Firefox 4 Review

excellent
key review info
application features
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Firefox 4 set the world aglow when it officially launched yesterday. And Mozilla says it is “faster, easier and more awesome than ever”. Considering it is the favorite browser of millions of users making up for more than 20% of the market, placed between Internet Explorer and Google Chrome, it better be.

As you may have seen in the 12 beta releases or one of the two RC versions, the latest Firefox adapted its looks to the minimalist UI trend ushered in by Chrome. As such, it eliminates some elements from the default configuration such as the menu, bookmark and status bars while others have been included into multifunctional buttons: refresh also functions as a stop button.

There is now a Firefox button in the top left part of the screen that encompasses all options you need most. Although we could not miss the resemblance to Opera’s button, the pull-down menu in Firefox seems to offer a much more comfortable experience.

Tab management has been greatly improved in this release through app tabs and the Panorama feature. App tabs act just like shortcuts to your favorite or frequently used sites, pinning them right next to the Firefox button and reducing their size to the website’s favicon. In the earlier versions of the web browser this could be achieved by installing an add-on.

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Panorama is a great addition to Firefox’s feature list as it offers you the possibility to work with groups of tabs in a very convenient manner; it is designed especially for the users handling large numbers of tabs. To snap to Panorama view you can use the Ctrl+Shift+E shortcut or click on the “Group your tabs” button at the end of the tab bar. You’ll tap into a new interface that looks more adequate to touch interface rather than mouse-clicking.

Its functionality includes creating new groups by simply drawing a rectangle with the mouse holding either left or right buttons, moving tabs from one group to another, naming each group as well as reshaping them or arranging the elements in the page. Search is also available, so you can easily focus on a certain website. If you want to send a specific tab to a different group you can easily do it from the regular interface of Firefox, from the tab’s context menu.

As a step away from what has now become a standard, Firefox 4 continues to show an empty page when opening a new tab, making it the only browser not taking advantage from this functionality by default. Chrome, Opera and IE9, all list in this location at least the most frequently used sites.

Looks are impressive and are keeping up with the slimmed down interface trend that offers the user more web content than UI, but Mozilla did not manage to deliver the thinnest headband ever, although they could have achieved this very easily. The address bar can be hidden completely but there is no way to bring it back when you need to type in a new URL in a fresh tab. Instead, it offers two shortcuts to show the menu bar (Alt and F10), which is on its way to extinction judging by the general browser UI tendency.

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Customization of the web browser through extensions has always been a strong point in Firefox. And in this edition Mozilla makes handling and finding more add-ons really easy through the Add-ons Manager, which lets you access all plug-ins and extensions in a single page. Moreover, this is also the place to search for new items that offer the functionality you require.

Firefox is well known for its extensive configuration options and this edition makes no exception. Among the various tab-related options you’ll find the possibility to control how tabs open or enable a warning when multiple tabs are closed (although this did not work in our case). The way various content is handled (open in Firefox, open with a default program on the system, save data to disk, etc.) also falls on your shoulders if you are not content with the default configuration.

A top new feature in Firefox 4 is syncing bookmarks, passwords, preferences, history and tabs across various computers, thus benefiting from the same personal information regardless of the computer you’re using; the principle driving this service is device pairing. Furthermore, synchronization of the data can be done with Android Firefox edition, which means you get the same settings on the go as well.

The most important part of this deal is that all information is encrypted locally, before it is transferred, so your privacy is protected. If you are distrustful of Firefox server managing the synchronization you can add your own server to mitigate the information transfer from one Firefox edition to another.

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Besides focusing on a slimmer interface, speed and performance are today’s priority for any of the popular web browsers on the market. Firefox makes no exception and comes prepared with a new and improved JavaScript engine, JaegerMonkey, which speeds up browsing. Compared to version 3.6, the new Firefox is at least 3 times faster in JavaScript benchmarks such as Mozilla’s Kraken and WebKit's SunSpider and as much as 6 times faster in Google’s V8.

We put it to the test in the aforementioned benchmark tools, but compared it to the latest versions of Internet Explorer and Google Chrome. Running them through V8 put Chrome way in the lead with 7007 points; Firefox 4 came in second, with 2985 points while IE9 scored only 1880 points.

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SunSpider showed a different ranking, IE9 leading the pack totaling 295.1ms. The runner up was Mozilla’s browser, with 342.2ms, while Chrome recorded the worst score, although not far from second place, 357ms.

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Kraken showed a different order, though, putting Firefox 4 in the lead with 8967.9ms, Chrome second with 10196.6ms and Internet Explorer 9 last, with 19056ms.

HTML5 compliance test showed that team Mozilla worked on this aspect for the latest release of the browser, as the points scored during testing were up to 255, compared to the 155 recorded by version 3.6.16.

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Firefox 4 is not the fastest on the web but not the most sluggish, either. It is definitely a big improvement from the earlier editions and brings an interesting set of features to the table. It comes with incredible customization options, both through extensions as well as its own configuration panel.


The Good

Panorama and synchronization of personal data (locally encrypted) across multiple computers and Android devices are some of the most important features. Visually, it looks more appealing than ever. The new interface makes available more of the web and less of the browser, with no dent in functionality.

App tabs are great for those making specific websites permanent residents of the tab bar. Tab grouping in Panorama allows you to work only with websites related to each other.

Though coming with a reduced UI customization is still strong in Firefox through the various add-ons and built-in options. Also, the Add-on Manager makes handling them an extremely easy job.

The Bad

Having a list of recently closed tabs would come in handy. The new tab page continues to be blank despite the general tendency of filling it with content that can increase the functionality of the browser.

Toggling the visibility of the navigation bar, via a keyboard shortcut, the same way as in the case of the menu bar would make Firefox the web browser with the thinnest UI of the moment.

The Truth

Firefox fans will definitely feel the speed improvement compared to the previous version, as the latest installment is snappier than ever and wraps up new functionality and features yet preserves the vast customization possibilities that allow you to make it unique.

user interface 4
features 5
ease of use 5
pricing / value 4


final rating 5
Editor's review
excellent
 
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