5 Mini Browsers For Mobile Phones

Opera Mini

Opera Mini has been mentioned here before, but let me give you a few quick words to refresh your memory.

With about 20 million users, this browser is perhaps the most popular mobile mini browser out there. So popular that it comes preinstalled in most modern cellphones. Some people even consider it as their native mobile browser.

Superb compression, extremely fast, skinnable and able to play online video are few of the traits that makes the latest version of Opera Mini – v 4.2 – even better than before. It’s available for free on the Opera Mini Download Page or directly from your cellphones.

UCWEB Mobile Browser

This veteran mini browser is very popular in

China but unknown to most people in Europe and the United States. The latest version is 6.3 (while Opera Mini is still 4.2), and available for free in Java and Symbian.

It has all the mobile browser’s features users would need and more. The most noticable is a password manager and tabbed browsing. Other features include:

• Advanced search function with support for various search engines and the ability to sort the results.
• Email service which supports many online email mailboxes and different types of attachment formats.
• Download function to help users download files from the phone. One thing to consider though, usually the internet data connection through your phone provider will cost a lot more than a home connection.
• RSS subscription support
• Personal data management to synchronize bookmarks between phone, web and PC.

Teashark

The developer chooses to make this browser available only in one format – Java MIDP 2.0 – and for good reason: it will work on every modern cellphone. To download Teashark browser go to the download page.

Just like UCWEB, one of its strong points is the ability to do tabbed browsing. Other features are:

• Cleaner interface and startup page compared to Opera.
• Full screen browsing.
• Full text select and find text function just like desktop browsers.
• Smart URL suggestions similar to Opera.
• Bookmark organization with color tags.

One thing that disturbs me about Teashark is that we always have to choose which network we want to choose to connect to the internet everytime we start the browser. It would be more convenient if we can choose one at the beginning and continue using it until we decide to change it.

Skyfire

One of the biggest limitations of mobile browsing is the ability to play Flash and video, but that’s no problem for Skyfire. The developer also claims that this browser also supports pages with Ajax, Silverlight and Quicktime.

To download this browser, you can go to the main page, or do it directly from your mobile browser. 

Fennec

Or should we call it Firefox Mobile? I put this little baby at the end because it’s still in Alpha and only available in some selected mobile devices. But anybody can try it out for free in their home computer (Windows/Mac/Linux). Just go to the download site.

Currently, some of the features are:
- Bookmarks with tags.
- Smart URL Bar with integrated web search built in and access to many search engines.
- Tabbed browsing with thumbnail images and page zoom.
- Password manager, instant web ID, and the ability to clear private data.
- Pop-up blocker.

We can’t say too much at the moment about Fennec but judging by the history of Firefox’s desktop version, this little one will also surely be a hit.

I personally will still be attached to Opera Mini, at least for a while. What about you? Do you do mobile browsing a lot? What mini browser do you use? Share your experience using the comment section below.