Google has just released the too-long-in-coming Chrome for Android browser, and Phil from Android Central wasted no time loading it up on his Galaxy Nexus, and putting it up against an iPhone 4S running Safari, for a classic head-to-head, phono-e-phono, Mobile Nations browser showdown video.

Both browsers are based on WebKit, the project Apple adapted from the old Linux KHTML Konquerer browser and has been sharing back with the open source community ever since. So it's no surprise both score 100/100 on the Acid3 rendering test. Safari makes use of Apple's Nitro JavaScript engine, however, while Chrome has Google's V8 under the hood. That let Chrome edge out Safari in the SunSpider JavaScript benchmarks.

Safari and iOS in general still offer smoother, more closely-tracked multitouch scrolling, panning, and zooming. (No doubt due to iOS placing priority on interface rendering tasks, while they're left to fight as equals on Android.)

Interestingly, Chrome, like Safari, offers no support for Adobe's Flash player, or any other internet plugin.

Chrome is still in beta and only available for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich right now. No doubt the release version will be even better still.

Likewise, Apple isn't slowing down. With iOS 5.1 on the horizon, Safari will improve as well.

Heck, now that BlackBerry has their new WebKit-based Torch browser, and Microsoft has embraced modern Internet Explorer builds on Windows Phone, it's getting harder to find a bad browser out there.

Check out the video below for full out web rendering showdown.

Source: Android Central

You knew it was coming, right? The moment Chris got his hands on the new touch screen, front-facing QWERTY BlackBerry Bold 9900, he just couldn't wait to put it head to head against the other best mobile browsers in the business, Apple's iPhone 4 Safari and Google's Android browser as instantiated on the Samsung Nexus S.

This time around, as seen in the video above the BlackBerry Bold 9900 browser kept pace with the iPhone 4 and Samsung Nexus S we pitted it against and now, BlackBerry is enjoying the richer browsing experience it should have had all along.

It's interesting to note that all three (and HP webOS) are now using WebKit, the Apple-driven open source web rendering engine, but each have their own JavaScript engine and their own unique implementations. Most importantly, they're all pushing each other for better, faster, more powerful web support, and that's good for us.

Of course, the BlackBerry Bold 9900 has a much smaller screen (in order to leave room for that keyboard), but we're sure the good folks at CrackBerry will repeat this battle with the full screen BlackBerry Torch 9850 when they get their geeky little hands on it.

[CrackBerry.com]

As part of his BlackBerry PlayBook review, CrackBerry.com's Kevin Michaluk put RIM's new tablet browser one-on-one against Apple's iPad 2.

When we put the PlayBook head to head against the iPad 2 in a browser shootout (see below), we saw pretty comparable page load times but did notice on websites where there were flash-based advertisements present, this would slow down the PlayBook by a few seconds while the iPad 2 would serve up a faster loading static image. Disabling flash evened out the load times.

Check out the video after the break and if you haven't already, check out the rest of Crackberry's PlayBook coverage.

CrackBerry Kevin decided to put the brand new BlackBerry Torch 9800's brand new BlackBerry OS 6 WebKit browser up against iPhone 4's iOS 4 Safari and Captivate's Android 2.1 Chrome in a good, old-fashioned browser battle royal.

The results? Win, lose, or draw, RIM has certainly come a long way when it comes to browsers. See the video above and CrackBerry.com's play-by-play for more. Let us know your thoughts below.

Which has the fastest browser, Apple's iOS 4 or Google's Android 2.2? We're used to browser battles here on TiPb, but how about a browser battle battle? See, both Ars Technica and Engadget ran some tests, pitting iPhone 4 on iOS 4 against the Nexus One running Android 2.2 Froyo and the results... varied dramatically to say the least.

Ars SunSpider and V8 benchmarks showed the Nexus One blowing iPhone 4 out of the water with almost double the JavaScript performance. Engadget's real-world test loading real-world webpages, however, had iPhone 4 with a slight lead when Flash was enabled on the Nexus One, and slightly behind when Flash was disabled.

Both iOS and Android use WebKit-based browsers, with Apple running the Nitro JavaScript Engine and Google running their V8. Likewise iPhone 4 has Apple's own A4 processor while Nexus One boasts a 1Ghz Snapdragon.

