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Mobile Browser: Android vs. iOS vs. WP7

We got the chance to put three mobile browsers from three different phone OSes this afternoon. TJ suggested we compare how fast the browsers are.

In the left corner, we have Safari Mobile running on the iPhone 4 and IE Mobile running on the HTC 7 Trophy on the far right. In the middle is the native Android Browser on the HTC Desire.

Yugatech 728x90 Reno7 Series

We hooked up the phones to my local WiFi so all of them are using the same connection/bandwidth. We also launched YugaTech.com from a search results page (Google, Google, Bing) so it’s easier to launch them simultaneously.

The Safari browser on the iPhone 4 went ahead with a decisive lead, followed by IE on the HTC 7 Trophy with the Browser on the HTC Desire coming in at a close 3rd.

There’s a catch though — you will notice that the Android Browser on the HTC Desire loaded that skyscraper banner ad which is a Flash file. That was not loaded in Safari and IE since they don’t support Flash (IE will support it in a later update). That gave Safari on the iPhone 4 a good lead in terms of total amount of data downloaded and rendered by the browser.

Despite that advantage, you can still clearly see which one was rendering pages way faster in the first 10 seconds of load time. Note, however, that this is not a definitive test and there could be other factors that affected our crude test.

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

41 Responses

  1. Avatar for Jhayzt Jhayzt says:

    Oh For the love of…Here, check this. Yahoo officially stomped the iPhone & WP7. Android is considered the best OS as of now. http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/111232/ways-android-beats-everything ..I myself bought an iPhone 4…but now, I feel sorry for it… You know why? I ignored one of this facts..

    “”Popularity over Technology”” = Iphone <—
    Technology over Popularity = Any Android Phone.
    Still missing in action = WP7

    But! WP7 is officially considered as the best Music phone as of now. Why you say? Zune. Just look at zune's interface…Ohhh…I just came..Simply epic interface. Now anyone who bashes this comment or simply ban me is neither a bloke or a sissy. I'm just saying the truth.

  2. Avatar for Jhay Jhay says:

    Just one question; what happened to Opera Mobile? :D

  3. Avatar for P P says:

    Cached? Clear everything first.

  4. Avatar for Jepoi Jepoi says:

    reboot put it bluntly but i think he has a point. when both iOS and WinMo are able to load flash, then do a comparison.

  5. Avatar for Van Van says:

    Yup, I’m curious if you cleared the cache first on all three phones. I suspect this may be the reason why Safari was faster.

  6. Avatar for Bon Bon says:

    Interesting results. Did you, by any chance, clear the cache and history of all 3 browsers before performing the test?

  7. Avatar for mr.bogus mr.bogus says:

    kulang din ng blackberry os… hmmm your right html5 is the future but still PENDING… di naman lahat ng flash ay advertisement…. then silverlight pa… kung iphone os using cloud browser or yung pending sa app store na skyfire browser, palagay ko may good fight yun…

  8. Avatar for qwertio qwertio says:

    u should have used skyfire browser on the iOS since it is somehow flash “capable”- skyfire servers convert flash to html5 for iOS support.

  9. Avatar for reboot reboot says:

    what a dumb comparison! of course the one that loads less data will win. are you people really that stupid?

  10. Avatar for RJ RJ says:

    well, check this out. iOS versus froyo. http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/07/froyo-versus-ios-4-the-browser-showdown-video/
    it showed here that Android wins. :D

  11. Avatar for dk dk says:

    eh? wala kasing flash angiphone kaya madali amg load!

  12. Avatar for Les Les says:

    @Jay I like viewing ads, as they are also sources for information. I don’t get annoyed with flash ads. kung bumabagal ang loading ng pages mo coz of them, baduy ang internet(ISP) mo.

  13. Avatar for manny manny says:

    talk about geeky fun, did anybody in the contest mentioned about comparing Op systems?

  14. Avatar for manny manny says:

    nice comparisons, but yes, nice to add in using Samsung Galaxy S, N8 and a Blackberry on an OS6.

  15. Avatar for Jay Jay says:

    “ang boring mag browse or surf sa internet pag walang flash support”

    @les
    may be you’re entertained with ads noh? the future is HTML 5. We need vital information not pesky ads.

    >Maliit na nga ang screen estate mo, kakainin pa ng malalaking FLASH banners and pop-ups.
    >Pampabagal pa magload ng page pag peak hours on 3G.

    Simply, flash isn’t a necessity on mobile devices.

  16. Avatar for blunano blunano says:

    iOS rules. flash is a history, the future is html5.

  17. Avatar for Les Les says:

    opera on iOS… ang bilis

    pero dun ako sa browser that supports flash!

    ang boring mag browse or surf sa internet pag walang flash support

  18. Avatar for Pee Pee says:

    For the sheer speed alone, Safari beat the competition.

    But, I really miss ”text reflow” in Android’s webkit browser. Text reflow means that when you zoom the text, it will align itself for easier reading.

    S^3 browser simply sucks. Even though it uses the same layout engine (Webkit), Safari and Android browser is miles ahead in terms of usability and speed. The browser is one of the criticism of N8.

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