Best Browser for Android – Can You Pick One?

The Android browser market has expanded tremendously with a vast number of apps competing for users attention. There are several factors that go into choosing the best browser for Android, from speed, to user friendliness of the UI, as well as the features that the different browsers offer. In this post, we attempt to put these various facts into perspective and determine if there is just one that stands out from the rest of the competition to qualify as the best browser for Android.

Top Choices for Best Browser for Android

Chrome Browser

Chrome usually comes installed as the default browser on most Android smartphones. Chrome's popular features include tab syncing, private browsing or incognito mode, data compression, translation, and gesture controls. The load times on Chrome are pretty good although memory consumption isn’t what a great browser should offer. Despite the fact, the familiarity of Chrome, ease of use and clean interface makes it one of the most popular browsers on Android.

Download Chrome Browser for Android

Dolphin Browser

With over 100,000,000 downloads on Android and iOS platforms, its hard to ignore the Dolphin Browser. It is a feature rich app that is constantly updating. It offers gesture based controls, one tap share to social networks, tabbed browsing, add-ons (over 60 of them), options to sync history and bookmarks across Android, iPhone, iPad and desktop browsers including Chrome, Firefox and Safari, speed dials for one tap access to your most frequented sites, themes, and a web app store offering quick access to the most popular websites in the world.

Dolphin even lets you share links with friends who are nearby on your Wi-Fi. Dolphin isn’t the fastest browser on the planet, doing just a little better than Firefox and its memory consumption isn’t great either, but its great UI and rich features tilts the tide in its favor.

Download Dolphin Browser for Android

UC Browser

UC browser packs a punch with features such as dynamic gesture controls for managing tabs, background, and cloud downloading, private browsing, night mode reading, custom themes. UC Browser is known for its speed, security, expandability and data saving features.

Downloading on the browser is super fast and if you spend a lot of time checking out videos on your Android, UC Browser is the best place to do it from. It offers gesture controls for videos and the video manager feature lets you manage all your video downloads from one place easily.

UC Browser also offers add on support, making it easier to block ads or get the fastest Facebook experience. Incognito browsing, themes, backgrounds and wallpapers and plenty of other customizations make this a very promising browser.

Download UC Browser for Android

Javelin Browser

Although Javelin is not a browser you hear a lot about, it is one of the most beautiful browsers on Android with its Material Design. Its intuitive interface with options to browse full screen, browse without ads, load links in the background, and open web pages on top of your favorite app makes for a wonderful browsing experience.

You’ll love its reading mode if you are looking for distraction free reading and if you want to catch up on your bookmarks stored on your Chrome desktop, you can simply sync them to Javelin and continue browsing from where you left off earlier. It also offers incognito mode for private browsing and a password manager, but there are also premium features like Spirit Mode where you can bypass internet filters to access blocked websites.

Javelin’s not too bad when it comes to page load times and memory consumption, doing much better than Firefox in tests.

Download Javelin Browser for Android

CM Browser

CM Browser is a fast, secure browser from the makers of Battery Doctor Saver and Clean Master. CM Browser prides itself on being secure, speedy, and small and lives up to its name too. Its size is just under 2MB leaving more space for other apps. CM browser protects you from fraudulent websites and scans all your downloads for malicious threats.

It also has an attractive card tabs animation effect that lets you manage multiple web pages intuitively. The home page lets you quickly access popular social media, news, and shopping sites and you have the option of customizing it to add ones you frequent most often. CM Browser also offers an incognito mode and a pop up blocker.

The load times on CM Browser were just as impressive as on Chrome while the memory consumption wasn’t quite impressive ranking behind Lightning and Next Browsers.

Download CM Browser for Android

Next Browser

Next browser from the GO Launcher team offers plenty of customization options as well as add-ons to extend and enhance the browsing functionality. There is a secure incognito mode and private bookmarks for those who value their privacy, options to import and sync chrome bookmarks, gestures for managing tabs and options to download stories for reading offline. The browser did not perform too well when it came to page loading but its memory consumption was bested only by Lightning Browser.

Download Next Browser for Android

Firefox

Another popular browser Firefox offers data synchronization so you can keep your desktop and mobile version updated with the latest browsing changes. You can access feeds from your Home panel, customize your web browsing experience with add-ons including ad blockers and password managers, and enjoy a better video viewing experience thanks to its support for a wide variety of video formats.

Firefox also offers a safe browsing experience with lots of security and privacy options. There is a Reader mode for anyone who wants a distraction free reading experience and if you happen to lend your phone to a friend for browsing, you can enable a Guest Session mode for better privacy.

The latest update for Firefox also offers mirroring support for Chromecast. Despite the great features, Firefox isn’t the best when it comes to page loading times as can be seen in tests conducted by various sites such as Android Authority and Phone Arena. Firefox also performed poorly in terms of memory consumption.

Download Firefox for Android