At the beginning of the month, the Dolphin team released a new version of their popular browser to the Play Store. It featured the normal UI and performance enhancements, but apparently that just wasn't good enough for the Dolphin crew. Today, they have released a public beta of Dolphin Browser that brings some pretty impressive numbers where HTML5 rendering speed is concerned:

How fast? Dolphin Browser Beta's HTML-5 rendering is:

• 5 - 10X faster than the default Android browser

• 100% faster than Chrome (at times)

• Initially scored over 450 when tested on HTML5test.com. (HTML5test.com is an industry respected tool for testing a browser’s support of HTML5)

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Judging by the few comments already in the Play Store at the time of writing this, it looks like those numbers aren't just smoke and mirrors - the early reports are claiming that it's quite a bit faster than previous versions of Dolphin.

Being a Chrome loyalist (and find the above use of "at times" a questionable one), I had to see this for myself on the best device for Chrome: the Nexus 7. Guess what? No go. Despite Dolphin saying that the beta "fully [supports] Android 4.1 devices," it's not compatible with the Nexus 7. Boo, Dolphin!

Instead, I gave it a shot on the TF700, and I have to say, I'm quite impressed. The speed of this beta is definitely something can be felt not-only with HTML5 rendering, but just in general. While I was skeptical at first, I have to say that I quite like it.

Given the fact that it's free, there's no reason to not give Dolphin's newest beta a shot. Hit the widget to grab it.