UC Browser 8.0.5 (for Android)

UC Browser (free) claims to be China's most popular mobile browser, but you'd be hard pressed to find it on an Android device in the U.S. Does China know something we don't?

Yes and no. Look and feel-wise, UC Browser is a lot like (free) except with more customizable settings—and more bugs. I tested it on a Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich," and constantly had to report bugs or restart the app.

That said, UC Browser has the best download manager around, handling simultaneous downloads with virtually no lag. The user interface is clean and truly optimized for small mobile screens. Plus, you don't need a top-of-the-line phone to use it, as versions are available for Android, iOS, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Java, and even bada (however isome of these other platforms are harder to find in English).

Opera-like Interface
On your first boot-up, you can import bookmarks from other browsers, but not browsing history and passwords like you can in Android browser.  Next, you're advised to set your Speed Dial page which, as with Opera, serves as the first page you see every time you open a new tab. In Speed Dial, you can add your favorite URLs for fast, single-tap access. UC Browser also includes a rather plain villa RSS reader that lets you aggregate content from your favorite mobile news sources.

UC Browser is one of the few companies that started out making mobile browsers, and it shows in the browser's slick and minimalist interface. A top-fitted URL bar doubles as a search bar, while a bottom-fitted navigation bar includes all the right shortcuts: back/forward loading, page toggling, an Advanced Settings menu to tweak page rendering, and a General Settings menu. Both the bottom and top nav bars hide when not in use, maximizing your screen's real estate.

Limited Gestures
Like Opera, UC Browser supports dynamic wrapping and pinch-zoom, so that text responds to the slightest pinch. However there isn't enough swiping action for touch screen mobile use, with only horizontal swiping to toggle back and forth, a far cry from , which offers custom gestures and themes. It also  lacks Firefox's swipeable trays and Opera's convenient tabbed browsing.

In Advanced Settings, you can tweak how your page is rendered: flip your User Agent to mobile or desktop, adjust brightness levels, or enable page acceleration and rotation. You can also opt to restore closed tabs if the browser crashes. Within this menu are even more features for fusspots to tweak, like changing the number of pages that cache or remembering passwords. Like Opera, UC Browser uses proxy browsing and handles each page request through a server, which means it compresses a page and sends it to your device. Ultimately this compression reduces your data consumption.

Tap General Settings for a more familiar list of mobile browser features, like sharing Web gems with friends and family, or accessing a list of downloaded items. I especially appreciated the "find in page" feature, which is something I use a lot during desktop browsing but rarely see in mobile browsers.

Best Browser for Downloads
Unlike Dolphin and Opera, UC Browser supports simultaneous downloads and has a clean, well-organized download manager for all your files, including pages for offline reading. It's the only mobile browser I've seen that displays a bar for download progress and lets you pause and resume downloads, which is a nice (but unnecessary) touch on a mobile device. I tried downloading several files from the Web and didn't notice any affect on page loads.

Bugs, Bugs, and More Bugs
UC Browser is a slick Android browser, but its very buggy. For example, the dynamic pinch-zoom feature and horizontal scrolling simply didn't work sometimes. Switching the User Agent from mobile to PC didn't always work for me either, which I tried to do a few times to load websites with a superior desktop interface (like https://www.pcmag.com).

Also, UC Browser claims it supports Flash but I received only error messages on several Flash sites I tried to load. Furthermore Flash content doesn't automatically load like they do in Opera and Dolphin—you have to tap an icon to access content.

Slowest of the Pack
Although real-world browsing feels snappy, in speed benchmark tests UC Browser came in last every time. I tested the browser on a T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy SII running Android 2.3.5 with the latest version of Adobe Flash (10.2). I performed two JavaScript benchmark tests: SunSpider (0.9.1) and Google V8 (version 6), ran each test three times and averaged the results.

SunSpider (0.9.1)
Lower is better

In the SunSpider test where a lowest score is most desirable, UC Browser (2583 ms) finished behind Firefox 10 (2066) and Opera Mobile 11 (2296) but ahead of Dolphin Browser HD 7 (2852).

V8 Benchmark Suite - version 6
Higher is better

When it came to the V8 test where a higher score is better, UC Browser (302) fell in last place, scoring less than half the highest-scoring browser, the stock Android browser (627).

Unique Browser, But Too Unstable
UC Browser version 8.0.5 offers a heavily customizable mobile browsing experience for even the lowest-tier cell phone owner, but it's not very stable. It also lacks the convenient gestures and swiping features of our Editors' Choice pick, Dolphin Browser HD 7.0. But for those who download a lot of content from their mobile browsers and are constantly looking for ways to reduce data consumption, UC Browser is a fine alternative Android browser. I look forward to trying UC Browser again, once UCWeb irons out the kinks.

For more Android software, see: