At WWDC 2010, Apple released the new version of the Safari web browser, Safari 5.0. I’ve gotten to use it over the past few days, and I must say, I’ve quite enjoyed it. Safari 5 hasn’t much new to offer on the surface. It looks rather the same as Safari 4, save for a few additions, and a real progress bar in the web address field, something I’ve truly missed from Safari 3.
On first launch, similarly to Safari 4, you are greeted by a pretty little welcome screen. And by eyeballing it, you’d never see the difference. Under the hood, you’ll notice a lot more.
Speed
You’ll notice it right from the beginning. Safari 5 is fast. It’s the fastest browser I’ve ever used, period. Pages load, and render quickly. Obviously, if you’re still on a 56k modem, Safari 5 won’t make it seem like FiOS, but it still will help render and display pages with much speediness.
It’s got some new technology behind it. It has the “Nitro” JavaScript engine behind it, which makes JavaScript fantastically fast. HTML5 runs brilliantly on it. Just look at Apple’s new HTML5 demo page – it’ll run, extremely smooth, and extremely fast.
New Features
Safari 5 is not rich in new features. But, the ones that do exist, are pretty awesome. Safari can now officially compete with the likes of Firefox, because of the new Safari Developer Program and extensions. The RSS system has been improved, and it feels like everything in general has been highly refined. One new feature that I REALLY like is Reader. Now, I’m going to be honest – I actually have mild ADD. I still appreciate the “HEY LOOK A CHICKEN!” jokes, but I do actually have it. Reader, for me is a very helpful tool. It eliminates the distractions of the rest of the page, and just focuses on small images and the main body of the text. It also formats articles very nicely for printing and sharing.
Life Isn’t Always All Good
It’s super fast, it has a few awesome new features, it helps my ADD for God’s sake. But all is not good. Safari 5 is in need of a maintenance update. I’ve found it to be somewhat unstable (definitely less stable than Safari 4). However, I imagine that updates will progress and be released soon, which will cure the browser’s ailment of overall instability.
Now, this product is going to earn a 3.5/5 rating from me. It’s well and good, and I like all of the new features, but stability is a very important factor in an essential application like a web browser.
Kelly;
I haven’t had the stability issues Thomas described. I feel as if Safari 5 is much more stable. Performance wise, Safari 5 blows Safari 4, Firefox 3, and Google Chrome out of the water. Google Chrome is extremely stable and it’s very fast, since it’s based off of WebKit, just like Safari, they both share similar qualities. As of right now, I believe Safari 5 is far more robust than what Thomas gave it credit for.
I have been using Safari 5 off and on here for the last couple days and I am almost ready to switch from Firefox to Safari. My only issue is the way the tabs are handled. I like to use the Command + Numerical keys to switch through open tabs. You cannot do this in Safari. I do it in Chrome and Firefox, they can do it with no problem. Safari uses the Command + Numerical keys for the bookmarks bar. If you want to switch tabs you have to press Control + Tab. This only takes you forwards through the tabs. Control + Shift + Tab will allow you to navigate backwards through your open tabs.
To me this seems like it’s a real hand cramper, no where near as easy as holding Command and pressing the number of the tab that you want. Now that the extensions engine is open, maybe we’ll see a solution to my little issue. For me that’s the only issue I have with Safari.
I give it a 4.5 out of 5. I haven’t had any issues except for flash crashing, but that’s normal flash behavior. Doesn’t bring the browser down, so it doesn’t bother me as much as using another browser and having flash kill the whole browser.
Good stuff so far. I cannot wait to see what happens with the Safari Developer Program.
