Wow. Somehow, Chrome on the iPhone is really fast

[desura]

I just did an informal test. Generally, Chrome was at least at parity with Safari, and at times faster by about 20%.

Noticeable improvement. Also, the tab switching is much better and you can sync your bookmarks with your desktop chrome.

I thought that it was impossible, because Safari had deeper access to the system than Chrome ever could due to fundamental restrictions in iOS. Yet, somehow, Chrome managed to beat Safari.

Any idea how Google pulled this off?

 

[cronos]

I thought all iOS third party browsers are supposed to be just 'skins' instead of actual browsers?

Anyway, I wouldn't know how much better it is because as soon as I got my iPod Touch one of the first apps I installed was Chrome, so I've never even tried Safari.

 

[desura]

I thought all iOS third party browsers are supposed to be just 'skins' instead of actual browsers?

Anyway, I wouldn't know how much better it is because as soon as I got my iPod Touch one of the first apps I installed was Chrome, so I've never even tried Safari.

So did I. and they're slower because they don't have access to a special javascript engine.

But really, somehow google managed to make Chrome blazing fast on the iphone, despite these limitations.

 

[Zink]

I also like chrome on my iPad, having all of the bookmarks and recent searches etc. from my PC reduces keyboard time. Chrome also doesn't have the annoying pop up ads that sites like anandtech use in safari.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

Is dolphin on iPad/phone? I find that it is faster than chrome on my phone and nexus 10. I also really prefer the way it handles shortcuts as well.

 

[mosco]

Chrome isn't faster than safari on the iPhone, and in fact it's JS speed is really bad because Apple doesn't allow it to use Nitro JS engine.

I use a jailbreak app called Nitrous that lets any webview use the Nitro JS engine. Chrome on iOS is much better than safari in general though. That might change with iOS 7 because safari looks pretty slick.

 

[desura]

Chrome isn't faster than safari on the iPhone, and in fact it's JS speed is really bad because Apple doesn't allow it to use Nitro JS engine.

I use a jailbreak app called Nitrous that lets any webview use the Nitro JS engine. Chrome on iOS is much better than safari in general though. That might change with iOS 7 because safari looks pretty slick.

Well, that's why I started the thread. Safari *should* be faster than Chrome due to this restriction, but somehow, google managed to make Chrome on iOS faster despite being limited to the slower javascript engine.

Impressive.

 

[GTRagnarok]

I personally found Chrome to be noticeably slower than Safari on my iPhone 4. I only used it because of the superior tab browsing.

 

[desura]

I personally found Chrome to be noticeably slower than Safari on my iPhone 4. I only used it because of the superior tab browsing.

Have you tried the newest version?

When chrome first came out on iOS, it was noticably slower, but now it is noticeably faster.

 

[dlock13]

I'm not comparing Safari/Chrome on iOS. However, I am comparing Chrome on iOS and Android. I have an iPhone 5 and Galaxy S4. I loaded several sites on there, and Chrome on iOS actually beat the S4 in every test. :l

I'm debating if I want to hold onto the iPhone 5, load up iOS 7 when it comes out, hopefully jailbreak it, and make certain apps default (Google everything). Hmm....

 

[Rottie]

I tried Chrome on my iPhone 4S and it is NOT very fast over fake 4G and wifi. Safari is better for me anyway.

 

[NWilliam]

Hmm I didn't even bother downloading the app when I saw it in the store thinking it wouldn't make any difference anyway, but now I wanna check it out

 

[alangrift]

Chrome is awesome, but I think they still use the same WebKit as Safari.