Mobile Review reviews Nokia’s Web Browser for S60 v3 FP1

I guess they review phones better than they review software, but either way it’s good to check out since they include a bunch of screenshots. I still find myself using Opera Mini and Opera 8.65 more than the built in browser on my E61 though. The 1 month free trial is nice, when it’s up I just hard reset my phone and reinstall it. $30 is way too much Opera, I’m sorry.

Back on topic however, this new browser is only being included in phone running S60v3FP1; the only Nokia (NYSE: NOK) model running that so far is the N95. I wish Nokia took a modular approach when developing their web browser so they could offer the latest and greatest to their consumers.

The market for browsers is there, and I’ve already installed Opera Mini on at least 5 of my friends phones. Locking your browser into your OS is very foolish since you can’t add features later on. I’m disappointed that Nokia, as well as other handset manufactures, take this approach to their devices. That once they sell them, boom the relationship is over. Sure we may get a firmware upgrade here or there to fix glaring issues, but added features? Yea right. It’s a shame too since the videogame consoles out on the market right now use the connection to the net as a great tool to leverage demos, video, micro transactions, and most importantly offer new features and updates to consumers. When will handset makers learn?

Here is what Mobile Review has to say about it:

The browser proves to be quite speedy, at that all pages appear on the screen without having any notable flaws, navigation won’t bring about any problems either. The second edition of the browser is more stable as well, which is all thanks to different file cache management (another advantage of running on Feature Pack 1). Unlike the first version, big and lengthy pages are handled in a more convenient fashion – number of errors is quite tiny.

Those who accept no compromises and want to see their favorite web-page in their mobile devices in the same way as they appear on their desktop PCs, this browser is the best pick. They have spent a lot of time fixing the errors, so that the OSS Browser ver 2.0 easily comes out on top in the competition with Opera 8.60, lacking only page scaling feature and customizable shortcuts. Some shortcomings will be marked by pragmatics, though, specifically the fact that all pages are loaded from start to end, meaning that your data connection counter will rocket up. However this is all about the way this browser is built, as unlike Opera Mini it doesn’t sport a dedicated server scaling pages to fit the device’s display resolution, boosting upload speed and lowering traffic figures. On the other hand, it won’t be too long before the necessity in such conversions become nearly useless.