Throughout the years of reading news, playing video games, and hopelessly wasting vast amounts of time on the internet, we have come to expect a certain level of speed and stability with our internet browsers. Many of us have come to know and love Chrome for our desktops, however, Chrome on Android has been buggy, jittery, slow, and at some points just plain unusable. While this isn’t the case for every device and Android version (considering most are just flat out unable to install it), it plagues the vast majority of users in general. Que Boat Browser, a not very well known, speedy, and downright awesome browser for Android devices.
Boat: the fast, lightweight, and compatible browser
While each and every browser has its advantage, Boat seems to be the polished, smoother, and downright faster than the rest of them. Loading websites, browsing multiple tabs, and even navigating full blown desktop websites such as The Verge without as much as a hiccup. While Chrome for Mobile offers many of these features, with the added bonus of bookmark syncing, it doesn’t play nicely with non-Nexus devices (generally, not speaking for all of course). Boat browser is available Android versions 2.1 and up, giving far more reach and availability to users that have not been issued the official upgrade to ICS, or who have not been fortunate enough to get it through custom firmware.
Most browsers offer a certain extent to their customization, including things like font size, home page, and a speed dial: Boat allows for not only all of those, but for a good bit more. Users can change up the settings through an easy to use UI and customizable sidebar, giving quick access to features such as find in page, save page, take a screenshot, and permanently changing the UA string all without navigating away from the page (I hated that about Chrome). These many features allow for the user to essentially set up profiles for their specific devices to create the experience they desire. Personally, I have the tablet always display the tabs to give it a more desktop feel, while my phone stays in fullscreen to not waste any available real estate.
Can you live without Bookmark syncing?
While the lack of bookmark syncing is a downer, the ability to set your own speed dial tabs instead of the awful recently used in Chrome, allows for us to make our own homepage and device specific speed dials. Many of the websites I use on the tablet wouldn’t like as nice on the phone when in mobile view, or would be too small in desktop view to navigate properly anyway. While these are not excuses for not having bookmark sync, as I would love the ability to do that, they are simply remedies that I am very willing to accept to increase the performance and speed as a whole.
Boat Browser, like every other browser on Android, is by no means perfect: and we mean that. But for those of us who frequently use desktop sites, utilize multiple tabs, and experience bugs on Chrome for Android, fortunately enough have Boat. So if you haven’t tried it, head over to Google Play through the badge below and grab the app, telling us what you think.
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