Best Five Mobile Browser for Android Phones in 2013

There are dozens of great web browsers available for Android, depending on the features you're looking for. Whether it's syncing with your desktop, or super-speedy browsing, or support for flash navigation, you have options galore—some of them popular, others not so much. This week we're going to look at five of the best Android browsers, based on your nominations.

Earlier in the week, we asked you which Android browser you thought was the best. We tallied your nominations, and while there are plenty to choose from, we only have room for the top five.

The poll is closed and the votes are counted! To see which of your picks took the top spot, head over to our weekly hive five followup post to read and discuss the winner!

Firefox

Firefox for Android has come a long way since its days in beta. It's fast, it's free, it fully supports Firefox Sync, so if you use Firefox on the desktop, it'll bring in your bookmarks and passwords. It's the first mobile browser to truly support Do Not Track, and the "Awesome Page" start screen that shows you all of your recently visited tabs helps you get right back to what you were doing if you had to put your phone down. It even supports add-ons and Personas, although there aren't too many of them yet. A few more options, and Firefox would be a good contender for our favorite, but it's clearly already one of yours, and for good reason.

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Chrome

Chrome for Android finally left beta late last month, which means now it can go on to be the new "stock" browser on Android devices...assuming you're running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich or higher. If you are running ICS or Jelly Bean on your device, Chrome for Android is a must-download. It supports Incognito Mode browsing, bookmark syncing via Chrome Sync, and in its most recent updates, now supports search syncing, tab syncing, and more—anything that Chrome can sync on your desktop will be right there waiting for you on your Android device. Chrome for Android is also optimized for mobile, meaning it's blazing fast. The only downside is that Google hasn't made it available for phones running Gingerbread or tablets stuck with Honeycomb.

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Dolphin Browser HD/Mini

Dolphin Browser is our favorite web browser for Android, and for good reason. Dolphin's options and tools are unparalleled, even when compared to the big name browsers, supports dozens of third-party plug-ins and tools to extend its features, has built-in speech-to-text thanks to Dolphin Sonar, supports on-screen gestures to open bookmarks and navigate around pages, and comes in two flavors: the "HD" version for phones that can handle all of its features, and a "Mini" version for device owners who want speed and snappy performance over options. Even if you gravitate to one of the big names, Dolphin is worth at least trying.

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Boat Browser/Mini

Back in the early days of Android, one of the first browsers to challenge the stock browser was a now-vanished app called Miren. Miren was a great and feature-rich browser, but for reasons unknown, it's tough to find these days. If you liked Miren, Boat Browser is its spiritual successor. Fast, lightweight, and completely free, Boat is intuitive, supports add-ons, and has a powerful voice control engine (so you can say "Facebook" and the browser will bring up Facebook for you). You can even skin and theme the UI if you like, customize the speed dial start page with your favorite sites, and more. If your phone can't handle the full version—or you just want a lighter app (which is hard to believe), Boat Mini is there for you.

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Opera Mobile/Mini

If you're a fan of Opera on the desktop, Opera Mobile will suit you perfectly. Opera Mobile supports Opera Link, so you can sync your bookmarks, speed dial, and other user preferences with your desktop Opera install. Aside from that, Opera Mobile is fast, free, and goes out of its way to compress data in the background so you can browse your favorite sites without blowing past your wireless carrier's data caps. Opera even has its own mini-app store, full of third party add-ons that improve the browser or games that make it more fun to use. Have an older device? Opera Mini might be a better choice—you get most of the features, but even more speed.

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There you have it: your picks for the five best web browsers available for Android. Now it's time to decide which one is the best overall.

What's The Best Android Web Browser? (Poll Closed)

Firefox  10.4%  (1,338 votes) 

Chrome  38.35%  (4,935 votes) 

Dolphin HD/Mini  25.29%  (3,254 votes) 

Boat Browser/Mini  2.2%  (283 votes) 

Opera Mobile/Mini  23.76%  (3,057 votes) 

Total Votes: 12,867

This week's honorable mention goes out to the stock Android browser: the one that ships on most phones pre-Ice Cream Sandwich. It varies from OEM to OEM, but many of you said that you just didn't need to download another browser, and the one that came with your phone is good enough for you. That's fair, but we're looking at alternatives here!

Have something to say about one of the contenders? Want to make the case for your personal favorite, even if it wasn't included in the list? Remember, the top five are based on your most popular nominations from the call for contenders thread from earlier in the week. Make your case for your favorite—or alternative—in the discussions below.

