Choosing the best browser for Windows. Which browser is the best and fastest for Windows?

Hello dear readers and subscribers of my blog. Today we will talk about programs without which surfing the Internet is impossible. Actually from which you are now reading this article. And you are right in thinking, we are talking about web browsers, or rather a comparison of the 4 main leaders of the consumer Internet network.

I’ve been thinking for a long time about writing a comparison about the work and functionality of leading browsers, but somehow I didn’t get around to it until I read an excellent article in CHIP magazine. She played a key role in writing this article. I would like to note that I will write based on my own experience, as well as tests and research carried out in the Chip laboratory.

You are probably wondering which leaders I chose for comparison and review. Well, it’s no secret, today we will compare and analyze 4 browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer. You probably noticed that there is no Yandex browser here, and all because its name has been known to us for a long time, but its use is very, very small among the population.

Most popular browsers

Abroad, one of the most leading browsers is Chrome, while the Russian-speaking population prefers Firefox. But Opera and Internet Explorer still lag behind their predecessors. For clarity, I would like to provide you with a diagram of research in this direction at the beginning of 2014. It may seem strange that Explorer 11 is in second place in Russia, but all this is due to its wide distribution and use due to the fact that it comes by default in every Windows operating system.

Convenience of web surfing on the Internet

For people who work with a large number of simultaneously open tabs, they need a highly customizable browser user interface and intuitive features.

Users, or as I like to put it, users, roam the Internet as if they were switching buttons on a TV remote control. They load the site, search for the desired link on it, open it in a new tab, while simultaneously searching for the keyword further in the search bar. With all this, I often switch from one tab to another and back. In order for such manipulations to take place without problems, the browser must have practical management of tabs and bookmarks. Three of our reviewed candidates (Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer) implement this in a standard way - through submenus and convenient bookmarks under the address bar. In Opera, the emphasis is on a more elegant system in its design: the browser's start page offers a set of shortcuts that can be combined into folders and each folder can be called by its own name, which is very, very convenient. Although it is worth noting that screensaver icons do not update automatically, which is a little confusing.
Among other things, this browser does not allow you to import a bookmark into an HTML file, which is why we will lower the rating in the final comparison.

Tab management works similarly in most browsers, although there are some differences. For example, if you need to keep several tabs open in IE 11, they cannot be saved as a group of bookmarks, as in other browsers. Chrome, Opera and IE allow you to duplicate tabs with one click along with the history through the context menu, but Firefox users need to copy the link, manually open a new tab and select “Paste and Go” there.

Convenient display of tabs

IE is the only browser that displays a small splash screen of all completely open tabs on the Windows taskbar when you hover over the IE icon. This is a very elegant and quite practical solution.

The search function for each of the browsers in question is integrated into the URL entry line. The exception is Firefox, which produces live search results that narrow as each character is entered. I don’t argue, it’s convenient, but it’s bad for protecting your data. Although this feature can be deactivated using your browser settings. It is also worth saying a few words about the letter abbreviation and its purpose in the Chrome, Firefosx and Opera browsers, which allows you to integrate it into the search.

At first glance, all 4 browsers do an excellent job with their assigned tasks and web searches, but with everyday use, various differences appear in many aspects.

Protecting your data in browsers

Most browsers have a large number of security features, some are already enabled by default, while others require additional intervention and changes in settings.

One of the most dangerous sources of infection of your computer and loss of data are various unreliable plugins: in particular, to hack your browser, and possibly your PC, attackers use all sorts of “holes” in the protection of PDF Reader, Flash and Java. To do this, the web viewer isolates and limits the capabilities of plugins from the main process with limited rights.

Chrome, Opera and IE 11 go even further. Any tab opened in these browsers is displayed in isolated processes.
An example is shown in the screenshot taken on my laptop. These are not all the advantages; this solution significantly increases the speed of the browser under high loads. And even if some tab “falls,” it will not slow down the operation of the entire browser, which was observed previously in older versions. But there is also a minus: it increases the load on the RAM.

Chrome has the best protection

Google decided to go above and beyond in protecting users and its browser is released with already installed plugins for PDF and Flash, which significantly improves user comfort and reduces the risk of attacks, and Google constantly updates these add-ons in its browsers. Another important factor is that the Java plugin is deactivated in Chrome and Firefox, which is often used to hack client browsers and PCs. If we talk about Flash, then in the same Chrome and Opera the plugin can be configured so that it will be launched only on demand. The so-called “Click-to-Play” option, which can be activated in the settings menu.

A big plus is the reliable protection of browsers from going to malicious sites. In tests of 100 malicious sites, the following results were obtained: Chrome - 90, Opera - 96, IE - 61. But if the pages existed in search engines for more than a day, then all browsers successfully block them.

But when it comes to protecting your input and output on websites, Firefox is actually the leader. Its source code is freely available on the Internet, and secondly, it provides a password management function: you only need to know the master password to access any site. Google and Opera use the open WebEngine system, but have closed-source interfaces, while IE is generally closed.

In terms of performance, none of the provided browsers gave rise to criticism. Although Chrome was ahead of its opponents in terms of speed, and IE turned out to be worse in issuing answers to requests. For everyday use, all of these browsers are good, although I prefer Chrome and Firefox.

Do not also forget that a browser is not an anti-virus system and it is not obliged, and cannot, protect you and your data from leakage with a 100% guarantee. For these purposes, there are both paid and , which perform the main task of your protection.

