Apple touts Safari as the ultimate web browsing experience for a mobile device and you know what, it’s damn good with little to no shortcomings but I’ve experienced some odd problems and while they don’t affect everyone they’re still somewhat annoying.

The Browsing Experience

Multi Touch and the Accelerometer is one of the biggest enhancements to mobile browsing and by far blows anything else i’ve seen out of the water. Visiting an actual web page will consume every inch of screen you have available but on a 3.5 inch screen this still isn’t enough. There is where the Accelerometer and Multi Touch come into play. By tilting the iPhone into either portrait or landscape mode the web page will tilt with it and depending on which mode you switch to, text could become smaller of bigger. Typically portrait mode is useful for Web Sites that are very long and landscape mode is useful for Web Sites that are very wide but of course either mode can be used for any kind of Web Site.

Zooming in is extremely easy and allows you to do so anytime with out any hassle but I have encountered a few Web Sites that while zooming in significantly it takes a couple second to render that selected area again and you’ll notice everything go from slightly blurry to a lot clearer. The render times aren’t an issue as they take a few seconds, 5-6 at most but if you constantly zoom in/out while moving around then this could prove to be a problem so I recommend trying out an iPhone at your local Apple Store if you can.

Apple’s incorporation of Multi Touch into the Safari Browser is not the only useful thing that will significantly improve your mobile browsing experience. In addition, a lot of things that you think would be hard to focus on in the iPhone are actually easy such as logging in or selecting options on a form. Should you click on a text box you are immediately zoomed in and the onscreen keyboard pops up but if you are in landscape mode then you will either see no box to type in or a few lines, portrait mode is much better but the keyboard is smaller. Also if you click a drop down menu that requires you to select an option, the lower part of the screen is taken up so you can flick through and click on the option you need. In addition, Safari features a sort of Quicklook for URLs. Simply touch and hold with one finger on a link and a preview pops up displaying the link and title of that web page.

Speed Testing

There is no difference than browsing via EDGE or Wi-Fi except for the fact that EDGE is significantly slower. If you get the opportunity to jump onto a Wi-Fi network then take it and enjoy it.

However I use EDGE as my primary way to connect to the Internet because Wi-Fi isn’t as widespread where I live but it’s not excruciatingly slow as everyone has painted it to be, including me. Most of us have cited the lack of 3G as a hindrance of the iPhone even though its availability isn’t as widespread as 2G networks across the US. I usually get 110-205 kbps on my iPhone and the lowest I have been is at 67 kbps but my average speed was either very fast (for EDGE) or very slow depending where I was at. Another thing, while 3G is great and all I can’t want it as much as someone who has used 3G for a long time on other Smart Phones, me being able to access the Internet is just a mind trip coming from a phone that didn’t even know what the Internet was. It’s like being bummed about a very slow DSL connection in the middle of nowhere knowing that cities 350-400 miles away have speeds in the upwards of 6 Mbps. This isn’t to scale but it’s hard to long for something and complain about losing it when you have never had it, a category I fall into.

Like I said, EDGE isn’t going to kill you and you will get used to it even with moderate browsing. But I think Apple’s decision to go with EDGE based on availability was a good one considering the fact that they are heavily promoting the “Full Internet” in your pocket and would rather have it be available anywhere but somewhat slow than have it available in limited locations but faster. Also there is the option of Wi-Fi but for Apple it seems like a last resort option to hop on the Internet anywhere.

However there have been some times when the slowness of EDGE has disrupted my Internet use. For instance I will be loading a Web Page and it will seem like it’s loading for 1-2 minutes but if I stop then reload I’ll be able to access the page in a matter of seconds, this has yet to happen to me on a Wi-Fi connection. Another instance was attempting to log in to Web Sites, Safari on EDGE would stall and I was required to log in multiple times before I was finally in.

Bookmarks and RSS
Bookmark support on Safari is very simple and straightforward allowing you to create bookmarks and RSS feeds easily from within the mobile browser and the desktop version. Should you change anything on either browser you can sync these changes so that both will have the same exact feeds and bookmarks. My only complaint is that the default online RSS reader although simple takes its meaning way to seriously. All it does is read feeds which it should do for an RSS reader but lacks additional features that make up the most basic of readers.

Final word
The iPhone’s included browser is awesome but I did encounter some rendering issues mainly with Google searches where my account info would be squished onto text within the search. Bookmark synchronization is simple yet feed support is basic. Safari is a great browser on the iPhone and the device’s many features only improve this.

Part 5 of my review will focus on the Mail features of the iPhone