Some might not think iterative increases in rendering speeds matter, but as we race towards the agile future of web apps, every little bit becomes important. Just like on the desktop, we expect every new release from either party (and others) to keep pushing the envelop. We should get iOS 4.1 in September and Android 3.0 later this year as well, both likely faster than what we have today.

So kudos to Google. Hopefully Apple responds in like fashion and the browser battles (and browser battle battles) continue!

[Ars Technica, Engagdget, Android Central]

Our good friend Phil over at sibling site WMExperts got his geeky hands on Opera Mobile 10 beta for Windows Mobile and did what any self-respecting editor would do -- took it one on one with the great one -- Safari. Well, technically Safari running on last year's slower hardware, the iPhone 3G (as opposed to the much faster iPhone 3GS), but it's not a final build of Opera either. The results?

Opera Mobile 10 beta isn't quite as good as Safari on iPhone 3G, but it's getting there. Hit the link above to see Phil's video, then come on back here and let us know what you think.

Android Central has posted up their iPhone 3GS vs. (Motorola) Droid vs. (HTC) Droid Eris, and -- spoiler alert!!! -- the iPhone 3GS is still king of the browser hill:

Bad news for Droid lovers: the iPhone 3GS beat the heck out of the Droid in the above test. Other tests taken after the video weren't quite as dramatic as what you're seeing here, but facts is facts: the iPhone 3GS does load and render pages faster than the Droid.

(It'll also load pages over 3G while you're talking on the phone, whereas he CDMA Droids' effective render speed under those conditions is zero. Multitask that!)

And yes, we'll boast while we can, because we're sure as the weekend progresses, the Droids' will beat the pants off TiPb's flagship device in other areas...

For now, click the above link, go check out the video, and let us know what you think!

Did Verizon and Motorola forget to include a few things in their iDon't attack ads, like iDon't render web pages as slowly or badly, iDon't arbitrarily restrict the amount of apps users can install to 256MB, iDon't fail to implement multi-touch, and iDon't have a worse user experience.

We can't blame them, of course. They were focusing on the iPhone's weaknesses, as the geekier among us (nitpickers included!) would have to admit, and not the Droid's. It was their ad, and fair enough.

However, for those considering the Droid vs. an iPhone, we should lay all the cards on the table. Sure the iPhone lacks a physical keyboard (that irks some users, pleases others), doesn't have Google Maps Navigation (yet), doesn't match all the specs, and has issues with App Store approvals (though that doesn't effect most users). But what about the Droid?

(And no, we don't mean that horrible devil-red eye graphic that's kind of the opposite of "not evil" and makes that incessant "DRRROOOOOOIIDDD" chime pretty much indistinguishable from "REDRUM!")

First, in the perfunctory Browser Battles, it turns out the almost two month old iPhone 3.1 Safari is still king of the mobile mountain, according to MobileCrunch:

On the popular web-standards test known as Acid3, the iPhone scores a 100/100 while the Droid caps out at 93/100. [...] Once you’ve grown accustomed to pinch-zooming, the level of accuracy provided by tap-zooming alone simply doesn’t cut it. [...] The iPhone browser is also considerably faster, with page loads completing anywhere from 15-30% more quickly with both handsets on WiFi.

Second, we all know the Android Market doesn't have as many apps as the App Store, but maybe that's a good thing since Android 2.0 still doesn't fix its app space limitation, leaving Droid with a paltry 256MB for apps according to AndroidandMe.com:

Google does not support installing apps to the SD card (and likely never will), so developers are limited in what they can create. [...] For most applications, we want a small file size to limit the download times. When it comes to 3D games though, we need a ton of space for all the high-res textures, audio, and video. [...] Have you seen all the awesome iPhone and iPod Touch games? Hardly any of them would fit on an Android phone.

This problem, of course, also plagues the Palm webOS and BlackBerry platforms. NokiaExpert and ZDNet's Matt Miller's been told it's a security issue, but does that matter to end users when iPhone's can go up to (almost) 32GB?

Third, if you're a fan of the iPhone and iPod touch's (and Magic Mouse's!) multi-touch, don't think the Droid will have your fingers covered. According to Engadget:

As you have probably heard (or guessed), there's no multitouch on this device. That's clearly an issue with Android 2.0 and choices that Google is making about user interface

Fourth, the user interface, while definitely an improvement -- and maybe even a refreshing change for some -- still doesn't rise to level of usability as the iPhone. Like MobileCrunch (and every other review we've seen), we've given our iPhones to toddlers and they've been able to use them well.

