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Maxthon browser for Android now available -- and it's good
Out of the box, be prepared for Maxthon's geographical lean. The default speed dial pages and start page are in Chinese, and the default search engine is set to Baidu (Google and Bing are available -- and familiar to Western users). You'll also want to jump in to the browser options and go through the default settings: Maxthon's default browser box is checked by default, and you'll likely want to untick that until you've had some time to play with it.
Maxthon packs an array of handy features, including a tabbed interface, cloud sync, orientation lock, speed dial, gesture support, and a download manager. Tapping the overlapping windows icon will display a thumbnail strip which allows you to flick through your open tabs -- just tap one to switch to it. Maxthon also detects RSS feeds, which you can add to the app's built-in reader. While the feed reader displays titles and snippets, tapping an entry will load their URL in a new browser tab (rather than displaying in the reader itself). Tapping the back button on your phone eventually causes the reader window to disappear altogether -- forcing you to tap your Maxthon icon again to re-open the browser. The reader is also pre-populated with feeds: tap and hold to display the context menu to remove them.
Apart from the back button annoyance with Maxthon's reader, I did experience some other glitches while browsing. Some elements -- like Flash embeds -- had a tendency to bleed over the browser toolbar at the bottom of the screen. Locking screen orientation to landscape sometimes caused the page to rotate 180° before actually locking. At times, scrolling could be a bit choppy. The biggest miss with Maxthon is its lack of pinch-to-zoom support. Tapping works, but it's not nearly as flexible as multitouch control.
Overall, however, Maxthon performed quite nicely on my HTC Incredible and the browser itself is very solid -- the RSS reader just isn't for me. Check out the gallery after the break for a closer look, and scan the QR Code to try Maxthon out on your Android device.
Download Maxthon for Android [APK link]
Comments
15
Subscribe to commentsKing AntoniusDec 16th 2010 2:17PM
Maxthon... for ANDROID??? And what browser is this version based off of? Because the Windows version is just IE with a bunch of tweaks and was horrible garbage. I'm not going to shoot it down before it's had a chance to prove itself, but I'm going to wait and get many other opinions on it before I even consider downloading it.
Lee MathewsDec 16th 2010 2:18PM
Might want to check your info on that...Maxthon 3 is Webkit-based. Well, really, it's multi-engine, but by default it's Webkit doing the heavy lifting.
King AntoniusDec 16th 2010 4:05PM
@Lee Mathews They must have changed it then. Last time I downloaded it (about 6 months ago) it was IE based (maybe with webkit integrated?). Either way I've had nothing but bad luck with it on the desktop. I wish it luck on the Android platform though.
Scott EzellDec 16th 2010 2:49PM
I have the same problems with flash embeds and the back button using the built-in browser too.
King AntoniusDec 16th 2010 4:10PM
@King Antonius I retract parts of my comment. Using the latest version now and it's definitely not bad. I don't see it replacing Chrome and Opera, but it has definitely improved by leaps and bounds since the last time I played with it.
earlsDec 16th 2010 6:47PM
Which browser has adblock?
AndrésDec 19th 2010 2:25PM
@earls: Maxthon has a very decent internal Ad blocker (the only one that has it integrated, not as an extension, as far as I know).
DoubleKillDec 19th 2010 1:56PM
I still prefer the default built-in browser that comes with my Wildfire. The reason? It's the ONLY browser that having loaded up a page allows me to double-tap on text which will nicely reformat to fit the screen.
Opera couldn't do it, Miren couldn't do it and I'm not I'd want to see a, presumably, based-on-IE browser fail at the task.
AndrésDec 19th 2010 2:26PM
@DoubleKill: give it a try. It's Webkit based, like Chrome, Safari, ...
TheOneAndOnlyJHDec 20th 2010 10:38PM
@DoubleKill
Dolphin Browser and Dolphin Browser Mini do this. (I'm not sure about Dolphin HD.)
I like them over most because you can double click for text-reflow (what you described) or pinch-zoom (or use the default buttons if you have them enabled) to zoom without text-reflow. which is sometimes better on media rich sites.
I use Dolphin Mini as my default, but there are a couple sites that won't work in it, and they work fine in Dolphin.
AndrésDec 19th 2010 2:25PM
Pls, for those of you who just throw out sh.t without really knowing what are you talking about, refrain before ruining other's reputation.
Maxthon Mobile is Webkit-based, as it is Maxthon3, both very fast, reliable and full featured. Double tapping for automatic resizing works perfectly with Maxthon Mobile, but this feature depends more on the OS and your particular smartphone itself.
More info and downloads: http://www.maxthon.com/mm/index.htm
earlsDec 19th 2010 6:07PM
@Andrés, thanks! On your advice, I obtained the application, and as advised, adblock does seem to be present. In addition to adblock, I was absolutely blown away at the quality, speed and the additional feature set of the browser. Definitely the best replacement browser I've used to date; I also highly recommend it.
DeanoDec 19th 2010 7:33PM
I am really beginning to hate Android now. Another app that can't be found on the marketplace. I'm using an HTC Wildfire. The other option is to create an App Brain account which I don't want to do - this prompts for my google account which seems a bit stupid to me as this whole platform is google.
The last app I installed, Epistle, had this problem and the developer had to tweak something so that it would show up. Presumably this is the case here? Or maybe not. Sometimes I wish I had an iphone if only for the certainty that most if not all apps would work on the damn thing.
Ron WhiteDec 24th 2010 2:32AM
@Deano You can download Maxthon Mobile without having to join anything or give any information aboiugt yourself at MxM's own website: http://maxthon.com/mm/index.htm. It's free, and also available at several other sites specializing in android applications. Try it. You'll like it I'm sure.
Ron White
Advocate
Maxthon International
DeanoDec 24th 2010 4:18AM
@Ron White Thanks Ron, that allowed me to try it. As the article says the lack of pinch-to-zoom is a downside and I can't seem to double-tap for zoom in and format text for easy reading.
On the upside it appears fast and has a slick interface though the bookmarking doesn't seem as simple as other browsers. Definitely one to watch.