In a test between browsers in iPad 2, Motorola’s Xoom, and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, a web development tools vendor named Sencha called Apple’s iOS Safari “a top rate, no compromises HTML5 browser”. It characterized the Android operating system running on Xoom as “not ready for primetime, even for HTML4.”
All of the browsers are based on WebKit, but they are not all equal when it comes to web standards. WebKit’s engine provides some functions, but each browser also defines some of its own parameters like caching, screen drawing, location services, and memory management.
Sencha notes:
“our experience to date with Android has been lackluster, starting with the disappointing browser in the Galaxy Tab and the Xoom [running Android 3.0 Honeycomb].”
Android and iOS browsers had perfect scores in the Acid3 test, with some rendering issues being the only problem for both.
Another report was also done using Modernizr, which shows the browser features each operating system can support.
Sencha noted:
“…nearly all the major browser features are supported on the iPad 2. Modernizr found support for SVG, CSS 2D transforms, CSS 3D transforms, CSS transitions, WebGL and Web Sockets. Interestingly enough, Modernizer reported that there was no Inline SVG although we were able to try a few demo sites and saw that it did in fact work, and it also reported that the browser supports WebGL, which we couldn’t get to work. As we found in our earlier scorecards, just because a browser says something is there, it doesn’t mean it works. All the other HTML5 features except the ones mentioned worked beautifully.”
Performance testing also showed iPad 2 had a leg up on other popular tablets.
Underneath all of the tablets we’ve tested has been the open-source WebKit browser engine. On the iPad 2, Apple has married WebKit with their Nitro JavaScript engine. The browser reports that it’s using WebKit version 533.17.9, which is a very recent build. Under the hood, the iPad 2 contains Apple’s dual-core ARM processor, specifically the Apple A5. This class of processor is the same range and generation of the CPUs that power most tablets that are coming to market now so we expected SunSpider results in the same range as we saw on the Xoom. In our testing the iPad 2 landed right where we expected it. We don’t anticipate JavaScript developers to be disappointed at all with the performance coming from Nitro. Interestingly enough, we’ve heard that the Nitro engine is disabled in UIWebView, which means hybrid apps won’t get all the benefits of the new JavaScript engine.
While there was not much good to say for Xoom:
“Sadly, the Xoom and Honeycomb are a real disappointment. We found consistent and reproducible issues in CSS3 Animations and CSS3 Transitions among other things. We had issues where the browser either hung or crashed. Regular scrolling was slow or below full framerate. We had issues where media playback failed or performed incorrectly. At times it felt like we were using a preproduction device, but we bought our test device from a Verizon Wireless store.”
Overall, testing showed the iPad 2 could handle any HTML5 and CSS3 websites.
“Apple’s devices are leading the vanguard of mobile browser innovation and for the HTML5 app developer this is great news. We’re excited to see not only the rate at which Apple adds new features, but the quality of their implementation.”
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