[rkuo]

I was comparing the speed of web page rendering on the Pocket PC vs the Treo and the performance of Blazer is really disappointing. In fact, it seems like my browsing is bottlenecked mostly by the time it takes the browser to render, not by the bandwidth of the connection. When I overclocked the processor, there was a significant improvement in the time it took to complete the page...still on the order of minutes per page in some instances, though.

What reason is there for the performance being so bad? Are there better alternatives to Blazer available or will there be improvements coming?

[Gaurav]

Just curious but which PPC handheld were you comparing it to and what type of wireless connection did it have?

[t2gungho]

Are there better alternatives to Blazer available or will there be improvements coming?

You might look at xiino. Its pretty fast but some websites will give it trouble.

Do a search for fastest browser...lots of info.

[rkuo]

Was comparing vs an iPaq 5550 (http://www.bargainpda.com/default.as...AQ+h5550+h5555), which has a 400 MHz PXA255. It gets most of the page up tremendously faster than Blazer does. The rendering is not perfect, but it's pretty close in all cases.

Frankly, it's just frustrating to have a decent connection on the phone and then stare at the bytes transmitted and realize it's the *browser* that's slowing everything down.

I've searched through most of the threads here but nothing really pops out at me just yet. I guess if I had to sum it up, Blazer works great for me, except for being sooooo slow... It's frustrating for the app to be so close to usable!

[rkuo]

Just to follow up...an easy way to see the actual bottleneck in speed is to switch between optimized and wide view once the page is loaded.

For example, on Fark.com, it takes approximately 30 seconds to switch views once the page is loaded (no images and no javascript). It took 43 seconds to load the page from scratch. Overclocking from 312 to 429 cuts the time to switch views to around 20 seconds...which is a pretty big deal.

[aldamon]

From what I've read, the lack of threading in Palm OS5 hurts performance in Web browsers.

I use WebPro to speed things up but it's not miraculous either. When is the Opera browser for Palm going to be available?

[danspalmone]

This is the biggest drawback of the 650. I agree 100% that the network connection is more than fast enough, but the rendering is agonizingly slow, making the overall web experience painful. I haven't yet tried xiino, but i will soon.

[MFizzel]

I long for the day they can speed browsing up

[delao13]

Try Xiino. It is awesome. I use it for 95% of my browsing. Once in a while, only Blazer will correctly render a page I need to see. But most of the time Xiino handles fine.....and fast.

[jayzee77]

I second the xiino use. It is much faster than blazer, which I rarely use anymore. Xiino with bt dun flies and with a small 8 pt font I find myself browsing the web at home on the treo more than my computer.

[dheymann]

I second the xiino use. It is much faster than blazer, which I rarely use anymore. Xiino with bt dun flies and with a small 8 pt font I find myself browsing the web at home on the treo more than my computer.

I would like to get a better browser, but I saw some ratings for the new Xiino (3.4 I think?) and most users said it was very fast, but they weren't going to buy it after the trial because of all the problems with it (poor UI, problems with java, problems with SSL and certain sites, etc). Is there a better browser than blazer for someone who wants one browser that can handle everything?

[jayzee77]

While I agree some sites don't render correctly, some sites with java don't work they way they should (this is when I use blazer) it is a small price to pay for the much faster browser. No, I have tried all the browsers out there and right now Xiino is the best one IMO.

[jayzee77]

While I agree some sites don't render correctly, some sites with java don't work they way they should (this is when I use blazer) it is a small price to pay for the much faster browser. I use secure sites all of the time with Xiino no problems except the nagging screen that pops up on every click. No, I have tried all the browsers out there and right now Xiino is the best one IMO.

[delao13]

I would like to get a better browser, but I saw some ratings for the new Xiino (3.4 I think?) and most users said it was very fast, but they weren't going to buy it after the trial because of all the problems with it (poor UI, problems with java, problems with SSL and certain sites, etc). Is there a better browser than blazer for someone who wants one browser that can handle everything?

