Why is the web browsing experience so sub-par on Windows Phone 8?

saintforlife

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I have tried Internet Explorer, UC Browser and Nokia Express. They are all painfully slow, especially when you come from the Safari on an iPhone 5. On IE, I have it set up to open the mobile version of sites and guess what, not once has it opened the mobile version of wpcentral.com....wpcentral! I usually post links to pictures from articles on a discussion forum, but on IE long pressing an image on a webpage (which is how I do on Safari) does not give you the option of copying the image URL to clipboard. Is it possible to do that or not? I try to log into my wpcentral account on the UC Browser and it wants to download something and gives me a php error. I have not been able to open any sites on Nokia Express that is not already bookmarked in the app. Did I already mention that all three browsers are slooooww...?

What exactly is the reason for such a sucky browsing experience on WP8? Is it the lack of webkit? Is there a better browser out there that I don't know about?

The Web browser is probably my most used app after Maps on my smartphone and WP8 is just not yet at a level where I can completely switch from the iPhone and still have a reasonably good experience. I am glad I am trying out WP8 though on the Lumia 521. It certainly is a lot of phone for just $130. It was the best way to try a new OS before committing to WP8 full-time.
 

chezm

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I have no issues with IE on WP8....i think its super fast and easy to use. I just wish it had fwd/back buttons dedicated for the app itself. Ya I used UC, its ok but I still prefer IE display.
 

crash1989

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Hi,
It is true that the browser on 521 is slower compared to 920s and 820s and iPhones due to its lower specs than iPhone.The speed of rendering a webpage will obviously be lower.
IE10 serves well most of the time and yeah I can't deny it renders pages badly sometimes (Google sites). I usually try to manage without it and other options you mentioned are using IE as the base I think(not sure).

IE is as speedy as Safari on iOS if not faster. A lot comparisons have been made during reviews and generally it keeps up with others.

For wpcentral I suggest you use the app, there is a free trial in case you don't want to spend money on it.
for the browser, go to m.wpcentral.com and favorite it.

When you long press an image and link you should see these since I am able to get them and use it all the time.

wp_ss_20130708_0002.jpg wp_ss_20130708_0003.jpg
 

YOLOsaurusRex

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Settings -> Swipe left to applications -> Internet Explorer

If you have it set to desktop version, you'll get desktop versions of sites. If it's set to mobile, you'll get mobile versions (from sites that will look for such things, anyway)
 

saintforlife

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Although I agree that in terms of specs, the Nokia Lumia 521 is not in the same league as an iPhone 5 or Lumia 920, I'd have expected a faster browsing experience than what I am currently seeing on the 521 on wifi at least. But I guess I have been spoiled a bit by higher end phones.

Coming to the long press for image URL option, I just did what you showed in your screenshots on the m.wpcentral.com webpage and I see the same options. But none of that is the option to copy the image URL to clipboard so that you can paste it someplace else. The "copy link" copies the link to the URL of the full story, "save picture" saves the picture to your phone and "share picture" allows you to share it via email or some other app.

As a test I went to a story on m.cnn.com and tried to long press on a image and the options I got are: Save picture and Share picture:

71gIfij.jpg

As a comparison here is the same story on Safari on my iPhone. The Copy button copies the URL of the image to clipboard:

WbFPoCPl.jpg
 
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cw1988

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Im having no issues with ie either, but some of the above issues are function over speed, and the functionality mentioned doesn't affect me.

I think websites load just as quick if not quicker than ios, my wife's iphone is quite laggy on some sites that wp8 powers through.

Overall for me its good.
 

Coreldan

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I think IE on WP8 is a good browser. Sure, it's not perfect, but I have very little to complain about it, but as a disclaimer I'm on a 920.
 

DennisvdG

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I have tried Internet Explorer, UC Browser and Nokia Express. They are all painfully slow, especially when you come from the Safari on an iPhone 5. On IE, I have it set up to open the mobile version of sites and guess what, not once has it opened the mobile version of wpcentral.com....wpcentral! I usually post links to pictures from articles on a discussion forum, but on IE long pressing an image on a webpage (which is how I do on Safari) does not give you the option of copying the image URL to clipboard. Is it possible to do that or not? I try to log into my wpcentral account on the UC Browser and it wants to download something and gives me a php error. I have not been able to open any sites on Nokia Express that is not already bookmarked in the app. Did I already mention that all three browsers are slooooww...?

