Xiaomi's Brand New Android Web Browser Is Fast, Light & Has Night Mode




Xiaomi had released a new web browser for Android, and it’s available to everyone via the Play Store. The name of this browser is “Mint Browser” and the company claims that it is really fast, safe, and ad-free. This application weighs only 10MB, and if you’re running Android 4.4+, you should be able to install and use it, without a problem. The layout of the browser is quite simple, and it actually reminds us of the company’s default browser that comes pre-installed on its smartphones, as part of MIUI. The moment you fire up this browser, give it usage access and choose whether you want to set it as your default browser or not, you will be throw to the default page. On that page, you will see an Internet search bar at the top, below which you will be able to set your bookmarks, the majority of the display is set for bookmarks, in fact, which is something many of you will probably find useful, as it’s not the same with Chrome, at all. Below those bookmarks stands a microphone icon, which can launch voice search for you, and at the bottom of the display is a toolbar which consists out of the back, forward, home, tabs, and more options buttons. A reading mode is included in this browser, as are incognito and data saving options. On top of all that, you’ll also be getting a night mode here, all you have to do is hit the more options button, and find a moon icon. Unfortunately, though this is a full-blown night mode, not a dark mode, so the moment you hit it, the browser’s brightness will take a hit, and it will be extremely dim even if you crank up system brightness. You will find a link to this browser’s Play Store listing below this article, just in case you’re interested in trying it out, but it’s certainly a nice addition by the company, especially considering it’s so light.

Competition?

There are a ton of browsers available in the Play Store, and many of them use words “light” and “fast” in order to market themselves. The first browser that probably comes to mind to many of you is Opera Lite, a capable browser which lacks in some areas compared to its big sibling, Opera, and other competitors such as Chrome, Firefox, and so on. The problem with light browser is that they usually don’t display some elements of specific websites as they should, compared to regular browsers, at least that’s our experience with some browsers, including Opera Mini, otherwise everyone would probably use them, despite the fact they’re not extremely full of features as their regular counterparts. In any case, Opera Mini is not the only competitor to this browser, of course, there are a ton of options in the Play Store, like Kiwi Browser, for example, which is essentially Chrome on steroids, and is extremely fast. Firefox Focus is also an alternative, and we can also list a number of regular browsers here as well, it all depends on how will Mint Browser perform over time, it needs to be thoroughly tested in order to see whether it lacks behind the competition or not, but it may be worth trying out, our initial impressions are quite positive, actually.