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Now Browser Free, Now Browser Pro – Fastest, Lightest Web Browsers for Google Android

Now Browser for Google Android

Now Browser is the fastest, and lightest tab web browser for Google Android. I use it as my main web browser on my 2012 Asus Nexus 7 tablet, and it is one of the fastest and most reliable browsers I ever used compared to bigger browsers which sometimes freeze when loading a simple blog article, or scrolling a large website. Now Browser is only 117 KB/0.11MB in size which is smaller than some picture files on websites. Now Browser and Now Browser Pro is the best full featured web browsers for older and slower smartphones, and tablets with a slower  single to dual-core CPU and RAM like 1GB and less. It works on Google Android 2.2-4.4 and up.

It even runs fast right after I turn on my tablet, and unlock my screen, or have other apps and games open in the background because it does not slow down even when I open it to load a big website like a blog with many stories on the front page or forum website. It is also fast after I unlock my screen when Google Android has fully started up after I powered it on. Other more heavy web browsers I used generally slow down, or even crash and restart when I launch them too quickly right after the Android start-up and unlock tasks.

Website loading times are very fast on Now Browser when I use it on my home Wi-Fi connection. Opening new tabs, and closing tabs are fast as well. Scrolling up and down websites is very smooth. This browser also does not freeze, and crash much when I use it to browse website. Websites like Twitter, YouTube, Blogs, and news sites are displayed properly on this web browser. Playing back  online videos on YouTube is pretty fast, and videos don’t pause or stutter.

There is a private incognito mode to protect your privacy, and secure your web browsing by not storing cookies, history, or cache while you use Now Browser to surf the web. Incognito mode also disables Location Access, so you don’t share your location with websites like social networks. It is also pretty easy to clear your cookies, cache, and history in the Advance settings.  Now Pro can be set to automatically clear the cache after you exit the browser, so your browser use less space storing old cache files in your storage drive in Android.  Now Browser can browse HTTPS sites with SSL encryption to keep your login and personal data secure like Banking, and e-mail sites.

I can even change the default search engine from Google to DuckDuckgo, DuckDuckgo Lite (faster minimalistic loading version of DuckDuckGo for mobile devices), and Startpage which are privacy search engines which are designed to protect your online search history from online spying. You can also set the default search to traditional search engines like Yahoo, Bing, Yandex Russia, and Baidu China search engines. It is also possible to change the user-agent in the settings to mobile to request mobile sites, desktop to bring up desktop sites to hide that you are using a mobile device to browse a website, or type in a custom user agent to hide Now Browser user-agent, and display a custom user agent like iPhone website if there is no Android version of the website.

It also does not slow down when I have many tabs open. This browser also has Adobe Flash Player support for Android 4.1 and below.

I like the user interface of Now Browser. I like the flat Material design from Android L. Adding Bookmarks is simple by pressing the menu button, and clicking on Add Bookmarks. I can also change the default homepage to another website instead of Google, and my bookmarks as my homepage, or set it as a blank page easily in the settings. I choose to set my homepage to a blank page because I don’t need to go to one website when I open my web browser, and a blank page loads the quickest and save data when opening my browser. Opening a tab is easy by clicking on the + button on the top of the app, and closing tabs is simply by pressing the X button on a tab. I also like that it is possible to set Now Browser to be full screen where the tabs, and address bar is hidden, so there is more free screen space to show a website. It is also possible to hide the status bar where the volume, wi-fi, clock, and notification bar is located to free up even more free space to view a website. In the advance settings, I can change the text size for Now Browser to a smaller, or larger text size to make text on websites smaller or bigger.

When you are in Full Screen mode, you need to swipe your finger from the top to the bottom of the screen to reveal the status bar, tabs, and address bar.

This browser also has finger gestures for quickly going back to your previous page, or forward to an earlier page.

I swipe my finger on the screen from left to right to go to the next page. I swipe my finger on the screen from right to left to go to the previous page. Double tap on a zoomed in page to fit the screen perfectly. To close a tab, I can also long press on the tab, and to close the entire browser, I long press on the back button.

Holding your finger over a website link for a few seconds with bring up a context menu where you can choose to open the link, open link in new tab, or copy the link in your clipboard.

In the settings, I set the user agent to mobile because I use a tablet, and all websites I tried send me the mobile version of a site. With other mobile browsers sometimes I get the desktop version of the site which is common on a lot of mobile browsers I used where the site thinks I’m using a desktop browser instead of the mobile version.

Now Browser also has Android sharing feature built-in which allows you to share and send website articles to Google Plus, Facebook, Twitter, and other social and e-mail apps, or save it to Instapaper/Read-It-Later to read saved articles offline with the Instapaper app installed on your Android device.

Now Browser Pro which is the paid version is even faster, and can open up to 100 tabs at once instead of 4 like the free version. Now Pro has Web File compressor™,  Now Browser rendering engine where you browse the web 3 times faster, and JavaScript Acceleration to speed up JavaScript on websites for faster performance. The paid pro version seems faster than the free Now version after turning on the Now rendering engine, and JavaScript acceleration in the advance settings. It also has all the features of Now Browser free which I listed above. The Pro version being able to open 100 tabs instead of 4 is nice as well.  The Pro version cost $1.51 which is also now 30% off its regular price when I bought it. You can try the free version before you decide to upgrade to the Pro version by opening the settings, and going to the Advance settings where you find a button/link to go get the Pro version.

Now Browser and Now Browser Pro is a fast, light, reliable, easy to use, and attractive web browser for older smartphones, and tablets, and users who want to browse the web without any slow down problems like lag, freezes, and crashes which are sometimes more common with other more heavy web browsers.

You can learn more about Now Browser, and Now Browser Pro, or install it on Android by going to https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.browser.nowbasic or Now Browser Pro at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.browser.nowpro

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