	Chrome 32	Firefox 11	IE 11	Opera 18
Overall rating	95,7	91,2	87,9	87,2
Management (50%)	96	91	87	82
Security (25%)	93	89	86	89
Performance characteristics (25%)	97	93	92	96
CONTROL
Menu/bookmarks bar	Yes Yes	Yes Yes	Yes Yes	no no
Import bookmarks	yes (comfortable)	yes (comfortable)	yes (comfortable)	no (very limited)
Advanced search functionality in the address bar	standard search engine, alternative search through abbreviations, suggestion of results when typing	standard search engine, alternative search through abbreviations	standard search engine, offering search results when typing	standard search engine, alternative search through abbreviations, suggestion of results when typing
Pure Flash/PDF display	Yes Yes	no Yes	no no	no no
Important Tabs Features		attach/restore/save as group	copy/restore	attach/restore/save as group/copy
Mouse and mouse button gestures	Via Add-on	Via Add-on	No	yes (no personalization)
Expansion through add-ons	very good	very good	good	good
Click-to-Play for Flash	yes (standard)	No	No	yes (standard)
Synchronization with the mobile version	yes (via Google account)	yes (via Firefox-Sync)	no (announced in Windows Phone 8.1)	yes (via Opera account)
Various user profiles	yes (not password protected)	No	No	No
Optional data compression		No	No	yes (Offroad mode)
SAFETY
Reliable performance in Sandbox	yes (tabs plugins)	partially (plugins only)	yes (tabs and plugins)	yes (tabs and plugins)
Add-ons for Tracking Protection Extensions	yes (eg Ghostey)	yes (eg Ghostey)	yes (e.g. Franunhofer table)	yes (eg Ghostey)
Activated Java plugin		Only after user input	automatic activation	automatic activation
Master password	No	Yes	no (passwords are read using a helper program)	no (passwords are read in clear text)
MEASUREMENT OF QUANTITY
Browsermark, points	6169	5612	4654	6028
WebXPRT 2013 Benchmark, points	1869	1368	1322	1892
Peacekeeper, points	5454	2811	3148	4972
HTML 5 test (max 555), points	503	446	365	494
Phishtank 3D test (1000 fish), fps	33	30,5	41,5	34,5
Loading time: 1st launch/subsequent launches, s	4,7/1	2,6/1,1	4,4/0,9	6,8/1,1
Load time: simple test page, s	1,4	1,3	1	1,4
Memory occupied: 1 tab/10 tabs, MB	117/349	128/171	62/311	128/354
Blocked current fraudulent sites %	90	88	61	96
Video codecs supported	H.264, Theora, WebM	H.264, Theora, WebM	H.264	Theora, WebM

05/01/2019 17:33

Each person has unique tastes, preferences, and requirements. If one thing gets tested by a hundred people, each will give a different result. Some opinions will be similar, others will differ and this is natural. In the software field everything is exactly the same. A browser is a program that a person uses to surf the Internet. We run it every day, so it’s important to choose a convenient browser that will meet all the requirements.
Using the browser, you can search for any information, listen to music, watch movies, and play your favorite games. Any rating will be controversial, but let's try to rank the best browsers. In this article you will look at the criteria for choosing a good browser for Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10. We will study in detail the advantages and disadvantages of each of them. Based on our rating, you will be able to choose a good browser for yourself.

Google Chrome 1st place

This is the most popular browser that exists today. The program can be called the best and fastest on the Windows operating system. Its opening took place in 2008. Chrome was based on the popular Safari browser at that time, made on the WebKit engine. Formally, it was crossed with the V8 javascript engine. Subsequently, this hybrid was renamed Chromium. Such famous companies as Google, Opera Software, as well as Yandex and several other large developers participated in further development. Google was the first to create its own version of the browser on Chromium. A year later, it was installed on 3.6% of computers worldwide. He began to quickly gain popularity, today he is the undisputed leader and occupies 42.21%. It is worth noting that the majority are smartphones that come with a pre-installed browser.

Advantages:

1. High speed. Chrome is significantly superior to its competitors in terms of browser speed, as well as processing of displayed resources. In addition, there is a convenient function for preloading pages, this further increases the speed of work.
2. Safety. The company has implemented reliable technologies that ensure the safety of using the browser. They continue to actively develop. The browser has a database of phishing and malicious resources, which is updated regularly. The browser works according to a unique scheme in such a way that not a single process is used, but several at once, but with lower privileges. Downloading files with .bat, .exe or .dll resolution requires additional confirmation, which reduces the chances of downloading a virus.
3. There is an "Incognito" mode. This is a very convenient feature when you need to view a large number of sites, but not leave traces of their visit on your computer.
4. Thoughtful interface. It is quite simple and contains everything you need, without unnecessary elements. Chrome is the first browser to offer quick access. On the panel you can see the most visited resources. Another feature is the joint use of the address bar and the search engine. Later this feature was implemented in other browsers.
5. Stable work. Recently, there have been no such cases when Google Chrome experienced glitches or was very slow. This can only happen if there are viruses in the system. In many ways, security and stability are improved by using multiple processes that are separated from each other. If one of them stops working, the others continue to function.
6. There is a task manager in the "Additional tools" menu. Almost no one knows about this feature. Thanks to this convenient tool, you can track how many resources an entire tab or a separate plugin takes up. You can find and fix the source of the problem if the application starts to slow down.
7. Large selection of extensions, many of which can be downloaded for free. There are also many plugins and themes available. The browser can be customized depending on personal preferences, which is very convenient.
8. It is possible to automatically translate pages. Google Translator is used for this.
9. The program is updated automatically without disturbing the user.
10. Search queries can be specified by voice, for this purpose the service “ OK Google».

Flaws:

1. Starting with version 42.0, support for NPAPI plugins was stopped, including the fairly popular Flash Player.
2. For the application to run smoothly, you need at least 2 GB of RAM.
3. Most of the extensions and plugins are made in a foreign language.
4. A significant load on the hardware contributes to the short battery life of laptops and smartphones.

I've been using Chrome for quite a long time, and as my main browser. During the entire period of work, he did not cause any serious complaints. Its integration into the system of other Google services is very convenient. One account can unite your computer and mobile device, and there is the possibility of continuous synchronization.
I don’t like the fact that all user data is stored on American servers (most likely now the data is stored on Russian servers). Mail, personal contacts and search information are stored there. True, we should not exclude the possibility that other browsers do the same. You need to take precautions whenever possible, then you will have nothing to fear. If you do not want to disclose your own data, but still continue to use Chrome, then use SlimJet or SRWare Iron, we will talk about them below.

Yandex.Browser 2nd place

The browser has the shortest history; it was opened in 2012. It is extremely popular in Russia. The browser supports integration with Yandex services, which are very convenient to use. The default search engine is Yandex. The interface turned out to be quite original, even though it was created on the Chromium engine. The quick launch panel immediately catches your eye. It is made in a tiled style.

The user can place up to 20 tiles. The browser uses a “Smart String”, which not only transmits the entered phrase to the search engine, but also automatically selects the required site if the name matches. Unfortunately, so far this function only works with large resources. Mouse manipulation is supported, with which you can control the viewing of web pages with simple movements.

Advantages:


Flaws:

1. Not everyone will like the original interface.
2. Linking to various Yandex services. Without them, the program is deprived of many features.
3. Rarely, but still problems arise with transferring settings and history.

Not everyone will like the new interface, because it is radically different from its competitors. It will take some time to get used to such features.

Mozilla Firefox 3rd place

Now Mozila is the most popular foreign browser, and in Russia it ranks third. Over the past few years, it has begun to lose ground, but only slightly. The first version of the program appeared in 2004, since then there have been many changes. The application engine is Gecko - it is freely available and continues to be improved by developers. Formally, this is the first browser that had a huge base of extensions even before the advent of Chrome. He was among the first to implement the maximum confidentiality regime that Google invented.

