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Jan 22, 2005

Palm OS Browser Compromise

This week I've tried a variety of web browsers for PalmOS . Specifically, I've been looking for a browser that:

1. Downloads and renders pages quickly
2. Uses minimimal bandwidth
3. Uses a minimal amount of system RAM
4. Supports landscape mode on the Zodiac
5. Supports ECMAScript (aka JavaScript)
6. Renders complex pages in a readable format on the Palm screen

Unfortunately, no Palm browser can do all of the above. But some come close enough to be very usable.

I've tried:

• PalmOne Web Browser Pro 3.01 (aka Novarra nWeb)
• Blazer 2.0 'Demo'
• Reqwireless WebViewer 4.0
• Xiino 3.3E

PDABuzz has a very good comparison of some other PalmOS browsers, but does not review WebPro 3 or WebViewer.

WebPro 3 by far did the best job of page rendering, especially with the formatting of tables and using stylesheets properly. However, sluggish performance is very noticable while scrolling pages - the browser can 'hang' in many instances. WebPro does not support landscape mode on the Zodiac, though some people are getting landscape functionality by using a hacked version of WebPro with CodeDiver.

Blazer 2.0 is a nice, small, and fast low-frills browser. Sadly, it can't handle JavaScript, and even refuses to load many web pages that are beyond its capability to render. It also has issues with scrolling and the back button, sometimes erasing pages completely. And of course, it has no landscape support.

The Reqwireless WebViewer could count as the smallest of the browsers, weighing less than 100k, but you need the giant WebSphere Java Virtual Machine in order to run the app. WebViewer is very fast, but the UI is extremely primitive, with a minimal amount of customization for options. Again, there is no landscape support, and the demo version has a ridiculous limit of 10 web pages per day.

That leaves Xiino, a slick little browser from Japan that is fast and does a respectible job of page rendering. Table formatting is clumsy but readable, and there is no landscape support. The latest version of Xiino, 3.3E, does not work on the Zodiac. If you launch Xiino twice (say, check a web site, check email, then check another web site), Xiino will cause a Fatal Exception 100% of the time. Luckily, Xiino 3.2E is still available for download, and it runs fine.

For now, Xiino 3.2E is the best PalmOS browser out there, as long as you're willing to compromise.

Update: Xiino 3.4 [xiino3.4, xiinodead, xiinooffline] is now available, and it supports landscape mode
Update 2: Read a comparison of Xiino 3.4 to the new nWeb for Zodiac

category: /gadgets |
2 writebacks and comments |

Writebacks

Thanks for this information. I'm using the Palm Ethernet Cradle with my Tungsten T2 and want a faster browser than the included WebPro, but I've been having trouble locating Palm OS browser reviews that are recent. Your post is new and even discusses Xiino which I will try tonight. Too bad Web Pro 3 is a HUGE memory consumer.

Thanks for the comments Chris, I appreciate the feedback.

After using Xiino for a few of months, here a couple of tips that I've learned:

• Browse with images turned off - a surprising number of web sites look just fine without images, and of course, pages load much faster without them. And if you want to see the images, just write slash L in graffiti to load them at any time.

• Use an IP address instead of domain name for the Xiino image-media server - you can save a bunch of DNS lookup delays by opening Xiino's Prefs and replacing pds.mobirus.com with the actual IP of the server (which at last check was 221.186.135.43).