Research in Motion has outfitted BlackBerry 6 with a shiny new Webkit-based web browser. It’s much faster and easier to use with a touchscreen phone than earlier BlackBerry browsers… but the folks at CrackBerry have determined that it’s not quite as fast or responsive as the latest Google Android and iPhone web browsers — at least not on currently available hardware.

CrackBerry took three top of the line phones for a spin and checked to see how long it took to load several web pages on an iPhone 4, Samsung Captivate, and BlackBerry Torch 9800. The verdict? The BlackBerry came in third in every test — although to be fair, the phone also has a slower processor than the other two devices. The browser might actually be faster on a speedier device… if there was a speedier BlackBerry device on the market right now. But there’s not.

The good news is that the new browser is significantly faster than the last-generation BlackBerry browser. So there’s that.

You can check out a video of the test after the break, for all the gory details.

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One of the biggest improvements in the upcoming BlackBerry 6 mobile operating system is the new and improved BlackBerry web browser. The new browser is based on Webkit, like the browsers for iOS and Android devices. And we’ve gotten a few glimpses of the browser in action over the last few months. But now the folks at Research in Motion have posted a detailed description of the new browser. Here are some of the highlights:

• New start page with a focus on bookmarks and search
• Tabbed browsing
• Support for subscribing to RSS feeds
• Smoother panning and zooming
• Pinch to zoom on touchscreen phones
• Faster page rendering and support for web standards

You can find more details at the BlackBerry blog.

BlackBerry OS 6 is due out soon, and the folks at Research in Motion has been showing off demo videos for a few months. But now Salomondrin has managed to get his hands on BlackBerry 9800 with the new operating system installed and he’s posted some of the first videos showing off the device under real world usage.

One of the most exciting improvements is the dramatically improved web browser. The Webkit-based browser loads pages relatively quickly, supports pinch to zoom features, and scrolls through pages very smoothly.

The new web browser also scores extraordinarily high in web standards tests. It notched a 208 in the HTML5 test, and a perfect 100 on the Acid3 test.

For comparison’s sake, my Google Nexus One with Android 2.2 Froyo scored a 176 in the HTML5 test, and my iPod touch with iOS 4 got a 185. They score 93 and 100, respectively, on the Acid3 test.

In other words, it looks like the BlackBerry OS 6 browser might be one of the best around — at least when it comes to supporting web standards.

You can check out a hands-on video after the break.

via SlashGear

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The folks at Bistream have released an updated version of their Bolt web browser for Google Android. Bolt 2.1 for BlackBerry is a WebKit-based browser, which means it should be able to handle most web sites that play well with the iPhone and Google Android handsets.

Version 2.1 also adds supports HTLM5 video playback and sports Facebook integration letting you to chat with your Facebook contacs and paste links to your Facebook account.

Like the Opera Mini and Skyfire web browsers, Bolt also uses server-side compression, which means that some content not normally available on mobile phones without a plugin should work — including some sites with Adobe Flash content.

Bolt 2.1 is available as a free download. Existing Bolt users should get an update notification soon.

The folks behind the Bolt web browser for BlackBerry have released Bolt 2.0 today. The update adds a number of new features, the most noticeable of which is support for multiple browser tabs, letting you easily open multiple web pages and flip between them.

Bolt 2.0 is based on WebKit, which is the same rendering engine used by the default web browsers for the iPhone and Google Android. But like Opera Mini, Bolt 2.0 users server-side compression which should speed up page load speeds.

The browser also boasts support for web applications such as Google Docs written in Ajax and Javascript. And you should b able to stream videos from YouTube, CNN, ESPN, and other sites.

Bolt 2.0 Beta is available as a free download.

via Just Another Mobile Monday and CrackBerry