What exactly is the reason for such a sucky browsing experience on WP8? Is it the lack of webkit? Is there a better browser out there that I don't know about?

The Web browser is probably my most used app after Maps on my smartphone and WP8 is just not yet at a level where I can completely switch from the iPhone and still have a reasonably good experience. I am glad I am trying out WP8 though on the Lumia 521. It certainly is a lot of phone for just $130. It was the best way to try a new OS before committing to WP8 full-time.

Your provider is probably the cause of the sloowness because browsing with IE works fine on my 920
 

N_LaRUE

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Im having no issues with ie either, but some of the above issues are function over speed, and the functionality mentioned doesn't affect me.

I think I'm going to start a counter on threads to see how soon one of these types of comments show up.

That being said. Per the OP. Obviously connectivity to the web is one of the things that slows down any browser, next comes hardware. I personally don't see why having a 520 would slow things down considerably, one suggestion would be to ensure that you clear browser history frequently.

Also, I too have had issues viewing WPC on my mobile (L920) and I'm on the correct settings for mobile websites. So it's not just you. I'm not entirely sure who's to blame for things like that but I do know that a lot of web devs are going away from specific mobile websites and are going for touch friendly versions of their websites instead to avoid having to have multiple websites to take care of. Obviously the app version would be best but I don't really need to use the WPC app that much to want to buy it.

Last, and this is just opinion, concerning your picture issue. I've given up on trying to do anything that seems 'advanced' on WP to avoid disappointment. Give the OS until the 8.1 update and if features are still missing that you feel you need, leave WP and then check back in 1-2 years. maybe by then they'll have it sorted. That's my plan anyway.
 

edoug

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I only see problems on sites like wikianswer where they insist on a swipe action to load the next page of data, mIE just doesn't seem to work with it.
 

bigkevbosky

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I use both IE on my Ativ S and Chrome on my GS4 and I actually like IE much better - its got the important stuff on the bottom of the screen and its faster. But it doesn't sync my bookmarks, so that kind of stinks, and of course it doesn't have as many features. Once you use all 3 platforms for a while, you'll start to realize that WP8 is the most fluid and easy to use, but also the most restrictive with the fewest options.
 

edoug

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I love having the address bar on the bottom. I wish there was an easier way of jumping to the top or bottom of a page though.
 

FricoRico

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IE10 is crazy fast on WP8. As a web developer having to deal with a lot of 'responsive' design I get to test most of the mobile browsers. I seem to have most problems with iOS, the Safari render engine is sub-par compared to the Chrome browser on Android or IE10 on WP8. Since Chrome on iOS uses the same Safari render engine it has a 'bad' experience as well. On most pages iOS renders fine thanks to the powerful graphic processors inside iPhones, but when you are at very heavy webpages that uses a lot of CSS3 effects and Animation you can see Safari and Chrome suffering heavily on iOS. Sometimes it's so slow that it locks up the scrolling, for example check out one of my landing pages: Titanious

So all together I know for a fact that the browsing experience on most Windows Phones is brilliant, though I have no experience with budget phones.
 

mxtremex6

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i disagree!..the IE10 is so far the BEST browser dat iv ever used on a mobile fone...after opera, chrome, uc and nokia.
uc was the best on my symbian because it was kind of fast and cost effective there...and yea..all others on wp xcpt IE are baad!!
 

jleebiker

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I've got a 928 and either on 4G LTE or WiFi when I surf. I have my IE set for Desktop mode and it's by far the fastest browser and the most accurate browser I have ever used. I have an iPhone and Droid to compare against, and if all I'm doing is surfing, I prefer the IE on my 928 over the iPhone and Droid hands-down. That's just my experience.
 

Coolknight1968

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My Ativ S is rather fast, no slower than Chrome on my HTC One. But the HTC browser is faster than both, but has issues with some pages... You can't base your opinion on a low end WP8 device.
 

Oakdale Dude

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I use UC on my 521 and I think it's great and very peppy. But, I use it almost exclusively over WiFi Signals at home which is fast and at work which is crazy, crazy fast. That's probably the difference. I don't know.

So for me, I have no issues with anything loading at a brisk pace.
 

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