Those of you who have tried out Fennec for Android probably don’t have many positive words to say about it. The app had a sizable footprint, and the only thing it seemed to be really good at was force closing itself. Well, Fennec has now been updated for Android OS, and it works pretty well. Sort of.
I wouldn’t call the new Fennec update slow at all, but it’s no stock Android browser on Froyo. It’s still nowhere near ready to replace your standard browser, but the folks over at Mozilla are slowly working their way to get the mobile version of the Firefox browser to that point. This version is the first that didn’t take about 3 minutes on initial load, but the first page I went to (IntoMobile.com, of course) froze half way through loading. While it didn’t actually force close, it may as well have. Another thing I noticed is when you quickly go from one app and back to the browser, it has to reload all over again, and doesn’t keep your page you were on. Sometimes, it just doesn’t load the page at all.
On a more positive note, when Fennec runs as it should, it’s a pretty decent experience. Multitouch works rather well, with only a very minimal amount of stutter. The quick access panes are pretty cool, too. Easily bookmark the page you’re on by swiping to the right to reveal a bookmark button, as well as a forward and back options. A swipe to the left will show you all of your open windows, making switching between then as easy as it gets. While I have yet to check it out, Fennec also allows you to sync your bookmarks and open browser tabs from your desktop Firefox browser.
One thing that we’re excited to see is that when an update is available, Fennec will tell you in your notification bar. So instead of having to search online for the newest update, it will be that much easier to make sure you have the most up to date version of the browser available.
This is a pretty big step for Mozilla and Fennec, and we’re happy to see it coming along. It still needs a lot of work, but once it’s ready for its official debut, it should easily take on any browser on the mobile market.
[Via: Droid-Life]