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Sony Xperia Z Specification with Price

Sony has released two new mobile phones at Consumers Electronics Show 2013 which is being held at Las Vegas, USA. They are Xperia Z and Xperia XL. Rumors about these two mobiles got circulated on the internet since many days, but the official information has been let out at CES 2013 only. Following are the specifications of Sony Xperia Z mobile.













Screen real estate of this mobile is given as 5 inches and it comes with display resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels. Hence, its pixels density will become around 441 ppi which is a great one. Multi touch is also enabled on this mobile phone which has got shatter proof scratch resistant glass. User interface provided on this mobile is Timescape. It extends support for Sony Mobile Bravia Engine 2.

Xperia Z mobile has got 

weight 146 grams 

thickness7.9 mm

overall dimensions 139 x 71 x 7.9 mm

This mobile phone has been provided with TFT type of screen with capacitive type of touch sensitivity.

Screen real estate of this mobile is given as 5 inches and it comes with display resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels. Hence, its pixels density will become around 441 ppi which is a great one. Multi touch is also enabled on this mobile phone which has got shatter proof scratch resistant glass. User interface provided on this mobile is Timescape. It extends support for Sony Mobile Bravia Engine 2.

Coming to the aspect of memory, Sony Xperia Z Mobile has been provided with 2 GB RAM. Internal memory provided on this mobile is of 16 GB. There is provision for the expansion of memory up to 32 GB using the micro SD card. Near Field Communication or shortly NFC is provided on this mobile phone which has got support for microUSB v2.0, and Wi-Fi connectivity. Also, this mobile supports Bluetooth of the version v4.0 which is enabled with A2DP. This mobile comes with Micro SIM card and supports 2G network, 3G network and 4G network also.

Camera provided on this mobile is of 13.1 megapixels and has got 4182 x 3096 pixels resolution. This camera is situated on the rear side of the mobile and hence is considered as primary camera. This rear camera comes with support for LED flash and auto focus features. It even supports image stabilization, face detection, touch focus, sweep panorama and other features. On the front side, we can find 2.2 megapixels resolution camera. It can be used for recording video at 1080p at 30 frames per second. This mobile phone runs on Android v4.1 Jelly Bean and is expected to upgrade to Android v4.2 Jelly Bean very soon.

Here are the key specs for the Xperia Z:

• 1.5 GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor
• 1080p HD 5-inch display
• Delivering a resolution of 1920 x 1080 Pixels
• With 440ppi
• Android 4.1
• Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean Operating System
• 4G/LTE
• 2GB RAM
• 16 GB of Internal Storag
• 128 GB of Expandable Memory
• 13.1MP rear camera; 2.2MP front-facing camera
• NFC
• LTE
• Water and dust resistant
• Battery 2,330 mAh
• Up to 16GB Memory; expandable (up to 32GB) via microSD card slot
• Micro-USB
• USB Host Mode
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n in both 2.4 GHz and 5GHz Modes
• Bluetooth 4.0

 Qualcomm MDM 9215 M / APQ 8064 Chipset  powered by quad core 1.5 Ghz Krait processor. Performance on this tablet would be great because of the quad core processor of good clocking speed. This mobile phone is provided with Adreno 320 graphics processor. Several kind of sensors are supported on this mobile phone which include compass, gyro sensor, proximity sensor and accelerometer sensors.

Users of Sony Xperia Z mobile can enjoy stereo FM radio with RDS functionality. It extends support also for Java MIDP emulator. Users are provided with options to select from different colors while purchasing this mobile, since it is made available in white, purple and black colors. SNS integration i.e. Social Networking Sites integration can be enjoyed on this mobile phone and hence social networking freaks can enjoy a lot on this mobile.

Active Noise Cancellation feature is also provided on Sony Xperia Z Mobile which comes coupled with non removable battery. This battery is of Li Ion type and is of 2330 mAh capacity. This battery can gift talk time of up to 14 hours and stand by time of up to 550 hours for this mobile. Music play time on this mobile is up to 40 hours. Keeping all these features in mind, Sony Xperia Z Mobile can be considered as a worthy mobile to purchase.

Price Detail:

According to an authorized Sony retailer for Poland we might not have to wait all that long. The website of the store lists the smartphone with a February 18 release. The price however stands at a rather steep €680.

Sony Xperia Z Price in India

Rs. 35,000/- (Appro)

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HTC Desire HD Full review, Specification and Price

After the success of the HTC Desire, the Taiwanese firm is looking to take smartphones to the next level with the super-sized HTC Desire HD. But is it the next tech-filled talisman for the brand or a super-sized effort too far?

If you're in the market for a new smartphone, you can check out our quick video guide to what to look out for:

We've all seen the HTC HD2 and the HTC Evo, both with the same-sized 4.3-inch screens, and they were both successes, so it makes sense to continue that theme on the latest Android flagship phone, right?

