Google Chrome has quickly grown to become the world’s most popular browser on desktop, and its growth on mobile devices seems almost equally fast – the browser arrived on Ice Cream Sandwich not too long ago with an awesome interface, and now it’s made its way to the iPhone and iPad on the App Store.
Available for free and sporting the same gorgeous interface, Chrome climbed to the top of the free app ranking on the iTunes in mere hours.
We’re not surprised – after all the browser has some killer features apart from the looks as it comes with full syncing between accounts across devices. All the tabs you have opened along with your history and bookmarks get synced so if you left a website on a desktop, you can pick up where you left off on the mobile version.
Google Chrome vs Safari speed test on iPhone :
It’s funny to hear so many reports about how much slower than Safari Google Chrome will inevitably be, due to its lack of access to the Nitro Javascript engine. While that may be true from a technical standpoint, and no doubt data heads will be able to show me numbers that back that fact up, in real world usage, such stats tend to be tossed to the sidelines.
I’m not going to claim that the following speed test is anything close to scientific, but it will give you a decent idea as to what to expect from Google Chrome.
So, who won our speed test? Check inside for the details…
Note: As stated, there is nothing scientific about this test. Google Chrome was installed on an iPhone 4S using iOS 5.1.1, and Safari was ran on an iPhone 4 running iOS 6 beta 2. Granted, you’re going to expect the scales to tip a bit in Google Chrome’s favor due to the completely optimized iOS install, and the faster hardware. Even still, this test will give you a good indication that Google Chrome isn’t exactly a tortoise when it comes to speed. In real world usage, I found it more than adequate. Judge for yourselves.
What do you think? Is Google Chrome the downright slowpoke that everyone makes it out to be?
Update: For those crying foul, here is a video showing the reverse scenario. i.e. Chrome on the iPhone 4, and Safari on the iPhone 4S.
The point of these videos isn’t to show one browser blow another out of the water, it’s just to show that Chrome is entirely usable from a real world perspective.
Elie Chahine 