REVIEW: NetFront v3.5 for Windows Mobile Concept Version

Well, the browser war is not dead yet. True, it has actually been quite a while since the last beta of the Netfront version was released, but it is still alive and still packs a punch to give its rivals some serious competition. Was it actually able to impress us? Read on to find out!

The first thing after installing the cab was to open mobilityupdate. It took to the mobile version instead. Sadly, I could not find any setting that would enable desktop mode in the Netfront. This feature was missing in the previous (official) version of netfront (version 3.3) and is missing in this verison too.

So, in order to prevent redirection to mobile version of the webpages, you will have to a little tweaking. You will have to go to Menu//Tools//Browser Setting//Menu//Network and edit the user agent( edit any ‘—’ one) as shown in the following screenshot:

Now, the mobilityupdate.com opened just fine!

As one can observe, it does not starts with the zoom-out view where you can see the overview of whole webpage. Instead, it starts with zoom-in view. Double tapping zooms out.

You can move around in a webpage by dragging your finger. A PageMap thumbnail appears on the top left as soon as you start scrolling.

Tapping into the square will take to that portion of the webpage

Note that it wraps the text around the screen just like Opera Mobile, which is a good thing. I hate horizontal scrolling as much you people do. This feature is implemented perfectly in the netfront.

I love the way it organizes the bookmarks. It also lets you add a thumbnail to the bookmarks so that you can make out what is there in the webpage. You can drag your finger/stylus in a circular/anti-circular manner to go to the next bookmark.

Japanese -> English conversion

This version of netfront lets you convert a japanese page to english page just by a clicking on one option from the menu. Here is the fujitsu Japan homepage

Now, here is the converted page. Note that not whole of the webpage was converted.

Also, I could not test flash as one cannot use plugins in the concept version (see the bottom of the post for the restrictions in the concept version)

I also recommend users to change the font to “Tahoma” as it uses “courier new” font by default

In a nutshell, this is what is stopping me from using Netfront:

• Non-finger friendly interface. It needs a whole new look!
• Does not uses full screen by-default like Opera Mobile
• No progress bar at all! Just a spinning earth icon does not tell you much
• Not tweaked to give best experience
• User has to do some hacking to make it recognize as the desktop browser, which is not easy for novice users
• Recognizes taps even in zoom-out mode
• Is very slow when compared to Opera Mobile and Skyfire

Here is the list of the restictions in the current version: (from the official site)

This concept version has the following restrictions:

• The trial period for this software expires on February 28, 2009
• Plug-ins are not supported
• No technical support is available for this concept version
• If NetFront Browser is installed on external storage, the application’s behavior becomes unstable when the device is turned on or off
• Integrated Windows Authentication for IIS is not supported

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