Web development tools vendor Sencha examined Apple's iPad 2 and Motorola's Xoom running Google's Android 3.0 Honeycomb, crediting Apple with "a top rate, no compromises HTML5 browser" while calling Android "not ready for primetime, even for HTML4." (ouch!)
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Acid3
The latest Android and iOS browsers both score 100/100 in the Acid3 test, but both exhibited rendering issues. Apple's browser had "a few light red squares in the top right and in the bottom right of the test results," Sencha reported. "Without a doubt, the iPad 2's Acid3 results are solid, but it would have been nice to see this come up to full compliance."
Google's Android 3.0 browser in the Xoom "has two noticeable rendering bugs — first, the letters 'Acid3' are the wrong color and are missing the drop shadow. Second, in the top right there’s a small red box, which is an obvious rendering bug. The Xoom has a perfect numeric score, but it still fails Acid3," the site noted.
Performance
The fast new processors of both the iPad 2 and Xoom provide a big boost in SunSpider JavaScript benchmarks, with both new devices neck in neck in delivering the fastest scores, well in advance of last year's iPad and Galaxy Tab.
Overall web browser capabilities
"We were excited about the first true Android operating system for tablets and had high hopes for a mobile browser that was as powerful as the platform," Sencha observed regarding Android 3.0. "Sadly, the Xoom and Honeycomb are a real disappointment. We found consistent and reproducible issues in CSS3 Animations and CSS3 Transitions among other things. We had issues where the browser either hung or crashed. Regular scrolling was slow or below full framerate. We had issues where media playback failed or performed incorrectly. At times it felt like we were using a preproduction device, but we bought our test device from a Verizon Wireless store."
The report added, "until Google and Motorola ship a patch to update the browser to production quality, don’t expect good results from the Motorola Xoom. We said it in the Galaxy Tab review, and we’ll say it again now: we’re still waiting for the first awesome Android tablet."
For the iPad 2, Sencha reported, "in our testing we tried to throw everything we could at the browser and it had no issues keeping up with the most advanced HTML5 and CSS3 sites. For any developer building for the mobile web, the iPad 2 provides an outstanding platform from which you can use modern browser features." The report also noted the difference between iOS' Safari and its embedded UIWebView browser used by web apps running in Full Screen or within an app, which lack Nitro JavaScript acceleration and some other performance related features.
In conclusion, the company reported, "Apple's devices are leading the vanguard of mobile browser innovation and for the HTML5 app developer this is great news. We're excited to see not only the rate at which Apple adds new features, but the quality of their implementation."
In full here
...
Acid3
The latest Android and iOS browsers both score 100/100 in the Acid3 test, but both exhibited rendering issues. Apple's browser had "a few light red squares in the top right and in the bottom right of the test results," Sencha reported. "Without a doubt, the iPad 2's Acid3 results are solid, but it would have been nice to see this come up to full compliance."
Google's Android 3.0 browser in the Xoom "has two noticeable rendering bugs — first, the letters 'Acid3' are the wrong color and are missing the drop shadow. Second, in the top right there’s a small red box, which is an obvious rendering bug. The Xoom has a perfect numeric score, but it still fails Acid3," the site noted.
Performance
The fast new processors of both the iPad 2 and Xoom provide a big boost in SunSpider JavaScript benchmarks, with both new devices neck in neck in delivering the fastest scores, well in advance of last year's iPad and Galaxy Tab.
Overall web browser capabilities
"We were excited about the first true Android operating system for tablets and had high hopes for a mobile browser that was as powerful as the platform," Sencha observed regarding Android 3.0. "Sadly, the Xoom and Honeycomb are a real disappointment. We found consistent and reproducible issues in CSS3 Animations and CSS3 Transitions among other things. We had issues where the browser either hung or crashed. Regular scrolling was slow or below full framerate. We had issues where media playback failed or performed incorrectly. At times it felt like we were using a preproduction device, but we bought our test device from a Verizon Wireless store."
The report added, "until Google and Motorola ship a patch to update the browser to production quality, don’t expect good results from the Motorola Xoom. We said it in the Galaxy Tab review, and we’ll say it again now: we’re still waiting for the first awesome Android tablet."
For the iPad 2, Sencha reported, "in our testing we tried to throw everything we could at the browser and it had no issues keeping up with the most advanced HTML5 and CSS3 sites. For any developer building for the mobile web, the iPad 2 provides an outstanding platform from which you can use modern browser features." The report also noted the difference between iOS' Safari and its embedded UIWebView browser used by web apps running in Full Screen or within an app, which lack Nitro JavaScript acceleration and some other performance related features.
In conclusion, the company reported, "Apple's devices are leading the vanguard of mobile browser innovation and for the HTML5 app developer this is great news. We're excited to see not only the rate at which Apple adds new features, but the quality of their implementation."
In full here