Advantages:

1. A simple and very convenient interface with no unnecessary details.
2. A convenient settings system that allows you to radically change your browser, customizing it to your liking.
3. A large number of various plugins. They can be chosen to suit every taste, because at the moment there are more than 100,000 of them.
4. Cross-platform. The browser can be downloaded for any operating system that is used on modern technology.
5. Reliability. I have found myself in situations where the user caught a banner that blocked all browsers, but Firefox continued to function.
6. Maximum level of security and privacy of personal data.
7. Convenient bookmarks bar.
8. The program may refuse to allow various websites to track information about you. You can set up private browsing. In addition, there is a Master Passwords feature that further protects your entries on certain resources.
9. Updates occur in the background without the need for user intervention.

Flaws:

1. Compared to Chrome, the interface is a little slower and takes longer to respond to user manipulations.
2. Performance is average;
3. Lack of script support on some resources, as a result of which the content may not function properly.
4. The application requires a large amount of RAM to run.

Opera 4th place

This is the oldest browser, which was opened back in 1994. I started using it about 15 years ago, and I still use it as needed. Until 2013, Opera had its own engine, but now Webkit+V8 is used. The exact same technology is used in Google Chrome. In 2010, the company opened a mobile version of the program. Now it is the fourth most popular browser in Russia, and in the world it ranks sixth.

Advantages:

1. Excellent speed of operation and page display. The browser's features include a turbo mode, which significantly increases page loading speed through the use of cloud technologies. At the same time, traffic is saved significantly, which is very important when using the mobile version.
2. There is a convenient express panel with saved bookmarks. This is a modified Speed ​​Dial tool that we saw in previous versions of the browser.
3. Opera Link technology, which is needed to synchronize different devices.
4. Lots of hotkeys for easy control.
5. Opera Unite Internet browser.

Flaws:

1. To work effectively, you need a large amount of RAM. If you open several tabs at the same time, Opera will start to slow down. Even the reliable Chrome engine does not improve the situation.
2. On many sites, scripts and various forms are observed to work incorrectly. There are a large number of complaints when working with WML.
3. Stability cannot be called the browser's strong point. The company was never able to get rid of periodic crashes and freezes.
   4. Own bookmarking system, nicknamed “Piggy Bank”. This is quite an interesting solution, but it is poorly implemented.

I use Opera only as an additional browser. The "Turbo" function is useful when working with a modem, because in this case it combines high page display speed and savings in traffic consumption. Using Unite technology, you can turn your browser into a real server. On it you can provide access to a variety of files, exchange SMS notifications and photographs. The files are stored on the PC and become accessible only when the program is launched. This is an excellent replacement for Chrome if for some reason you do not want to use it.

K-Meleon 5th place

This application began to be developed back in 2000. In fact, it is a relative of Mozilla Firefox; they use the same engine. You may ask why he was included in the rating if they are practically the same? The fact is that they have strong differences. For example, today K-Meleon is the lightest browser for the Windows system. Such results were achieved thanks to the features of its development. Initially, the program was only supposed to demonstrate the capabilities of the new engine. As a result, the company was able to achieve economical consumption of PC resources.

Advantages:

1. Small requirements for PC resources, including a low amount of RAM.
2. Using the native Windows interface, which significantly saves time and resources spent on the interface.
3. High speed.
4. Good personalization options, and you don't need to use third-party extensions for this. Everything is arranged using macros. It will be difficult for a beginner to master, but you can figure it out in your free time.
5. There is a large selection of assemblies. You can choose an extension with the desired set of functions.
6. You can create multiple profiles for different users.

Flaws:

1. Quite a clumsy interface. If you compare it with the Top 5 leaders, then this browser has a too simple design.
2. Rarely, there are problems with displaying the Cyrillic alphabet, but the situation has been corrected in recent updates.

This is the best option for weak PCs. The browser will function normally on an old laptop running the Windows XP operating system. You will be able to enjoy comfortable Internet surfing. And it will work even better on modern hardware. Many professionals use it, considering it the best browser. This should not be surprising, because in some respects K-Meleon is superior to its competitors.

Internet Explorer

This is a free browser that comes with integrated Windows software. Microsoft has been developing it since 1995 to this day. Therefore, the browser was one of the most popular in Russia, but then Chrome appeared. Now he has lost a lot of his position and ranks 5th in popularity. The reason can be considered the completion of its development. Along with Windows 10, the company's development, Spartan, was released.
Throughout the history of the browser, it was never considered the best; everyone knew about a large number of vulnerabilities that were exploited by various viruses. For a very long time it was the weak point of every computer running the Windows operating system. The situation changed for the better with the release of Internet Explorer 10, which is included with Windows 8. All the holes in it were corrected and, subject to certain rules, the browser was considered safe.
Version 11 appeared along with the Windows 8.1 update, it is the latest in the line. In terms of speed, it can be compared with its competitors, but is still slightly inferior to them. Now there is a privacy mode, a preliminary rating, and caching is also supported, which allows you to increase the speed of the browser. Despite successful innovations, the browser is only losing its position. In my work, I use Internet Explorer only to log into the web interface of my home router and other network equipment. There is a simple explanation for this: this is the browser developers use, so the markup is designed for it. It is better to use another browser to view Internet resources.

Now there are many browsers that we did not mention in our review. We've presented our picks for the best browsers, but everyone may have a different opinion. The review includes only those reviewers that I have encountered. They are completely free to download and use without any restrictions. The current version can be found on the official website. If you can suggest decent browsers that should be in the Top 5, then indicate your options in the comments.

The top rankings in terms of functionality, security and speed are occupied by Yandex.Browser, Google Chrome, Opera and Mozilla Firefox. Only you can tell which browser you choose, so let's take a quick look at the features of each browser again.

If we talk about the simplicity of the interface and innovation in total, Yandex Browser will win. The developers have proven that it is possible to create a product that is equally respected by both “dummies” and professionals without strict restrictions for users. The browser is cross-platform, fast, stable, synchronized with Google and Yandex services equally. In fact, it combines the best features of its competitors with two significant additions: a unique search bar with suggestions and a functional bookmark bar codenamed "scoreboard". Recommended for download if you are tired of template solutions and glitches. In addition, this secure browser on a Windows computer is memory-friendly. Other Internet browsers are much more demanding on the resources of computers and laptops.

Orbitum is considered a relatively young web browser that can compete with any well-known browser, both in terms of performance when working with Internet resources, and in terms of the number of available settings and tools. Its main feature is an interactive chat that allows you to be on any page and at the same time correspond with friends from social networks. networks. Try Orbitum and you will be pleased with the high speed of launching web pages, the benefits of using the built-in loader and the useful omnibox. This is a good choice of browser for your computer at home.

