important for most of the times.

Dolphin is great on Android for all the add-ons, don't know why they don't build some in on iOS, they should at least try to integrate evernote and readitlater features. The current version on iOS has nothing good but gestures and slide for tabs and favs, that's not enough for the sacrifice of speed and smoothness
 
Last edited:
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.