Add to that it's got the overhauled Sense UI, with more new features than you can shake a techno-stick at, and there's a lot to be excited about with this new handset.

We're not sure if there's been some optimisation on the screen, but the 4.3-inch offering from HTC seems to be packing a better contrast ratio since we saw it a few weeks ago at the launch.

It still lacks the wow factor of the Samsung Galaxy S' Super AMOLED but it's certainly not a bad screen – just perhaps a bit light on the difference between the black and whites on the display.

But there are those out there that think that OLED screens are over-saturated anyway, so perhaps it will appease rather than disappoint some.

The slim dimensions (68mm x123mm x 11.8mm) are really important, and help to make the 4.3-inch screen more palatable to those that think it's simply too big.

It doesn't feel as skinny as the iPhone 4 or the Galaxy S (well, it isn't at 11.8mm) but it's perfectly pocketable.

The front of the Desire HD is mostly taken up by screen, as you can imagine when you have one as whopping as this.

The four touch sensitive options are all easy enough to press and light up when the phone is in use – we'd still rather they were the physical keys of the original Desire, as it's much easier to hit them without taking your eyes off the screen.

The dimensions of the phone are designed to minimise the trade-off of having a massive screen, but it only partly works.

Yes, the thin frame makes it nice to hold in the hand, but in the normal portrait mode it's still nigh on impossible to reach the top of the screen without jiggling the phone around in your hand – something that's never an issue on the sleek iPhone 4.

The top of the phone only houses the power/lock button, and like the HTC HD7, this is flush to the chassis and thus hard to even find, let alone hit without looking at times.

There's a massive volume rocker switch on the left hand side of the Desire HD, leaving the right hand side completely clean – no power or camera key here, which gives it a nice smooth finish.

Below the volume key is the battery cover – it's an odd one, as you have to yank it off and the battery then falls out, with no catch like on the HTC Legend.

It's even more confusing when there's a separate sliding cover on the bottom of the Desire HD to get to the microSD and SIM slots.

This cover isn't the best though – a few clicks on and off and we found it started to get a little loose, feeling creaky when gripped.

There's an odd choice from HTC when it comes to the 3.5mm headphone port, as it's on the bottom rather than the top of the phone, next to the microUSB port.

It means that the phone will be easier to pull out of your pocket already the right way up in your hand, but it just feels a little odd when 99% of other portable devices have it located on the top and out the way when holding it in the hand.

At least it's central, so it doesn't get in the way when you're holding it for video watching.

Around the back we're treated to an 8MP camera that also packs a dual LED flash, and also records HD footage at 720p resolution. There's also a small speaker that seems to be the main source of audio output – there's another on the front above the screen, but it feels like most of the sound pumps from the rear.

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Micromax A116 Canvas 3 HD: A Specifications and Review

 Micromax is showing no sign of slowing down when it comes to the phablet onslaught, brought about by the Canvas 2 A110. The company has launched a high-end version dubbed the A116 Canvas HD, which raises the bar once again for mid-range Android, or simply smartphones in general. The A116 boasts of a higher definition screen and a more powerful quad-core CPU, something we’ve not seen in this price range till now. Its primary competition when it launches in the first week of February will be the WickedLeak Wammy Sensation around the same price point and the just launched Samsung Galaxy Grand. Let’s breakdown the specification of the Canvas HD A116 and see how it stacks up against the competition. 

OS – Android 4.1 Jelly Bean The A116 will launch with 4.1 Jelly Bean right out of the box. This puts it ahead of the curb compared to other phones in this price range as well as well as some higher-end handsets. Jelly Bean brings with it Project Butter, which helps deliver a smooth UI experience as well as other enhancements like Google Now, a better camera interface etc.

Cellular network – Dual SIM GSM and 3G  The Canvas HD A116 will retain the dual SIM functionality and will support GSM and 3G networks. You should be able to use both SIMs simultaneously as well, although what’s not very clear at this point is whether or not it will support quad-band or even dual-band 3G. 

Display – 5-inch HD IPS Our major gripe with the Canvas 2 A110 has been addressed with the A116. Micromax has fitted the Canvas HD with a 720p IPS display, which brings the pixel count all the way up to 294ppi. This is the same pixel count as the first Galaxy Note. The Wammy Sensation has a slight edge over the A116 as it packs in the same resolution but on a smaller 4.7-inch display. The Galaxy Grand won’t be a very pretty sight since it only has a WVGA resolution at the same screen size. We’re not sure yet if the Canvas HD will have any scratch resistant glass fitted to it. 

