‘PC Style’ web browsing on your Symbian mobile.
Skyfire has hit version 1.0 and in these days of the perpetual beta version, that in itself is something to celebrate. If you have never heard of Skyfire, it is a new mobile web browser currently available on Windows Mobile and Symbian phones (and BlackBerry in future). Skyfire aims to give a ‘PC-like’ browsing experience, with none of the scaling and re-rendering required by traditional mobile browsers.
Much like Opera Mobile, it achieves this by using a system of proxy servers that do the actual downloading of a page for you, then quickly squirt you over a compressed image of what is on the page. This sounds awkward, but actually makes for a browsing experience I am obliged by tradition to refer to as ‘blazingly fast’.
No, honestly, it really is. Compare browsing YouTube on Skyfire with doing the same on the built-in S60 web browser. The built-in browser is mind-numbingly slow over 3G and not much better over wifi. Skyfire just works – quick page renders (and the actual page, not some weak ‘mobile version’) and proper embedded video displayed in the middle of a zoomable page.
Displaying an image of the page means that you have to zoom in before you can select text, but most clickable page elements work even at maximum zoom, and page navigation/zooming itself is done simply using the D-pad.
Pages can be bookmarked for later perusal (no offline reading yet) and Skyfire will let you share web pages via SMS (you can send people a link to download Skyfire too, which is quite cheeky).
Sadly, Skyfire does not yet support Symbian Series 5 or the 5800’s touchscreen interface. Plans are afoot, apparently, and if they can crack it then Skyfire on the 5800 would be able to give Mobile Safari a serious run for its money. The other slight downer was the lack of tabbed browsing. Not a huge problem at this form factor but it would make a good browser even better.
Skyfire is the best Symbian browser by a country mile and a strong contender for best mobile browser overall.
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App: Skyfire (Symbian)
Price: Free
Version reviewed: 1.0
Requires: 3G or wifi, Nokia E or N-series phone
Size: 878KB
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Pocket Picks Score: 
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About Stuart Houghton
hi… can i download skyfire at my nokia n900?