14 DAY TRIAL // Maxthon is one of the most popular desktop browsers in China, with almost 22% of the market share. Launched a month ago, in December 2010, Maxthon for Android is the first browser especially developed for a mobile platform by Maxthon International Limited.
Every time a new browser is launched, developers try to come up with something unique and innovative such as multi-tab, gestures or even add-ons. Maxthon for Android combines a WebKit-based mobile browser and the company's cloud services, which enable users to sync bookmarks and history.
In addition to its browsing features, Maxthon for Android offers users an RSS reader widget, a download manager, Super Gestures and Sync capabilities.
The integrated RSS reader can be set to auto update or users can disable this option if they are getting annoyed by the “Channel Updated” notification showing on the screen every time news feeds are updated.
To add the widget on one of your home screens, simply tap and hold your finger on the screen and choose Add widget, then click on Maxthon widget. The application comes with six RSS feeds by default, but more can be added.
To add one of the six RSS feeds to your desktop widget simply tap and hold on one of the feeds and choose Add to desktop. Obviously, all feeds can be manually updated or even deleted.
The download manager supports resuming downloads and users are also able to view pictures or play videos downloaded.Super Gesture is one of the features that lack consistency, as the browser only includes four pre-defined gestures that can be used to open, close, switch and undo a tab. It isn’t possible to add your own gestures, but there's a chance that the developer will make the feature available in a future update. Gestures are active by default, but can be disabled from the Options menu, Gestures settings, Cancel Gestures.
Synching Favorites between Maxthon Mobile and desktop version is also possible, as long as you have a Maxthon Passport. Users can choose one of the three options available to sync their Favorites: automatically, manually or using a Wi-Fi connection.
There are only two available search engines that can be used with the browser: Google and Bing. Maxthon Mobile for Android comes with Google set as the default search engine. Even though the browser supports Flash, users won't be able to watch YouTube videos. However, while using Facebook, you will be able to run YouTube videos without any problem. While swiping down a webpage that includes a Flash object, I noticed that it overlapped the browser's menu, covering the buttons and making them unusable. Maxthon Mobile for Android is a multi-tab browser, which means that users will be able to open multiple webpages and still be able to scroll through them with ease. The name of each website scrolls inside the small tab. The tabs area is also scrollable, so users can quickly get to the webpage they want to view. Users can also scroll between open website using the Frames option, which displays all the webpages in a small area at the bottom of the screen. Unfortunately, this doesn't offer users a perspective view, as you will still need to scroll between all the websites instead of just visualizing all of them in a single window and choose the one you want.The browser lacks copy/paste features or anything close to that, as users cannot select any text inside a webpage. Pictures can be saved by tapping and holding your finger on them.
Maxthon Mobile for Android is slower than the Web-Kit-based browser that comes bundled with the operating system, but users can improve things a bit by disabling the gestures feature.
The full screen option appears as a blurred small square at the bottom right corner, so users can click on it when they need to browse a webpage in full mode screen. Unfortunately, the Android top status bar doesn't disappear when the full screen mode is selected. Another interesting feature included by the developers is the Lock screen option, which appears in the middle of the screen every time it switches from portrait to landscape. You can click on the Lock screen option to avoid accidental turns. The browser comes with a Speed dial panel, which resembles that of the Opera browser. By default it is populated with links to Yahoo, Google, Twitter, Facebook, but more can be added by typing in the name of the website and the web address. Make sure you exit the browser after you finished browsing, otherwise the application will stay resident in the phone's memory. Click Options and choose Exit to quit the application. Maxthon Mobile for Android is compatible with all devices running Android 1.6 or later. The application is available as a free download from Softpedia.
