What's different about UC Browser?

UC Browser is designed to make mobile Web access quicker and more convenient. It's a pretty lightweight application that manages to cram in a number of interesting features without slowing down your browsing experience too much.

Viewing WAP and web sites in UC Browser is a painless experience thanks to its multiple tabs, which allow you to have several pages loaded at once in much the same way as Firefox does. You can flick between the pages simply by tapping tabs, or by using the window icon at the bottom to pull up a pop-up screen listing the tabs you have open.

UC Browser gives you a lot of control over page layout, too. You can choose to view pages in full screen, tweak the font size, zoom images, and tweak image quality.

What tools are in UC Browser?

UC Browser has a number of interesting tools that you don't normally see in a mobile Web browser, such as an integrated download manager, built-in clipboard for simple copy and paste, and a start page with a number of preset links to a range of categorized web sites. Of course, there's full support for bookmarks too.

There's a simple, yet effective search tool within UC Browser that facilitates quick searching through Google, Bing or Yahoo!, allowing you to choose which search engine the browser uses.

Fast browsing technology

UC Browser is a proxy-based browser, which re-renders and compresses page data on a server before sending it to the client (in much the same as Opera Mini and Skyfire do). This makes it exceptionally quick at loading pages. Unfortunately, it seems that image rendering is sacrificed somewhat in this process, and often you'll find that images won't display properly, which can get annoying.

Overall though, UC Browser makes for a quick and easy way to explore the riches of the Web from your PDA.

Download UC Browser 7.6.1.82 in Softonic

Opera Mini 5 offers a faster and more powerful browsing experience than any previous version of the app. The small and compact program has borrowed much more from its desktop-based big brother this time, so if you enjoy using Opera on your PC or Mac then you can now look forward to a similarly smooth ride on your mobile.

The user interface in Opera Mini 5 is more usable than ever. This is thanks to the addition of a Speed Dial feature, whereby you can set one-click shortcuts for up to nine of your favorite sites. Just like in the desktop version, these display thumbnail previews of the sites to make things as clear and simple as possible.

Opera Mini utilizes a tab-based interface, meaning that you can load multiple pages at once simply by clicking on the tab icon at the top of the interface. You can thumb through the pages you have open using the left and right direction buttons. Other navigational aids have also been added, such as an auto-complete feature in the address bar and a built-in search bar. Unfortunately, the search bar only features two sources - Google and Wikipedia.

Viewing pages in Opera Mini 5 is a delight. As with the previous version, you can opt to view the whole web page on screen or move the cursor over a particular part of the page and tap to zoom in (there are only two levels of zoom though). Load times are as impressive as ever thanks to Opera's unique server-side rendering technology.

For those who love to tinker around with stuff, Opera Mini 5 is sure to please because the program is simply rammed with options. You can alter image quality, font size, and fullscreen browsing, and there are a wealth of privacy settings too. The program even has its own password manager.

There are still a few small bugs in this beta version of Opera Mini 5, but hopefully these will be ironed out by the time the final build is released, and it's nothing that seriously interferes with your browsing.

Opera Mini 5 is a slimline, easy-to-use browser that will significantly speed up your mobile internet experience

Download Opera Mini 5.0.3521 Beta in Softonic

2009 could finally be the year when the mobile Internet really takes off. Up to now, browsing the web on a handheld device has been a painstaking process. Things are changing though thanks to factors such as faster connections and improved mobile Internet software.

Iris Browser is an example of the kind of tool that is helping to improve the mobile web ecosystem. Based on the powerful, standards-based WebKit environment, the application provides a secure and reliable platform for enjoying online content in the way it was intended.

One thing you'll notice about Iris Browser is that it makes viewing content so much easier than it is in Pocket Internet Explorer. It's very touch-friendly, so you can tap anywhere on a page then drag it around in the display. Zooming in and out of pages is as easy as double-tapping on the screen. Navigation is aided by a mini whole page preview which pops up in the corner of the page.

Iris Browser supports tabbed browsing and you can switch between these tabs through a visual, coverflow-style interface. Flicking between the pages produces an animated swoosh, and there are lots of these kind of special effects used throughout the browser.

Unfortunately all of these bells and whistles seem to slow Iris Browser down a bit too much, and it's certainly a lot more laggy than the likes of Opera Mobile or Skyfire.

It's touch-friendly features make Iris Browser enjoyable to use, but you'll probably get irritated by the slow rendering times.

Download Iris Browser 1.1.8 in Softonic