Bottom line is you should try for yourself. It is a free trial.
I used Bloglines as my newsreader. It is impossible to use the mobile version on Blazer b/c of its terrible cache. The most awesome feature of Xiino is a true cache. When you go backwards, the prior page you were on instantly pops back up looking exactly the same as when you left it. Same thing when you exit Xiino and return. Page you were on is exactly as you left it, no reloading.

[aldamon]

Xiino's UI is awful. What other browser on this planet does not have an address line right on the main page? What browser puts the controls at the bottom of the UI? Why is the UI low-res? Why is the text on some pages jumbled?

Since the WebPro proxy has crapped out, I'm going to keep Xiino around because I can move it to my SD Card. Being able to move it to the SD Card is actually pretty sweet. This will allow me to maintain a huge cache. I always cleared my cache on exit with Blazer and Webpro because the caches used up RAM. The overall speed in Xiino is good too.

[jayzee77]

To each his own. That is why it is called a personal digital assistant, and that is why there is shareware to try before you buy. Me personally, thinks the screen is already too small to add an address bar. My home page is nothing but my favorites on a geocities server so I really don't even use the address bar. And with the latest Initiate I start typing google and a box pops up for what I want to search for which makes it very easy. Like you I couldn't get over the ui bar being at the bottom of the page. I am getting used to it. My biggest gripe is the backspace button on the keyboard doesn't go back on xiino like it does in blazer. Developer said this is in the next release. Since the backspace key doesn't do anything it is kinda nice the the ui is on the bottom because its not that hard to hit the back arrow with your thumb. I find only on certain pages does it not render correctly. To me and guess others who use xiino find that the speed more than makes up for its shortcomings. I wouldn't mind blazer so much if it used a true cache and if you could scroll the page as fast while it was loading like xiino.

[aldamon]

jayzee, if high-res graphics and text were used, an address bar would not take any more space than the current control bar. It's bad enough that I have to use Fonts4OS5 to use a small font for the actual Web pages. Also, I understand your position, but there's a reason why certain UI conventions have been developed. I don't understand why the developer would break them.

[taylorh]

You could try http://www.skweezer.net/ with Blazer.
It helps to pre-format the pages before downloading them, thus the amount of processing that Blazer does is significantly less.
The downside is there are a lot of site skweezer doesn't really work with.
There is also http://mobileleap.net/mobile/translation/
Same concept.

And finally there is Reqwireless webviewer.
It's a JAVA web browser that works on most phones that support Java. You'll need to download/install java from the PalmOne web site to run it.
It works really well, but it also has a crappy UI and suffers from only supporting large fonts like Xiino.
http://www.reqwireless.com/
Note: To get hi-res graphics, you have to go into the Java panel in preferences and check hi-res graphics in the global preferences.

[Gaurav]

Was comparing vs an iPaq 5550 (http://www.bargainpda.com/default.as...AQ+h5550+h5555), which has a 400 MHz PXA255. It gets most of the page up tremendously faster than Blazer does. The rendering is not perfect, but it's pretty close in all cases.

So you were connecting via wifi on the h5550? If so, then of course its faster!!

[delao13]

To each his own. That is why it is called a personal digital assistant, and that is why there is shareware to try before you buy. Me personally, thinks the screen is already too small to add an address bar. My home page is nothing but my favorites on a geocities server so I really don't even use the address bar. And with the latest Initiate I start typing google and a box pops up for what I want to search for which makes it very easy. Like you I couldn't get over the ui bar being at the bottom of the page. I am getting used to it. My biggest gripe is the backspace button on the keyboard doesn't go back on xiino like it does in blazer. Developer said this is in the next release. Since the backspace key doesn't do anything it is kinda nice the the ui is on the bottom because its not that hard to hit the back arrow with your thumb. I find only on certain pages does it not render correctly. To me and guess others who use xiino find that the speed more than makes up for its shortcomings. I wouldn't mind blazer so much if it used a true cache and if you could scroll the page as fast while it was loading like xiino.

Thanks, jayzee. You saved me a long post. Back space button will be awesome. Only thing i miss from Blazer.