Not so common: Amigo and K-Meleon. The latter is a serious competitor to its progenitor Mozilla Firefox. However, while it excels in security, the K-Meleon browser loses in the frequency of updates. Amigo's close connection to social networks can be perceived as an advantage for regular visitors to VK, OK, FB and other social networks. But thanks to many extensions, plugins and minimal CPU load, the browser runs smoothly and without glitches. The program will be appreciated by all categories of users.

Unfortunately, our review did not include such products as the cross-platform Comodo iceDragon, good solutions Pale Moon and Srware Iron, the only browser with advanced anonymity - Tor browser, the once famous Netscape Navigator, Torch Browser, intended for true fans of Rambler Rambler Browser. Each of them deserves special attention, which we will definitely pay in future publications. I would also like to separately mention the good browser UC Browser. Its creators relatively recently began expanding around the world, and are constantly adding useful features to their brainchild, such as integration with video hosting sites. Already now, in the “advantages - disadvantages” competition, the balance is positive, but we doubt that UC can be called a safe browser. It is often installed on smartphones without the user's consent.

Greetings, dear readers. If you are reading this article, then you are also thinking about which browser is better to choose today. The number of special programs for viewing sites on the Internet (which are also called browsers) is quite large, but only a few of them are particularly popular. This article will discuss the best and most popular browsers.

Before choosing, of course, you need to understand what you will be doing. I mean how you will use this or that browser. For some, it’s enough to just browse websites and that’s it, while others intend to use the maximum capabilities of the browser, both for watching videos and downloading.

Everything we consider below is purely our opinion and it may differ from yours. But still, based on our opinion, you can draw your own conclusions. We use browsers as much as possible and perform all sorts of different tasks, I hope our review will help you with your choice.

Microsoft Internet Explorer.

This browser should be familiar to every Windows user, since it comes pre-installed with almost every version of this operating system. The latest version of this browser is 11, which is also preinstalled on Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 operating systems.

It is also possible to install the latest version on Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8, while other versions of Windows have to be content with older versions of Internet Explorer.

This browser may be suitable for the most ordinary, most undemanding users, but in almost any respect it loses to any competitor. It is very problematic to recommend it for use. It's terrible to use.

Pros:

• Comes complete with the Windows operating system, so it is immediately ready to work without any installation.

Minuses:

• Classic but outdated interface, without the ability to change it;
• Slow performance - among the most popular browsers, Internet Explorer is the slowest;
• Lack of ability to synchronize data with the cloud;
• Lack of support for browser extensions;
• Works only on Windows.
• Discontinued development

This browser was released along with the Windows 10 operating system; in fact, it only works in it. In many ways, this browser is a “relaunch” of the abandoned Internet Explorer. Microsoft has seriously improved its browser compared to its predecessor, adding useful features for cloud storage of settings and support for extensions.

It works faster, but the functionality is still weak. Personally, it’s still hard for me to get used to it, but who knows, maybe it will catch up with its competitors. And when asked which browser is better, this one is worth studying and trying.

Pros:

• Pre-installed with Windows 10 operating system;
• Extension support;
• Synchronization of settings with the Microsoft cloud;

Minuses:

• Small number of extensions;
• Weak options for customizing appearance;
• Works only on Windows 10.

The product of the world famous company Google is the most popular browser in the world. Of course, its popularity can be explained by the famous name of its developer, but this will not be the most correct statement - at the moment, Chrome is the leader in terms of speed of working with web pages.

Like any modern browser, Chrome supports synchronization of user data via the “cloud” - user data is synchronized between various devices, from personal computers running Windows, Linux, MacOS to mobile devices running iOS and Android operating systems. There are also a huge number of extensions and themes, which are provided in sufficient quantities in the Chrome Online Store.

Pros:

• The fastest browser to date;
• A huge number of themes and extensions;
• Rapid implementation of the latest technologies;
• Flexible and intuitive browser settings;
• The ability to synchronize data with other devices via the Google cloud.

Minuses:

• Little possibility of changing the program design.

Before the release of Google Chrome, this browser was the most popular competitor to Internet Explorer. Now he is content with “only” second place in the statistics, losing first place to the Google product. In addition to Windows operating systems, this browser can work on many others - MacOS, Linux, Android, iOS.

Among the interesting features, we should highlight the ability to greatly change the appearance of the program, access to almost all settings, as well as work under Windows XP, which is rare in modern browsers.

Pros:

• The ability to install a large number of extensions, which are in abundance;
• Wide possibilities for changing the appearance of the program;
• Flexible and clear settings.

Minuses:

• Occasional problems or delays with support for new technologies.

A browser from the Russian company Yandex, built on the same engine as Google Chrome. The developer has added various components to the browser that significantly expand the functionality of the program - the browser understands mouse gestures, there is a “turbo mode” that allows you to save traffic, but you have to pay for such expanded functionality with much greater consumption of computer resources.

BUT, there is more than one but. I personally like Yandex Browser because it is tailored for the Russian user. In addition to all the good things that Chrome has, a lot of useful things have been added here, in particular user safety and the easy ability to remove intrusive advertising and a beautiful interface with many settings.

The browser is constantly updated, keeping up with the times, just like the Yandex search engine itself. In this browser it is easy to synchronize with your Yandex account and all products of this company. Again, I note that security is excellent, including passwords.

But if the computer is weak, then it’s difficult to use; it eats up a lot of resources, so you’ll have to pay for a good browser in performance.

Pros:

• “Turbo mode”, which speeds up page loading and reduces traffic consumption;
• Mouse gesture support;
• Good user protection on the Internet (payments, passwords, etc.);
• Minimum advertising (you can remove it altogether with add-ons);
• Integration with Yandex search and its products;
• Support for a large number of platforms;
• Flexible and clear settings;
• Ability to change appearance;
• Frequent and useful updates;
• Synchronization of settings via the cloud.

Minuses:

• Not the most democratic consumption of resources.

But why isn’t he in first place, you ask. Trite, but significant: productivity plays a big role.

Opera.

This is one of the old guys. It’s also worth noting, because I myself have been using it quite often lately. At first, I didn’t think at all that this browser would come to life, but no, it has updated quite well. And in a good way.

In terms of speed, it is not much inferior to Firefox. There are built-in ad blockers and a free VPN for those who need it. The modern design and good navigation are also interesting. For those who installed it for the first time, figuring it out is as easy as shelling pears.

Pros:

• There are extensions;
• Intuitive interface;
• Built-in ad blocker;
• Convenient navigation in history;
• Quite fast browser.

Minuses:

• Few extensions;
• Similar to Google Chrome.