That's still Apple's killer app. And that's likely why, even after going all in on Droid and throwing BlackBerry under the bus (even canceling their BOGO!), Verizon still wants the iPhone...

[Thanks to Tom for the app limit tip!]

No word yet on whether you get a pocket Hasselhoff to push it for you, but it sounds like Opera Mobile 9.7 is set to bring back the "Turbo" boost in an effort to take it to Mobile Safari (and, we presume, WebKit in general as found on the iPhone, Google Chrome lite for Android, Palm Pre, some Nokia devices, etc. etc.... etc...)

Ganging up on the "real internet" browser are our good friends Matt Miller from NokiaExperts.com and Phil Nickinson from WMExperts.com. Matt explains the concept behind Nokia's blast from the past via his ZDNet blog:

Turbo mode that supplements the native Opera Mobile browser with the proxy functionality found in Opera Mini. So, with Opera Mobile 9.7 and Turbo mode enabled you get a fully functioning web browser with proxy/server side lifting going on to provide the FASTEST browsing experience currently available on a mobile phone.

TiPb vaguely remembers proxy and cache tricks from those old spamvertisements promising to quadruple our old dial-up modem speeds. Phil tries to pip us to the proxy post, however:

OK, this isn't exactly a fair fight, but forget about that for a minute. To the average user it probably doesn't matter whether your browser is being rendered through a proxy, security and privacy implications be damned.

And he's absolutely right. When those users are stuck on the equivalent of dial-up. Once they -- like iPhone, Android, and Palm Pre users -- get with the equivalent of broadband, well... let's just say we don't get those spamvertisements anymore...

Holding the snark for a moment, it's great to see Opera providing stop gaps for users with slow connections who don't care about privacy or security. Here's hoping the gap stops being necessary to fill quickly, however, and Opera can focus on forward-looking browser technologies, since WebKit doesn't look to be slowing down any time soon.

[Tip o'the browser to Phil for the image inspiration as well!]

Kevin just finished launching a metric ton of BlackBerry Storm coverage over on Crackberry.com, including the compulsory unboxing pr0n, bumpy typing test, and an iPhone 3G vs. BlackBerry Storm browser battle. If we recall the last time an iPhone 3G met a BlackBerry (Bold) in single web combat, the buggy Bold caused Kevin himself to throw in the towel.

This time?

The Storm still lacks Javascript chops (attn: RIM, see SquirelFish, Tracemonkey, V8, etc.!) so turns it off by default. The iPhone OS 2.1 browser is a tad crash prone. Fair fight? Well, let's not forget the Berry's is likely still itching to brawl over the most recent sales, satisfaction, and reliability figures, b'okay? But it's the fastest fight Kevin had time for... for now.

The results?

iPhone did better when the Storm had Javascript on, but took a beating and crashed and burned twice when the Storm defaulted to Javascript off (and the iPhone still had it on).

How much of a role was played by the difference in network speed between Verizon's EVDO rev A and AT&T's HSDPA we don't know, and since the Storm completely lacks WiFi, a pure browser test may forever elude us. (Early bird Walt Mossberg claims he got different results in different locations where each network had stronger or weaker signals, of course, but that the iPhone on WiFi was consistently the fastest -- we'd add to that WiFi enables all sorts of additional networking features as well, like file exchange and remote control).

In either case, judging by how fast the blogerati have jumped on the Storm wagon, and how often the iPhone is coming up in the coverage, that this rivalry has only just begun!

The iPhone 3G and the Blackberry Bold will certainly be pitted against each other in the days to come, so when we saw a so-called Browser battle between the two, we promptly grabbed our popcorn and got ready to watch the rumble...

...Only to find out it was an original iPhone 2G vs. what looks like a pre-release, buggy-ROM'd, poorly connected Bold. Talk about going from showdown to letdown!

Fellas, it shouldn't take Joe Silva to tell you what makes for good fights: top competitors in top shape. Take one or both, tranq them up, tie their arm (processors) behind their backs, and kidnap their girlfriends and you don't have a real fight (though you could have yet another Nicolas Cage movie...)

The Bold debuts in North America this week on Rogers. Seems that very same provider already has the iPhone 3G. So here's an idea: set them both up, in full release form, on the same network, under the same conditions, and then let's get it on!