Apple iOS 5 vs Google Android: Mobile Web Browsers Compared

With news that Google Chrome is honing in on Internet Explorer for Web browsing dominance, now is a good time to see if Apple or Android has a better Web browsing system in place. Google Chrome is actually not used in the Android mobile operating system. However, Apple does use its Safari browser for its iOS devices. The Android Web browser doesn't have a name. Consumers want fast Web browsing on their smartphones, and sometimes the browser itself is at the mercy of things like download speeds or related hardware limitations (low screen quality, low memory, slow processor). So a controlled experiment is complicated, but browsers can be measured by how fast they render Web pages or how slow they compile graphics and images, for example.

It ultimately comes down to what you do with your phone and what types of Web sites you visit. iPad 2 , for instance, has performed quite will in many Web browsing tests, and tablets running the Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) system do well too. In the smartphone world, Android's fragmentation problem comes more into play. There are different Android versions on similar handsets, and so the performances will vary from device to device. Furthermore, the new Android 4.0 update could improve the system's overall performance when it comes to multitasking and switching back and for the between tabs. Some tests have shown that the Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) system loads Web pages just as fast as the Safari browser. Once the Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) system update is released, a full side-by-side comparison can be done. One difference between iOS and Android is that iOS does not support Flash enabled video. If you want to watch a video that requires Flash Player on an iOS device, it won't launch. Flash is a dying technology perhaps, but if you watch many Flash videos on your device, the fact it won't work on iOS may be a factor. For the most part, both systems do fine for most people's Web browsing needs, and there haven't been any major issues in this regard for either. Tell us in the comments what you do with your smartphone and what kinds of Web sites you visit.