iphone safari vs. opera mini, pie, etc

[abdeviation]

I just have a straightforward question. What feature/technology does the iphone safari browser support that make some sites work so much better on it.

I'm talking about the google mobile sites in specific. If you go to gmail.com on the iphone, you get an interface that's almost as usable as the desktop version. not the case on any other mobile browser. Or say you go to maps.google.com, same story. What's safari got that we don't?

[nitrous9200]

Safari is based on WebKit, which is an Apple created web browser framework. It's not necessarily better because of that (though in practice, it probably is), but on your example, the iPhone browser's user agent tells Gmail that it is an iPhone and therefore to give it the iPhone optimized user interface. Google could make a UI optimized for, say, touch screen smartphones, but my guess is they couldn't be bothered.

[bennyj77]

I don't have an Iphone and have never used the browser, but Iris and Dorothy are WebKit browsers. As far as gmail, I have an account and use NetFront. Looks pretty much like the desktop. Just tried Internet Explorer Mobile and it's exactly like the desktop. I haven't tried Skyfire yet. I don't use maps.goolge since I have the google maps program. I'll try them out later as soon as check it out on the desktop.

[Solange82200]

Nothing compares to Safari. I guess its a combination of the iphone/ipod hardware and screen itself as well as the browser itself, but everything just looks so much better on safari. Except for flash of course, I love that we have skyfire for that. I love my Omnia, but I just got my 9 year old an Ipod touch and tried safari for the first time and the difference was amazing. I will admit though Iris on the Omnia worked pretty well, too bad now i guess blackberry bought it so that is basically over and done with. oh well

[bradart]

Yeah, the fact that iphones/ipod touches get their very own versions of some websites kind of irks me. The iphone's glass screen and the fact that it is huge helps out a lot too. I'd imagine that apple has some proprietary algorythm for page rendering also, seeing as how through different versions of opera mobile pages can have vast differences in rendering. All these things together make iphone safari pretty much ballin out of control. I'm sure its possible on a ppc though.

[iviyth0s]

Iris is amazing for viewing the full web experience but Opera Mini is the speed king

[hamidxa]

Opera Mini (especially the new Beta 5) does an admirable job of rendering web pages, and the rendering methods between it and Safari are ultimately up to user preference in many cases.

In terms of speed however, it's no contest. Opera Mini destroys Safari.

[nmhusa]

I still remember comparing browsing with Opera mini and Safari when the iphone came out. Opera mini won out in terms of speed, page formatting in comparison to the safari browser. The only thing going for Safari was the pinch zoom feature.

On another note.... After reading the posts above and the recommendation for Iris, I tracked down the last version they released and tested it out. I was pleasantly surprised by the speed and ease of browsing and was floored when I was able to see flash video (??) on the Youtube site. Only issue was the inability to make the video full screen. Shame that Iris was picked up by Symbian for the Blackberry.

[Yibrushn]

The Pre has an Identical browsing experience as the Iphone! and Iris since it is webkit as has bin mentioned before renders sights just like the Iphone so you get that wonderful interface for gmail and igoogle. I use it on my touch pro and it's great!