Form factor and weight – Will be a handful With nothing but a picture to go, we don’t have the official dimensions and weight of the A116, but we can safely assume it won’t be too far off from the dimensions of the A110. It does appear to be slightly thicker than the A110, but it’s quite hard to tell based on one picture alone. 

Wi-Fi – 802.11 ‘n’ It’s business as usual over here. We have Wi-Fi 802.11 ‘n’ for connectivity. It’s not dual-band, but still good enough for everyday use. 

SoC– MediaTek MT6589 (quad-core)  This is one area where Micromax has completely blown away the competition. The A116 features MediaTek’s MT6589 SoC, which contains a quadc-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU and PowerVR Series5XT GPU. While the CPU uses the slightly older architecture from ARM, the SoC is built using the newer 28nm fabrication process, so it should do well in terms of power efficiency. Micromax hasn’t detailed all the multimedia capabilities of the A116, but digging a little deeper in to the chipsets capabilities, we find support for 1080p video recording. Whether or not Micromax chooses to use this is yet to be seen. Nevertheless, the four cores should easily help in gaming and even the general responsiveness of the UI. Another noteworthy feature is the inclusion of 1GB of RAM, which is on par with the Wammy Sensation and the Galaxy Grand. 

Storage – 4GB onboard with room for expansion  Onboard storage is not much; thankfully, you have the option to expand it via a microSD card slot.

Primary Camera – 8MP sensor with LED flash The primary camera is an 8MP similar to the one used on the A110. Sadly, it’s not a BSI sensor like the one on the XOLO A800. We feel Micromax could have done a little better in this area. Still, we’ll have to wait and see how much of an improvement the camera on the A116 really is. 

Front camera – VGA resolution The front facing camera is only VGA, so don’t expect a whole lot for video calls or even self-portraits. 

Sensors – Accelerometer, proximityWe don’t have any details on the sensors in the A116, but it’s safe to assume that it will have a accelerometer and a proximity sensor. We hope that the Canvas also features an ambient light sensor and if we’re lucky, a gyro and a compass as well. 

GPS – GLONASS and GPSMicromax has stuck with the good’ol GPS for the A116 as GLONASS is missing from the picture. We guess including that piece of hardware would have driven the cost up. 

Battery – Li-Ion 2100mAh The battery size is the same as the one on the Galaxy Grand, however, the quad-core CPU in the A116 might take a toll at the end of the day. A larger battery would have been nice, but we’re guessing that would have automatically increased the weight or the dimensions of the phone. 

The bottom lineNo matter how much we try and nit-pick, there’s no denying the fact that the Canvas HD is currently the best Android smartphone, at least on paper. We don’t know if there will be any competition to the A116 by the time it actually hits retail, but it’s safe to assume that it’s going to be really tough to beat. Some of the strong points that work in its favour include an HD IPS display, quad-core CPU and Jelly Bean support. The only real area of concern right now is the battery life.

While it's great to see such a powerful handset at a reasonable price, the real question is, will people be ready to shell out more than Rs.10,000 for a Micromax? The company has undoubtedly produced some very good handsets in the past few months, but they’ve all been around the Rs.10,000. When you come to the 15K to 20K price range, things like aesthetics, quality of materials used, updates etc. tend to matter. Samsung has just launched the Galaxy Grand for an MRP of 21,500, so assuming the street price is around Rs.18,000, unless you’re on a very tight budget, a typical user would cough up the extra dough for a product from a more established company. If you had to pick between the A116 and the Galaxy Grand, which one would you go for? 

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Blackberry Curve VS Iphone5

Sizing up the competition in the Smartphone device market, many surveys revealed that the iPhone 5 and BlackBerry are among the list of top 5 best selling Smartphone devices available. If you’re looking to arrange some funds to buy any of these smart devices consider taking bad debt loan as one of your financing options. Maybe you want a multitasking support featured, smart device which is embedded with the latest technology. Perhaps you’re in the dilemma of which one to choose, iPhone 5 or BlackBerry. The following features and specifications of BlackBerry and iPhone5 may help in deciding which one is the best for your needs:

Design: The Multi-Touch interface of iphone5 in iOS6 is designed especially for your fingertips.

The RIM’s Blackberry offers the best design which is excellently combined into a sleek QWERTY keyboard; the standard schemes of black and silver are more attractive.

Screen resolution: The new iphone5 has a retina display supporting 1136 x 640, Apple reveals that the screen’s resolution standard creates fragmentation and it would be encompassed with black borders and centred to make any app look normal that is not set with new screen resolution.