Tor Browser (often referred to as simply Tor) is a browser built on Mozilla Firefox for use on the Tor network to provide maximum anonymity on the Internet. The Tor network consists of a huge number of computer servers through which encrypted user traffic passes.

Using this browser all the time to browse the Internet may not seem entirely comfortable due to the not-fastest operating speed of this very Tor network, so in most cases it is used either to access resources blocked by the provider, or when you need to ensure complete anonymity.

Pros:

• Ability to access any website ignoring any blocking;
• Complete anonymity.

Minuses:

• Slow operating speed.

Which browser is better to choose?

If stable and fast performance is important to you, then Google Chrome is a clear choice. It is not for nothing that this browser ranks first in the world, and most modern web resources are developed primarily for compatibility with it. Plus, Chrome is available on almost every popular platform, allowing you to sync your bookmarks and passwords between your computer and phone.

If for some reason you don’t like Chrome, then you should turn your attention to Firefox or Opera. Most of what was said about Chrome is also perfect for them - data synchronization between different devices, support for a wide number of platforms, and in addition to all this, low demands on hardware resources, which may please owners of not the most powerful computers.

For those who value privacy or simply need to frequently access blocked resources, Tor Browser may be useful. It is difficult to use it on an ongoing basis, but it is not at all necessary to make it your main browser - it can easily be installed even on a flash drive.

Personally, I use Yandex Browser more often. The resources allow, although sometimes I swear at the speed of work, but advertising does not torment me, I use many Yandex services and they are all at hand. And now I don’t enter passwords over and over again every time, but save them in the browser. Except for the most important ones))))

In general, this is everyone’s business, install it, try it, if you don’t like it, then you can switch to one browser or another without any problems.

That's all for now, bye everyone, leave your comments below and join us on Odnoklassniki. And also read us on our channel in Yandex.Zen.

Which browser is the best and fastest for Windows? updated: February 13, 2018 by: Subbotin Pavel

A detailed test of nine versions of the most popular browsers for performance in HTML, HTML5, JavaScript and WebGL, support for modern web standards, as well as security and memory efficiency.

Introduction

Almost a year and a half has passed since our editors last tested browsers. On the one hand, this is a long time and during this time a lot has changed in the web browser market. But on the other hand, the question arises: are these changes important for us, ordinary users, and if so, how much? Let's figure it out.

Let us recall that in January 2012, the 5 most popular browsers at that time took part in our tests: Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera and Safari. It would seem that these five will remain unshakable for many years, but very recently two important events occurred that made serious adjustments to this statement.

First, Apple announced the suspension of work on the Safari browser for Windows. And if so, since it already has a very small audience among users in Russia, the days of this browser are most likely already numbered. Of course, we are not talking about Safari for Mac OS.

Secondly, in April 2013, the Google Chrome browser was transferred to the new Blink engine, created by Google as part of the Chromium project and which is a modernized branch (fork) of the free WebKit engine. But in fact, this was not the main event of the spring, but the fact that the Norwegian company Opera decided to transfer its browser of the same name from its own engine Presto to the same Blink. The move has somewhat puzzled Opera fans, who fear that their favorite web browser will be transformed from an independent development with its own proprietary features into just another run-of-the-mill WebKit-based clone browser.

Thus, the Big Five have practically turned into the Big Four, and in the near future there may be only three of the most significant projects left on the browser market. But let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet. After all, very little time has passed since the release of the first version of Opera with the new engine and it is still too early to talk about the success or failure of this project.

Test participants

It is quite natural that the latest versions of the four most popular products will take part in the current browser test: Microsoft Internet Explorer 10, Mozilla Firefox 23, Google Chrome 29 and newly-minted Opera 15 on the Blink engine. The Safari browser was excluded from the tests for the above reasons.

Probably, many would be interested to see how Opera, but with the proprietary Presto engine, currently looks against the background of the main competitors, and primarily against the background of Opera 15. Therefore, the latest build of the Norwegian browser on its own engine was included in the testing - Opera 12.16.

We also decided to add one more veteran to the list of competitors - Internet Explorer 9. Firstly, the new browser IE 10, which appeared with Windows 8, became available to Windows 7 users relatively recently. So many people still use the old version of this browser. And secondly, as in the case of Opera, it is interesting to see how the new version of Microsoft's creation differs from the previous one.

We did not limit ourselves only to browsers from developers from the Big Four, and decided to add a little intrigue by expanding the field for experimentation. The next subject who will take part in this review is Yandex browser, which has recently been increasingly gaining popularity among the Russian Internet audience due to active promotion by the search giant. Yandex did not reinvent the wheel and took the open source Chromium engine and Opera Turbo technologies as the basis for its creation. Thus, we will be able to observe how our domestic browser will look against the background of direct overseas competitors in the form of Chrome and Opera.

The browser was chosen as the next test subject Maxthon 4, which has probably been heard by many users for a long time. This product is positioned by Chinese developers as a powerful and modern tool for viewing web pages. One of its unique properties is the fact that it is built on the basis of two engines at once - Webkit (Chrome) and Trident (IE), designed to expand the capabilities of the browser. The latest version of Maxthon is called “Cloud Browser” and allows you to synchronize bookmarks, sessions, navigation history and user settings across various platforms, including PC, Mac, Android and iOS, through its own cloud service.

And finally, the Japanese browser was chosen as the last test subject Orion Lunascape 6.8.7, according to the developers, with more than 20 million downloads worldwide. The uniqueness of Lunascape is that it is not just a browser, but a browser shell for the three most common engines at once: Trident (Internet Explorer 10), Gecko (Firefox 3.6.28) and WebKit (Chrome 16, Safari 535.5), you can switch between them you can “on the fly” right during work. This browser has a large number of functions, but we will be primarily interested in how quickly it processes web pages in all three modes.

Equipment configuration and testing methodology

To test browsers, we used a budget mobile computer with an average configuration from the mass sector. So to speak, the “folk” option. The laptop is based on an Intel Core i5 480M processor with a clock frequency of 2.67 GHz, 4 GB of DDR3-1066 RAM, a Radeon HD 540V video card with 512 MB of internal memory, as well as a 320 GB hard drive with a spindle speed of 7200 rpm. min. The installed operating system is Windows 7 SP1 (32-bit).

Now let’s talk about what will be measured and by what criteria we will compare our competitors.

Browser launch speed. An indicator that probably does not need explanation. Any user is pleased when applications on a computer load quickly and without delay.

. The modern Internet contains a large number of interactive web pages, and simultaneous opening of 10-15 tabs in the browser at once is no longer uncommon. All this leads to the fact that the browser often has to process an impressive stream of data coming from the network, which leads to increased consumption of computer resources, including RAM. And if for a powerful PC with a large amount of memory such resource consumption may remain unnoticeable, then on office or entry-level machines this can manifest itself in the most negative way.

The increased consumption of RAM by the browser leads to the fact that the system begins to unload other applications from it to the hard drive, and, if accessed, returns them back. As a result, the computer begins to work with noticeable delays, and cases of emergency program closures and system freezes become more frequent.

That is why a modern browser must be able to work efficiently with RAM and save precious space by promptly unloading unused data from it.

JavaScript processing speed . Today, almost all modern websites are created using the JavaScript web programming language. With its help, various animated navigation menus and forms are created, and a large amount of all kinds of interactivity is created, which many users like. That is why optimizing the processing of JS code is an important area for developers of modern browsers, since in most cases it allows for faster opening of web pages.

HTML5 processing speed and support for its capabilities. The new standard and programming language HTML5 is still at the development stage, but many Internet resources are already actively using its advanced multimedia capabilities. It is HTML5 that is intended to replace AdobeFlash technology, which is responsible for playing audio, video and animation on most sites.

Hardware acceleration in HTML5 and WebGL. Many modern web resources already contain not only various multimedia content, but also three-dimensional graphics. But 3D processing is one of the most resource-intensive tasks. That is why it is important to teach the browser to work effectively with specialized software libraries that can use not only the central processor, but also the resources of the video card in calculations.

Web standards support. This parameter determines how correctly web pages will be displayed in your browser. The more standards and rules a browser supports, the greater the chance that the site will open with all the content posted on it without violating the formatting and design.

Safety. From year to year, the number of attackers trying to gain unauthorized access to other people's computers on the network is only growing. Using browser vulnerabilities, you can steal confidential data, infect your computer, destroy valuable information, and perform other malicious actions. Therefore, in order to provide their users with safe surfing on the Internet, web browser developers are simply obliged to take the issue of protecting their products from hacking with the utmost seriousness.

In those categories where browsers will have to compete in several tests at once, we will create resulting charts to determine the winner. Scoring for each competitor will be carried out according to the following methodology: the browser that comes in first place in any test will be awarded 11 points, the second - 10, the third - 9, and so on. Accordingly, the reviewer will receive only 1 point for last place. If the browsers showed identical results, then they will be assigned the same arithmetic average score, obtained based on their positions. For example, if two reviewers are in first and second place with the same scores, then each of them will receive 10.5 points, and if in fifth and sixth place, then 6.5 points. If the browser fails the test, it does not receive any points at all.

So, having dealt with the main nuances of our testing today, let’s move on to its practical part - studying the results shown by our participants.

Start time

We will begin our testing by determining the startup time of browsers using the AppTimer utility. In this case, both the cold start time, when the application was launched for the first time after the last reboot of the computer, and the restart time will be measured. All browsers were launched with one tab, where Google.ru was set as the home page.

As a final option, we will use the average start time of browsers, calculated based on the first and repeated launches.

The winner in the first test is Internet Explorer 10. Following it is its brother with index 9. Yandex.Browser takes third place. Lunascape 6 has the worst launch speed when the Gecko engine is turned on.

Memory efficiency

The next stage of testing will be to check browsers for efficiency in working with RAM. To test, we first opened a browser with one tab and measured the amount of memory it used. Then the same was done with 7, 15 and 20 tabs. After this, the last 19 tabs were closed, and readings were taken again with one tab open.

Almost all browsers based on the Chromium engine (Chrome, Opera 15 and Yandex), as well as Internet Explorer, turned out to be the most voracious and demanding of RAM. At the same time, the gap between them and the group of leaders turned out to be very impressive. The winner in this test is Lunascape 6, and in all three reincarnations. Firefox, Opera 12 and Maxthon also have very good results.

In the section of testing browsers for compliance with modern web standards, we included three tests that will check the quality of our competitors’ support for HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript.

We'll start with a test that will test browsers to support new features of the evolving HTML5 standard and related specifications. At the same time, bonus points are awarded here for support of related elements (additional audio/video codecs, graphic standards) that are not part of HTML5, but are often used with it.

The best in this test is Maxthon 4. Let us remember that it is based on two engines (WebKit and Trident), and perhaps it was this fact that made such a result possible. In second and third place, with a slight lag, are Chrome and Yandex. The worst result is for the outdated Internet Explorer 9.

The next test will test our browsers to ensure they work correctly with CSS3 - cascading style sheets responsible for the design and appearance of web pages.

During the walkthrough, browsers were asked to process 938 commands, properties, selectors, attributes, and other components included in the latest, third standard for HTML document design. The final result is displayed as a percentage, showing the number of successful treatments out of their total number.

Chrome literally snatches first place with a score of 66%. Also in the top three were Opera 15 (65%) and Yandex.Browser (64%). However, it is worth noting that the results of the first five are very dense, and have a difference of only 4%. The worst results are for Lunascape 6 with the Firefox engine, and for the second time in a row - for IE9.

And finally, we check that our browsers work correctly with JavaScript, one of the most common web programming languages ​​used to make websites interactive. To do this, we will use the utility, during which reviewers will be asked to complete 11,578 microtests. The final result is reflected as the number of tests that the browser failed to pass.

To display the results of this test, we had to crop the chart somewhat, since the spread of values ​​was unexpectedly very large. First of all, Lunascape 6 (Gecko) scored with a minus sign. 4247 (36.6%) failed tests - a terrible result for a modern browser. Although let's not forget that Lunascape has version Gecko 1.9.2.28, which was the basis of the Firefox 3.6 browser, which was good for its time, but is now outdated. Things are somewhat better, but still bad, for Lunascape 6 (WebKit) and Internet Explorer 9, which took second and third places from the bottom. And here, both browsers are not based on the latest engines. So the trend is obvious.

Ironically, the best result is obtained by two browsers at once, and this, attention - Internet Explorer and Lunascape 6. True, both winners are based on the latest version of the Trident engine (10.0.9200.16660). Following them with a slight lag is Opera 15. In third place there are also two competitors - Chrome 29 and Opera 12.16.

Well, now let’s summarize the performance of browsers in this category. All participants will be assigned a score from 11 to 1 based on their placement in the tests conducted, and the resulting total values ​​will be summarized in the resulting chart.

In this category, the clear leaders are browsers built on the latest modifications of the WebKit engine. The first two places are for Google Chrome 29 and Opera 15, which have the most modern Blink engine under the hood. Following them are Yandex.Browser and Maxthon 4, which are based on the less advanced, but still relevant Chromium, on the basis of which Google’s own browser worked quite recently.

The outright outsiders here are Internet Explorer 9 and two variations of Lunascape 6 with WebKit and Gecko. As we noted earlier, such a disastrous result is explained by the fact that these browsers are built on old versions of engines that have not been modified for a long time due to the lack of full support from manufacturers.

Now let's move on to assessing the overall performance of browsers and their effectiveness with JavaScript and HTML. Several applications will help us with this, and the first of them will be a benchmark from the famous Finnish company Futuremark, specializing in the development of all kinds of test programs.

As in previous tests, browsers from the WebKit camp again took the leading roles here. Chrome is firmly in first place. Close behind it are Yandex and Opera 15. Maxthon closes the top four. Other browsers show noticeably worse results, and Lunascape 6 looks really bad when the WebKit and Gecko modules are enabled.

In parentheses on the chart next to the main results, an additional indicator of browser compatibility with HTML5 is indicated, which is measured along the way during the test. Its maximum value is 7, which no browser has yet been able to achieve.

The next application, Rightware Browsermark v 2.0, is also designed to comprehensively check the quality of our competitors’ work with JavaScript and HTML.

As can be seen from the diagram, the top four of the last test did not change at all, and were even located in exactly the same order. But Lunascape 6 with the Firefox engine rose to fifth position, falling just a little behind the group of leaders. It is noteworthy that the “original” Firefox lost to its brother and was positioned one line lower. The obvious outsiders were Lunascape 6 with engines from Chrome and IE, as well as Internet Explorer 9 itself.

The latest software package for testing browsers for JS code processing speed will be, which contains eight different tests at once. In order to clutter this material with a huge number of diagrams, it was decided to divide these tests into two groups and display their results, respectively, only on two diagrams.

The first group included six tests, the readings of which are measured in milliseconds: Primetest, Prime factorization test, MD5 encoding test, Random key generator test, Run-length encoding test and Focus-test. The remaining 2D-Test and Memory Management Test were combined into the second group, since they measure frame rate (fps).

This chart shows the total time for all six tests for each browser. The smaller it is, the better. At the top, the results were very tight, at least in the top five. Yandex became the leader, followed by Mozilla, Opera Next, Google and Maxthon. At the tail end of the family are IE and Lunascape. At the same time, I was surprised by Lunascape 6 (Gecko), which failed these tests, taking into account the fact that its older brother Firefox took second place.

3

The results of the second half of the RIABench tests are somewhat discouraging. Opera 12.16 and Lunascape (WebKit), which did not particularly shine in all previous tests, took the first two lines by a large margin from everyone else. Behind them, in an orderly group with almost identical results, were Firefox and almost all representatives of the Chromium camp. The worst indicator, one might even say terrible, is in Internet Explorer 9.

Now let's plot the resulting chart based on the results shown by the competitors in all three test packages and look at the overall picture in this category.

3

As in tests for support of web standards, again in the top three are Chrome, Yandex and Opera 15. However, here the latter have swapped places. Below, also without changes - the list is again completed by Lunascape (Gecko) and IE 9. In the middle, we note the fourth place of Firefox, which managed to bypass Opera 12.16 and Maxthon in a bitter struggle.

HTML5 Performance

Having dealt with the performance of JavaScript and HTML, we move on to testing the efficiency of browsers with the new developing HTML5 standard, where we will find 4 different tests at once.

We’ll start with a benchmark where, using a small game episode as an example, we test the speed of the “Canvas” multimedia element, which is responsible in HTML5 for creating a two-dimensional bitmap image using JS.

For the first time, the leaders of the test are browsers based on the Trident engine - Internet Explorer 10 and 9. But Lunascape, on the contrary, is doing poorly - three out of the last four places. But that's not the worst. The problem is that when choosing the WebKit engine, Lunascape cannot complete this test at all. Even Firefox's poor performance somehow pales against this background.

The next test for our reviewers is Principled Technologies WebXPRT 2013, in which the developers have created scenarios that reflect several tasks that arise during everyday computer use. WebXPRT consists of four tests (Photo Effects, Face Detect, Stocks Dashboard and Offline Notes) aimed at testing the performance of HTML5 and JavaScript in browsers.

The result was very interesting. The browsers are arranged quite chaotically, and it is quite difficult to note the advantage of any one engine here. But we can say with confidence that Mozilov’s Gecko looks the worst in this test - 7th place for Firefox and the second failed test for Lunascape. The top three included Yandex, Maxthon and IE 10.

Let's move on. - a beautiful benchmark that uses HTML5 technologies to visualize web pages. It is worth noting that in this test, the availability and quality of browser support for hardware graphics acceleration plays an important role. It is noteworthy that Webvizbench favors Microsoft products and suggests using Internet Explorer as the optimal browser.

As you can see from the diagram, this benchmark's love for IE was not in vain. The 10th version of Explorer takes first place. Second and third places were shared between Opera 15 and Chrome 29. Against this background, it is not clear why Yandex.Browser failed so much, having almost the same engine under the hood. Although, looking at the result of Lunascape 6 (Webkit), where the test did not run at all, you are no longer surprised.

Our testing of HTML5 performance in combination with JavaScript concludes with the benchmark, which is based on the rendering of two-dimensional graphic objects and images. Just like in the previous test, to get good results in this test, browsers must support hardware acceleration at a high level.

Lunascape continues to surprise more and more. An absolutely extraordinary browser, which in this test takes both the first (WebKit) and the last two places (Trident and Gecko).

To finish testing browser performance in HTML5, let’s summarize all the results in a final chart.

Almost all of the first lines belong to browsers from the Webkit camp, which are ranked from second to fifth place in the performance ranking. But still, Internet Explorer 10 becomes the best in HTML5 processing, winning in this category in two tests at once. The obvious outsider is Lunascape 6 based on WebKit and Gecko.

Recently, the WebGL software library, developed by the well-known Mozilla Foundation and Khronos Group, is increasingly being used to display images of varying complexity in browsers. WebGL allows you to create interactive 3D graphics using JavaScript. At the same time, part of the WebGL code can be executed directly on video cards, which significantly speeds up its processing.

To test our competitors for compatibility and efficiency with WebGL, we used two test packages, one of which generated three-dimensional objects, and the other - two-dimensional ones.

We'll start with the package, where reviewers will be asked to process a complex 3D scene, and we, in turn, will monitor the frame rate at which it will be displayed on the screen.

Despite all the promise of this standard, due to doubts about its security, Microsoft until recently refused to support WebGL. This means that all the browsers we are considering based on the Trident engine are not able to process three-dimensional objects using WebGL, as can be clearly seen from our diagram. However, already in the 11th version of Internet Explorer they promise full support for this library. Also, the lack of WebGL support was found completely in Lunascape 6 and Opera 12.16.

As for those who passed the test, Firefox stood out with a minus sign, showing three times less performance compared to all browsers based on the Chromium/Blink engine, which showed approximately the same result.

A little earlier we already mentioned the Canvas element, which is responsible for creating 2D images in HTML5 using JS. Despite its frequent use in web programming, many experts note that Canvas has rather low performance and does not cope well with rendering complex scenes, but WebGL is doing much better in this regard. Let's test this and see how our browsers behave in the next test.

The test measures the number of flat triangles that the browser is able to display on the screen at an animation rate of 30 frames per second. Those browsers that can work with WebGL will render objects using it. The rest will use the already familiar Canvas element to display triangles.

The diagram clearly shows that processing two-dimensional scenes using WebGL is indeed faster, since browsers that support this library unanimously showed the best results and are located in a dense group at the very top. The only exception was Firefox, which was placed in the middle after browsers on the Trident engine. Although this is probably not surprising, since from the previous two tests it became clear that WebGL support in this browser is not implemented in the best way. Well, Opera 12.16 and Lunascape 6 based on Gecko and WebKit turned out to be outright outsiders.

The final results in this category are quite predictable. The top five included browsers that implement full support for WebGL. Moreover, the Blink (Chrome, Opera 15) and Chromium (Yandex, Maxthon) engines do this better than the latest version of Gecko (Firefox 23). Although this is somewhat surprising, since Mozilla was at the forefront of the development of this library. The remaining six competitors do not have WebGL support and are quite naturally located at the bottom of the diagram.

Safety

At the end of our large-scale testing, we will check our competitors for vulnerabilities using the project. This test will evaluate reviewers on 17 different parameters. The results chart will show the number of tests passed successfully for each browser.

Unfortunately, none of the browsers was able to show a 100% result. Representatives from the WebKit family have the best performance. With one misfire, the top spot was shared by Yandex and Chrome. Second place goes to Opera 15 with two failed tests. In third place are Maxthon 4 and IE 10. This is not the first time that the worst result is shown by Lunascape with the Firefox 3.6 engine.

Results

So, our browser competition has come to an end and it’s time to sum it up. To do this, let's summarize the results for the following test categories into a general table:

• Memory efficiency
• Support for modern web standards
• HTML and JavaScript Performance
• HTML5 Performance
• WebGL support and performance
• Safety

You've probably already noticed that the results of testing browsers at launch will not be included in the final assessment. In our opinion, this parameter cannot be regarded as equivalent to the above categories, since it does not affect the quality and performance characteristics of browsers.

To assign points in the “Efficiency of working with memory” category, we used the methodology outlined at the very beginning of this material. The first place was awarded 11 points, and the last - 1. But in the next four categories, where browsers competed in several tests at once, to increase objectivity, a weighted average score was calculated based on the indicators of the final diagrams for each category and the number of tests conducted in it . For example, in the "Support for modern web standards" category, Chrome 29 was the winner, scoring a total of 28.5 points in three tests. The final table will record not the total, but the average score - 28.5 / 3 = 9.5.

And finally, in the “Security” category, we also had to slightly change the method of distributing points due to the large number of identical results obtained due to the specifics of the test. Let us remind you that there browsers were tested with 17 mini-tests on a “pass/fail” basis. Therefore, we decided to first determine the “value” of each test based on our point system, dividing their total number by the maximum score (17 / 11 = 1.55). Next, to get the final score for each browser, we divided the number of tests it passed by 1.55.

Final table based on the results of all tests

To present the data obtained in a more visual form, we will draw up a final diagram. In this case, the result of each participant will be presented in the form of multi-colored segments corresponding to different categories. This way you can visually see the impact of various tests on the overall result of browsers.

So, let's meet the winner. It turned out to be the domestic browser Yandex.Browser! For us personally, this came as a complete surprise. After all, initially this browser was included in testing only to see how it would look against the background of its famous rivals. And here is the result! At the same time, I would like to note that the Webvizbench test identified Yandex.Browser as Chrome 25. This means that the current version of our winner is based not only on the latest fork of WebKit - Blink, on the basis of which Chrome 29 and Opera 15 are built, but even not the latest edition of Chromium.

In second place, with a small gap from the winner, is the new Opera 15, becoming the best browser among the big four. The new Blink engine clearly benefited the Norwegian reviewer, because its previous version of Opera 12.16 based on Presto came only eighth in our testing, showing a frankly weak final result.

The third place of honor in a tense struggle went to the famous Chrome, ahead of Maxthon 4 by some five-tenths of a point. On the one hand, such a minuscule difference can be attributed to measurement error, but it is still worth recognizing that in most tests Chrome was ahead of its opponent, seriously losing to it only in the test for the efficiency of working with RAM.

As you may have already noticed, the top four included only browsers developed based on the latest versions of the open source WebKit engine. At the same time, the results turned out to be very dense. Judge for yourself, first and fourth place are separated by only 3.3 points, which is just under 7% of the number of points scored by the leader. Therefore, it would probably be more correct to say that today’s testing was won not by any specific browser, but by a whole group of browsers based on the open source code of the Chromium web platform, developed and actively developed by Google.

True, despite the overall positive result, these browsers have one common drawback, which can very significantly spoil the impression of working with them for owners of not the most modern computers. All of them are very demanding on the installed amount of RAM. So, Chrome, when opening 20 tabs, used almost 1.5 GB of RAM. If we consider that many home PCs still have no more than two gigabytes of installed RAM in their arsenal, it is easy to calculate how little resources in this case are left for the needs of the operating system and other programs.

Well, what about the other two major players in the browser market: Firefox and Internet Explorer? They were exactly behind the group of leaders from the WebKit camp in fifth and sixth place. Mozilla was somewhat surprised by its poor performance in HTML5 and unclear support for WebGL - libraries that they themselves developed. The main problems of the tenth IE are high memory consumption, not very efficient work with JavaScript and lack of WebGL support. As for Internet Explorer 9, despite the fact that it still remains one of the most used browsers, at the moment this browser is already frankly outdated. Weak performance in almost all test categories and penultimate place in the overall ranking speak for themselves.

And finally, Lunascape 6 is a universal shell browser that combines three engines from leading developers - Microsoft (Trident), Mozilla (Gecko) and Google/Apple (WebKit). To be honest, it is completely unclear what the developers were guided by when deciding to use in their product both the modern solution from IE 10 and the obsolete ones from Firefox 3.6 and Chrome 16? As a result, the results of Lunascape in tandem with Gecko and WebKit cannot be called anything other than disastrous - last and ninth place, respectively. But in combination with Trident from Explorer 10, this browser ended up in seventh place, behind its donor.

Well, that's all, let me take my leave. I hope our independent large-scale testing of popular browsers will help you choose the most suitable tool for comfortable web surfing.