Dolphin Browser HD 8.8 (for Android)

As far as Android browser alternatives go, Dolphin Browser (formerly Dolphin Browser HD) was a trailblazer when it launched with a laundry list of features, like gestures and custom User Agents that let you load mobile or desktop versions of websites. A couple years later, most of Dolphin's competitors have caught up feature-wise, and Google keeps its stock browser the most standards-compatible.

However, thanks to a major performance update, Dolphin 8.8 swims ahead striking a fine balance between performance and speed, and retains our Editors' Choice for Android browsers.

Dress for the Occasion
Dolphin's UI is deceptively simple. Dolphin uses tabbed browsing that lets you open an infinite number of new pages by tapping the "+" sign. But a nifty feature here is that you can quickly scan through all your tabs by swiping across the top. In , , and , you have to tap a couple times to run through all your tabs.

Swiping in from the left gives you access to a dozen default (but removable) bookmarks, like quick links to new wallpaper and Wikipedia. Swiping in from the right unveils Add-ons and Themes, should you care to dress your browser for Christmas or Halloween.

The latest version freshens up an already crisp interface. Contextual menus are backlit with fluorescent green. The left sidebar gains a "Quick Access" drawer for key functions (such as Settings), a search button, and single-click bookmarking. The right panel loses Settings, but makes room for a visual tabs button. And every time you open a new tab, Dolphin now uses Speed Dial, Opera's visual bookmarking system, to automatically populate it with your favorite websites.

Add-ons make customizations more meaningful, bringing Evernote, Speed Test, LastPass, Web to PDF, and Amazon Search into your mobile browser. The selection isn't expansive, but there's a lot of utility to be gained. Meanwhile Dolphin Connect lets you sync bookmarks and custom gestures across all your tablets and smartphones. Unfortunately Dolphin isn't available on desktops. 

Gesture- or Voice-enabled Navigation
Dolphin is no longer the only Android browser offering gesture-enabled navigation. Maxthon also has it as a plug-in, while Dolphin's is built-in. I prefer Dolphin's.

With Gestures, you can draw symbols to perform commonly used actions. You tap on the Dolphin icon pinned to the bottom left-hand corner of the screen to reserve the screen for your Gesture. For example, to refresh a webpage, draw a circle. To open a new tab, an N. In addition to eight preloaded gestures, you can even create your own Gesture: I used a B to open bookmarks.

Sonar is Dolphin's voice-enabled navigation feature which you also access by tapping on the Dolphin icon. Yes, every browser takes voice input nowadays and Sonar doesn't perform any faster or more accurately. However in Dolphin, you can shake your device to activate Sonar. Subtle edge. 

Favorite Add-ons
Dolphin has a strong set of thoughtful add-ons to enhance your mobile browsing experience. For instance, I thought Dolphin's new Webzine feature would be superfluous, but it's now the first thing I open after launching Dolphin. Webzine aggregates online publications onto one page in a series of thumbnails. You tap a thumbnail to scroll through the publication's news feed, which displays titles and summaries in boxes.

Dolphin Battery Saver is an easy way to extend your juice by giving you the most energy-conserving settings, like auto-dimming and screen timeouts.

I also added Evernote, a screengrabber (handy on devices running anything below Android 4.0 and can't even take screenshots), WiFi Charger, Web to PDF convertor, the LastPass password manager, and a couple Web games. Most brand-name apps that have add-ons support Dolphin as well.

I really wish Dolphin's add-on page had a search bar so I don't have to scroll through them all. Also, I wasn't able to successfully uninstall add-ons within the browser itself. They just kept reappearing in my process tree. In the end I went through my stock Android setting to uninstall the add-ons.

 

Solid Performance
Performance-wise, Dolphin doesn't beat the stock Android browser in standards compatibility (though it always came close), or in speed. But on average it fared better than the other Android browsers.

To test, we perform two JavaScript benchmarks and a real-world test on mobile browsers, conducted on a Galaxy Nexus running Android 4.1. I run each test on the latest version of the browser three times, and average the results.

Below are the results, best-to-worst, left-to-right:

SunSpider 0.9.1
Lower is Better

In the SunSpider test where a lowest score is most desirable. Dolphin finished second (1644 ms) after the stock browser (1493). All the browsers performed in the 1,500-2,500 mark, so the discrepancy may not be obvious in real life.

V8 Benchmark Suite - version 7
Higher is Better

When it came to the V8 test, where a higher score is better, Dolphin (1386) came in third, narrowly missing second-place browser Maxthon (1401) but trailing the stock Android browser (1560). You'll certainly see a difference in speed when loading Javascript-rich pages in Dolphin, compared to the slowest performer, UC Browser (410).

Real-world Browsing
Dolphin feels snappier than the others and didn't crash on me once. On the other hand, Dolphin didn't do very well in real-world browsing speeds compared to the stock browser. For instance, it took Dolphin 10 seconds to fully load PCMag.com, compared to five seconds in the stock browser. Sesamestreet.org took 13 seconds in Dolphin, and seven seconds in the stock browser.

Best Balance of Features and Performance
Dolphin Browser 8.8 isn't the fastest browser for Android devices, but it manages to strike a fine balance between features and performance, and therefore remains our Editors' Choice for Android browsers. There are plenty of cool add-ons to explore, from the useful ones like LastPass and Evernote, to the more inane ones like an app that converts photos of women's clothing into "see-through clothing" or a poker game. But more importantly, Dolphin is snappy and relatively fast for such a powerful, feature-rich browser. If speed is your holy grail, check out Chrome for Android or simply stick to the stock Android browser.

More Android Software: