13 replies to this topic

[David Strange]

I've been playing around with the Skyfire browser on my Xperia X1 and it has left me distinctly underwhelmed. My main complaint is that the way it renders webpages is really ugly; text is blocky and fuzzy and it often renders it in weird sizes. Even when you zoom into a page it still looks awful. Perhaps it is because it is designed for a lower resolution screen than the one on my Xperia, but if this is so it smacks of pretty poor programming by its designers. Opera Mobile 9.5 that comes with my phone looks so much better.

Even the things that it supposedly does well are not that great. Youtube videos are small, blocky and have a low refresh rate. The Youtube application from Google for Windows Mobile is at least of the same quality and the Xperia Youtube player and panel I mention at the bottom of this page are leagues ahead in terms of video quality.

For general browsing Opera Mobile 9.5 is better looking and more intuitive. When 9.7 comes out (which we are assured will be soon) it should be even faster as well. I may try out future releases of Skyfire, but for the time being I will not use it terribly often.

David.

[SilentBob]

I've got to agree with you. I thought it looked awful, the menus were far from finger friendly and I didn't notice any particular speed improvement.

I have un-installed Skyfire and gone straight back to Opera, which is far more satisfying to use.

[FurryPotato]

SilentBob, on Jun 5 2009, 12:15, said:

I've got to agree with you. I thought it looked awful, the menus were far from finger friendly and I didn't notice any particular speed improvement.

I have un-installed Skyfire and gone straight back to Opera, which is far more satisfying to use.

I'd agree.  It's rather blatantly designed for a low res screen on a low power device.

On my Touch HD it looks like total crap.

Give me Opera Mobile 9.5 or 9.7 beta anyday.

[porsche996]

It's pretty much garbage for those reasons, and because it sucks the battery life right out of the phone in a hurry.

BUT, I use it for watching Hulu.com, so it does have a use.  It's just slow to respond to inputs and such, but once you get to a TV show, you're pretty much good to go (as long as you're plugged into the wall...)

[Darlene]

Go for opera. I has it on my phone and it is good to use all the time.

[arirang]

it does one thing that no other plugin or browser can--play online porn .

[pd.ryder]

arirang, on Oct 13 2009, 19:54, said:

it does one thing that no other plugin or browser can--play online porn .

That is about its only useful purpose

[veritas-truth]

I downloaded skyfire a while back and it works pretty well; i've just recently started using opera a little more and like it a little better. The only thing i like skyfire over opera for is the great home page thing; it's great for giving an overview of the news and recent stuff on digg so i can scan through and read what i want quickly and easily.... and i haven't actually used it for porn yet, but that's another good reason to keep it around lol

[Menneisyys]

arirang, on Oct 13 2009, 19:54, said:

it does one thing that no other plugin or browser can--play online porn .

well, actually, with Flash 7 or Flash Lite 3, you can play back some (definitely not all!) porno sites. See http://www.modaco.co...k-flash-videos/

[Menneisyys]

Menneisyys, on Jan 2 2010, 03:05, said:

well, actually, with Flash 7 or Flash Lite 3, you can play back some (definitely not all!) porno sites. See http://www.modaco.co...k-flash-videos/

For example, PornoTube.

...and it works in both IE and Opera Mobile.

[Richard-Cranium]

When I downloaded Skyfire from the marketplace, it was ugly as you described, but after resetting my phone, I went straight to the Skyfire website and got an updated version that looks awesome and does all the great things that it claims, like running the latest flash sites. Nothing against Opera, but I prefer Skyfire.

[lazymangaka]

Definitely Skyfire. There seems to be some stability issues, and it does become unresponsive from time to time, but it ultimately does exactly what it claims to do: Brings the entire internet (or 99% of it) to your phone. On my Omnia it works great. Opera Mobile is great for a little bit of mobile browsing, but in not being a full browser it gimps the experience in the long run. Nothing against it, but I run Skyfire now.

[shaolin95]

lazymangaka, on Feb 9 2010, 19:32, said:

Definitely Skyfire. There seems to be some stability issues, and it does become unresponsive from time to time, but it ultimately does exactly what it claims to do: Brings the entire internet (or 99% of it) to your phone. On my Omnia it works great. Opera Mobile is great for a little bit of mobile browsing, but in not being a full browser it gimps the experience in the long run. Nothing against it, but I run Skyfire now.

I use it only for South Park and Veoh (unhappily ever after episodes)
If there is a way to watch those with something else, please let me know indeed.

[Alexvrb]

shaolin95, on Apr 17 2010, 17:46, said:

I use it only for South Park and Veoh (unhappily ever after episodes)
If there is a way to watch those with something else, please let me know indeed.

I'm in the same boat, I only use it for that stuff. Everything else it's Opera. Although I'm not sure which version of Opera I should use. I like some things about Opera Mobile 10, but I also like some things better about 9.x! Like the zooming (both manual and automatic) in 9.x is much better. In 10, you have to go into the menu to select a % zoom, and then it uses that until i go back and change it. It does have a quick tap-zoom, but that is a one-zoom-fits-all type of thing. It makes simple tasks like visiting Penny Arcade's latest comic annoying, whereas with 9.x it was astoundingly easy.

I do like the quick-dial start page for 10, however. Uh, sorry if I kind of semi-hijacked the thread. To get back on topic, I wouldn't use Skyfire as my main browser. But it does some video sites better, especially since some sites won't even give you full videos if they realize you're on a mobile browser. Opera mobile 10, for example, seems to lack a function to convince web sites that it is a desktop browser. Even IE mobile can do that! So basically what I'm saying is that more browser options is a good thing, as long as they keep improving them.