I have been wanting to write this article for quite some time, but I have waited since I got my hands on the Nokia N97 and got more acquainted with it, to be able to make an educated article about mobile browsers. Everyone is talking about surfing the mobile web, about user experiences, etc. - but are we talking about the key thing in mobile web - which is the best browsing experience?

Right now, we have a list of some of the top browsers with top experience usable for surfing the mobile web:

  • Nokia Symbian browser (S60) - with many versions
  • Apple Safari browser
  • Android browser
  • Windows Mobile
  • Opera Mobile
Now what we see here - this is just a demo version of the browsers out there, and out there meaning right now mostly in stores. Because realistically, these browsers have a niche market share. Right now, the absolute majority of the market, are browsers by Nokia (native S40), Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Blackberry, and others. So when we are talking about the user experience, I think we should still consider, that many of the screens browsing our mobile sites are: 128 x 128, 128 x 160. That’s horribly small, compared to the average today is 240 x 320 (4 times the surface area size). Now I think you practically cannot deliver a successful user experience with the older handsets, so it’s just better to buy a new one.
But with the newer browsers, there are still some user inconsistencies that have to be solved. The iPhone browser is probably the most user friendly since it has the multi-touch, which other phones lack due to many patent issues. The Android, being very sensitive and user friendly to browsing, is the next great platform we can see evolving very well on the market. Nokia, with its latest version of browsers, is getting better, but honestly I would expect more from a phone giant as big as Nokia in terms of browsers.