Multiplatform Web browser W3C compliance report

[Menneisyys]

Now that I’m working on my 45-minute speech & demo for my (international) W3C speech next week (http://www.w3c.hu/rendezvenyek/2008/webconf2008/), I’ve re-tested the latest version of all browsers with the just-published, new W3C test suite (http://www.w3.org/QA/2008/04/is_your_mobile_browser_ready_f.html) specifically targeted at mobile devices. The greener, the better; red denotes a failed test.

Let’s start with Windows Mobile.

Windows Mobile

As you can rightfully guess, the built-in Internet Explorer Mobile (even as of WM6.1) is pretty bad:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/IM61W3ctest.png

… which is the same as on WM6 Standard 6.0 (MS Smartphone):

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/IMWM6Std.png

…and is only a bit better as in the 5-year-old WM2003:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/PIEWM2003W3ctest.png

Finally, here’s the Pocket PC 2002 screenshot so that you can see the difference between it and WM2003:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/PIEppc2002W3ctest.png

Opera Mobile:

Version 9.33 beta (the one presented at WMC this February):

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/OM933BetaW3Ctest.png

… and the good old 8.65 available for download/purchase:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/OM865BetaW3Ctest.png

As can clearly be seen, the 9.33, which renders the suite almost (but not entirely) flawlessly is indeed based on the new, 9.x-series kernel – a very good news indeed! (We’ll later see that it’s also Opera’s browser that delivers the best compatibility on the desktop too)

Let’s take a look at the current (R006; dating back to February) 3.5 Technical Preview of NetFront:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/NF35AprilTP.png

The new and, now, pretty much usable 1.0.8 WebKit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebKit)-based Iris browser follows:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/w3c-Iris108.png

Note that, being non-public, I couldn’t test Wake3’s WebKit port (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=2485&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1).

Minimo:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/w3c-Minimo020.png

I didn’t bother with other, even less compatible or officially outdated browsers.

As can be seen, Opera 9.xx is the best of the bunch. Hope it’ll be released soon!

BlackBerry

On BB, if anyone would, for some strange reason, use the native browser in it, he or she can except the following:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/BBBrowserW3CCompliance.png

That is, not really good – stick with Opera Mini 4.1 instead, which, as opposed to Opera Mini 4.0, no longer crashes the BB.

Symbian S60v3 FP1

Symbian S60v3 FP1’s Nokia Web, also based on WebKit, isn’t flawless either:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/SymbianS60w3ctest.png

As can be seen, despite what some people state about WebKit-based browsers, it’s not 100% compatible either.

Opera Mini 4.1

Finally, Opera Mini 4.1 beta, which runs equally good on all the above mobile platforms:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/w3ctest-OM41beta.png

Desktop Windows browsers

As far as the desktop Windows is concerned, let’s take a look at my test results:

Firefox 3 beta5 (the latest):

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/Firefox3beta5.png

The Internet Explorer 8 beta (also the latest) results are pretty bad – actually, it’s the same as with IE7:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/w3ctest-desktopIE8b.png
(IE8)
http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/w3ctest-desktopIE7Emu.png
(IE7)

Interestingly, Acid2 is far better rendered by IE8 than IE7 (screenshots HERE (http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/IE8DesktopAcid2.png) and HERE (http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/IE7DesktopAcid2.png), respectively) – while it still fails (http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/IE8DesktopAcid3.png) the Acid3 test (which also makes the browser crash), albeit it still fares a bit better than IE7 (http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/IE7DesktopAcid3.png). That is, based on the Acid results, I expected far more – not even the forthcoming IE8 is as standard-compliant as Firefox, let alone Opera.

Finally, as you may have already guessed, Opera renders the test suite without any problems:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/w3ctest-O95desktopbeta.png

More information on all these (for example, my old Acid2 test results): my Web browsing-related articles, Web browser Bibles (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?cat=61) etc.

[Menneisyys]

UPDATE (some two hours later):

A screenshot of WM5 AKU3 MS Smartphone Internet Explorer Mobile browser:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/W3CDemoWM5SP.png

As can be seen, it's exactly the same as on the (later) WM6(.1).

Surur has published (http://www.howardforums.com/showpost.php?p=10964592&postcount=2) an iPod Safari (same as with iPhone) screenshot. As with all the other WebKit-based browsers, it isn’t the best:

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/4971/ipodtouchww3pe0.jpg

[Menneisyys]

UPDATE (04/23/2008): I’ve upgraded my BlackBerry 8800 to OS version 4.5.0.9. The upgrade is REALLY worth doing, even at the current beta stage. See THIS (http://forums.crackberry.com/f40/4-5-os-20805/) for more info. Should you miss his post, you’ll need to send a mail, with any body / message, to [email protected] get the download links for all current BB models. Note that the upgrade takes a LOT of time – don’t be afraid of it being so slow, it won’t brick your phone. Also, you'll need to re-register / configure (but not set up) everything again. The new OS, even in its currently beta stage, is WAY better than 4.2 or even 4.3 coming on some new Pearls. For example (just to name a few),

it supports A2DP / AVRCP flawlessly (working just great with the Plantronics Pulsar 590A, Voyager 855 and Gear4-BluPhones; including even automatic reconnection)
it no longer has the ugly condensed characters – the default new ones (BBAlpha Sans; as can be seen in HERE (http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/bb45fonttypes.png), there’re a lot of different character types, unlike under 4.2.1) are FAR easier on the eyes and can be made smaller than in OS version 4.2. A series of example Opera Mini 4.1 screenshots showing this.

This is how the medium-sized characters under 4.2.1 look like:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/BBOM4MediumChars.png

and the same under 4.5.0.9:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/BB45Medium.png

(Both with the minimal system character size set – 4.2.1 screenshot of this HERE (http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/BBMiniFontsizeSet.png).)

Note that, as OM uses its own small character set, there’s no difference between their rendering under the two different operating systems – they’re equally the same:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/BB45Small.png

Returning to the question of Web standards compliance, while it has an otherwise better browser, has almost exactly the same support for Web techniques. This is why its results are just (see the uppermost square on the left) a tad better than with the 4.2.1.109 screenshot above:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008W3CSpeech/BB45W3CTest.png