Lightning Browser for Tablets Gives Great Performance and a Small Footprint

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When it comes to browser selection on Android, there are generally two types to choose from. There are stripped down, quick, small browsers and there are large, powerful, and feature filled browsers. Both have their various pros and cons. While most of us prefer full-featured browsers such as Chrome or Firefox, quite a few still prefer stripped down, smaller browsers.

Lightning Browser by XDA Senior Member anthonycr is one such browser. As with most replacement browsers on Android, it’s not a full fledged browser replacement, like Firefox, Opera, or Chrome. Instead, it is a simplified interface for the native browser engine found in Android. Perhaps due to the small footprint, it also seems to be quite speedy.

The features are pretty nice for the niche that Lightning Browser is trying to fill. There is Adobe Flash support, tabbed browsing, a Holo-themed UI, and support for Android 2.2 and up. And since it uses the native browser engine, it beats out the official Chrome release in Javascript benchmarks. Keep in mind, however, that Chrome isn’t based on the stock browser and has quite a few more features. So what would a browser like this be used for? Quick web browsing when you don’t require many advanced features other than browsing.

There are still some key features that need to be implemented, though. There is no bookmark support right now, but it’s planned for a future release. There will also be theming options in the future, along with custom user agent string support. Lightning Browser is also optimized for tablets, but not yet for smartphones. These are all issues that will be addressed in future updates.

If you want to try a browser with decent performance and a small footprint, then this is worth checking out. You can find more details about it in the Lightning Browser thread.