Nokia smartphones aren’t short of web browsers at the moment. As well as the default browser you have your Opera Mini, the full-on Opera Mobile, Skyfire and Bolt Browser. Is there room for one more? The makers of UC Browser seem to think so. We thought it would be rude on to take it for a spin – find out how we got on with our UC Browser 7 review…

UC Browser is a product of Chinese developers UC Mobile. The browser apparently has some pedigree in the Chinese mobile market but is new to us here at NokNok. There is a generic Java version of UC Browser that will work on most phones, but UC have also created a proper Symbian app for version 7, which is what we will be reviewing here. So, how does it perform?

The first thing to realise is that unlike Skyfire or Opera Mini, UC Browser is meant for browsing mobile sites and WAP. Where those browsers go out of their way to give you the most ‘authentic’ browsing experience (by actually rendering websites on their own servers) UC Browser just grabs the mobile version of the site where it can and slaps it on the screen. The upside to this is that it is fast. Both page renders and the app’s user interface fly onto the screen and the app is very responsive.

UC Browser supports tabs (it calls them ‘windows’, but tabs is what they are) although tabs don’t continue to load in the background, which reduces their usefulness a little. Navigation using the touchscreen on our test phone (a Nokia N97) was smooth, although not quite at ‘kinetic scrolling’ levels of slickness. A ‘long tap’ anywhere on the screen brings up a context menu for adjusting zoom, copy ‘n paste’ etc, but there is also a standard-ish ’soft key’ menu with many of the same options and a central button that brings up a page of icons for loads of functions including theme management, traffic statistics, fullscreen browsing and bookmark management. Its a little clutered but the feature set is certainly comprehensive.

It is hard to judge page rendering as the browser takes such a basic ‘mobile friendly’ attitude to HTML, but we can say that UC Broweser showed us pages very quickly and the app has a default font choice that was quite pleasing to the eye – a nice change from some of the tinier typefaces that rival browsers use to try and emulate a desktop experience on such a small screen. We may not end up using this as our default browser, but it is definitely worth checking out if you fancy something quick and easy for browing simple sites.

Details
Size: 0.69 MB
Price: Free
DOWNLOAD: Ovi Store App: UC Browser 7 Review