A Best Android Browser pro version
Fast Web Browser is focused on speed and security, sending encrypted data to its data centers in the U.S. That’s a potential downside to users in other countries, as your browser’s geolocation will show up as the U.S., potentially blocking you from some local content.
When testing Puffin, I occasionally lost connection with the Puffin servers. A handful of times over the course of a day, I would see a “reconnecting” message across the top of my phone’s display for 3 to 5 seconds. Even with that drawback, the upsides of a built-in VPN, data saving on most content, faster page load times and Flash support are going to be worth it for some users.
Puffin’s free version requires that you agree to always-on location tracking. The company indicates this data is anonymized and used with third-parties to improve relevancy of ads, maps and search results. If you don’t want to grant that permission or just want to get rid of the ads, you can buy Puffin Browser Pro for $4.99.
While it doesn’t have as deep a feature set as some of the other best Android browsers, Puffin does have some clever touches.
I really enjoyed the gesture support in full-screen videos that lets you scrub through the timeline and adjust volume and brightness without interfering with playback. And while it’s not widely useful, the virtual trackpad and gamepad that you can pull up as an overlay on the browser are perfect for some tasks.
