Mobotap has released Dolphin HD 5.0, a major new version of its Web browser for the Android mobile platform. The update brings a number of noteworthy performance and usability improvements in addition to a smooth new user interface.

When we first wrote about Dolphin HD earlier this year, we identified it as our favorite third-party Android browser. Although there are a number of good alternatives—such as Miren and the increasingly competitive Firefox Mobile—Dolphin HD is still our top pick. It has further cemented that position with the new version, which has enhancements that round out an already excellent feature set.

Unlike the Firefox and Opera mobile browsers, Dolphin HD uses the Android platform's built-in HTML rendering component rather than introducing its own renderer. This means that overhead is low and the rendering behavior is comparable to that of Google's own mobile browser. The advantages that Dolphin HD offers over the default browser are a nice tabbed interface, a relatively flexible add-on system, extensive configurability, and good support for gesture-based interaction.

The new version builds on those strengths and increases the browser's usability. The basic layout of the user interface is similar to that of the previous version, but the design has been improved. The default theme is a bit simpler and has a more subtle style—the black trim and metallic green gradients have been dropped in favor of a cleaner white and green look.

The button for creating a new tab is now fixed to the right-hand side of the tab bar and floats over tabs. This change makes it easier to bring up a new tab, but the downside is that it reduces the visibility of the tab bar contents. On my Nexus One, the previous version of Dolphin HD typically allowed me to see two and a half tabs in the bar at once, but I can only see two tabs with the new interface. The trade-off works well for me because I tend to use the volume rocker for tab switching.

One of the most welcome new user interface features in Dolphin HD 5.0 is an improved start page with a "Speed Dial" grid. Users can pin their favorite sites in the speed dial for convenient access when they open the program or create a new tab. It will save users the trouble of having to slide out the bookmarks panel. The new start page also has a "Most Visited" section that is automatically populated based on browsing history. It's a nice idea, but the implementation could perhaps use some better filtering (on my phone, it lists Ars Technica three times).

The contents of the browser's left-hand sidebar, which can be accessed by swiping to the right in the browser, has been streamlined and reorganized. The full bookmarks, history, and most-visited lists are navigable through the sidebar, which is structured like a tree with subnodes for each of those lists. It has a "quick access" popup panel at the bottom with shortcuts to all of the browser's major panels.

To the right of the quick access drawer there is a search button that is functionally equivalent to hitting the hardware search button on a handset. The soft button for this feature is obviously redundant on most phones, but it's a welcome addition for users who are running the browser on tablet devices that lack a physical search button. The button for activating the thumbnail tab selector (which used to be where the new search button has been placed) is now at the bottom of the right-hand panel.

It took me a little while to adapt to some of the organizational changes (particularly having to go to the quick access panel to get to the settings instead of using the now-absent button in the right-hand sidebar), but I think that the improvements all make good sense. The tree-like behavior of the left-hand sidebar wasn't immediately obvious to me, but works reasonably well in practice.

Previous versions of Dolphin HD displayed embedded advertisements in the full bookmarks manager. The ads have been completely dropped in the new version, making bookmark management a bit cleaner for the power-users who regularly visit that panel of the application.

All of our favorite features, such as the add-on system and configurable gesture controls, are still rocking. The add-ons that I use regularly all seem to be working fine with the new version. The old themes, however, aren't forwards-compatible.

Dolphin HD 5 was officially released last week and is available for free from the Android Market. The HD flavor is intended for most modern handsets and tablets, but there is also Dolphin Browser Mini, a lightweight variant for older devices running at least Android 1.6.

Listing image by TriStar Pictures