BlackBerry Curve supports a screen resolution of 480 x 360 pixels, while Blackberry 10 devices, especially the forthcoming L-series touch screen device, supports higher screen resolution when compared to iPhone5 and it would be capable of displaying most HD content which is available in 720p, while at present it seems like Apple is taking out of Blackberry’s history.

Typewriting:

Iphone5 has the bigger screen size of 4.0 inches which is nearly double the size of BlackBerry’s (2.4 inches).

Apart from the touch model BlackBerry comprises a full QWERTY keypad which gives its users a feeling of using their desktop keyboards whilst writing.

Integrated Wi-Fi: With the intuitive interface of the iPhone5 and built-in Wi-Fi connection you can attach document files or photos, write an email or even search the internet. This device has standalone video recording capabilities.

The RIM’s Curve boasts a fully improved QWERTY keypad with a great slim design, whereas it doesn’t have 3G or Wi-Fi support integrated in it. The 2MP camera does not support most video recording capabilities like the iphone5.  

Apps: There are over 700,000 apps available on the App store which is considered as one of the best and largest repository of mobile applications; the iPhone5 can do much more from gaming apps to productivity apps. Some of the top popular apps in BlackBerry app world store are:

·         iTunes

·         YouTube

·         Podcasts

·         Find My Friend

While Blackberry curve widens your networking with all the great features like social centric highlights, messaging which lets you stay connected and share information to others. There are numerous apps available for various categories in the BlackBerry app world. Some of the top popular apps in BlackBerry app world store are:

·         WhatsApp

·         Twitter

·         Facebook

·         BlackBerry messenger

·         Photo Studio

Author Bio:

My name is Alicia. I am a tech writer from UK. I am into Finance. Catch me  @financeport

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Zynga Games & Innovative Nokia Apps Bring a Better Lumia to You

Nokia Lumia Windows Phones are the recent craze in the mobile industry. Nokia mobile phones have always been the chief selection of mobile fanatics. The Lumia series has elevated the name of this company to a new level. Nokia Windows Phones have always been famed for offering you an exclusive range of apps and games. Nokia has always focused on providing its users an original experience with its applications.

Nokia Lumia is rapidly expanding its market and now an innovation is further made in this series of smartphones. Some fantastic Nokia apps in the Lumia smartphone series is expected to add some novel improvements and features in the coming weeks. Are you excited? Just wait for a few weeks and Nokia assures you that it is worthwhile waiting for this new device. During this week, you will only enjoy phased approach of the Nokia apps. 

Moreover, Nokia has announced its joint business with Zynga. This will provide an opportunity to the Nokia Lumia smartphone users to enjoy playing some popular games like ‘Words With Friends and Draw Something’ for a few months. Each app is believed to create a new experience for you with their new range of functionalities. Boost your experience with Nokia Lumia smartphone today!

Let’s take a quick look at the different apps in details. 

Fascinating Nokia Apps for an Elevated Smartphone Experience   

Camera Extras

This camera app is anew for your smartphone. It’s a bet! You will experience a considerable improvement in your smartphone’s camera. This application adds completely new setups enabling you to capture pictures which you have never thought of taking sometimes before. 

Action Shot: You can capture fast actions in only a single click. You will surely be mesmerized with the shooting speed! 

Self-timer: All these days you must be upset of not having any photos of yours. This gives you the privilege to set your Nokia Lumia on some stand and click your own photo. 

Smart Group Shot: You can have group shots in a single attempt by selecting the perfect faces from the crowd. 

Panorama: With this new feature you now have the option to capture panoramic view by sequentially finding the objects.

Photography will become your hobby very soon with such a range of innovative apps for your smartphone! 

Contact Share      

Passing a contact to a friend is a tiring job. Get relief from the hassle of typing the contact info and phone numbers with this modern app. You can now easily and quickly share your contacts through emails and SMS. 

Counters

What is it? This is a newly developed method to monitor your Nokia Lumia usage. This app gives you the freedom to limit the usage of your Lumia. This app will help you a lot in cases which involve data allowances or call time. It’s certain….You will not incur any extra costs. 

PlayTo

Blu-Ray players and TVs are often connected to the same network. Isn’t that so? Grab the opportunity of sharing music, videos and pictures between your smartphone and any DLNA-enabled device on the network. 

Zynga Games

It is not just a feature and functionality! Its fun too! Soon, Nokia Lumia users will be able to enjoy Zynga’s widely popular games, Draw Something and Words With Friends on the smartphones itself. Wait for a few weeks and the games will be all yours!!!

Author’s Bio: Steve of MyTechSupportStore is a proficient Microsoft gamessupport expert available online round the clock. Call him up at your convenient time and know about these latest features.

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