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So quite a few mobile browsers are now in the running.  Opera Mini, Opera Mobile, Skyfire, MiniMo, and Pocket IE.  Well now a new browser is coming into the running, by the name of Iris.

Iris is currently in a technical preview but is free for non-commercial use, and hopefully will stay that way.  However, I’ve used quite a few mobile browsers and Iris is already working it’s way into my favorite of the bunch.

Iris uses the open source WebKit rendering toolkit (what Safari uses), and I found it to be extremely accurate (screenshots included).  Plus, best yet, it was fast.  It didn’t have a lot of the hang time inherent to other mobile browsers, it was very fast and efficient at doing what it did.  More after the break.

Iris also has a ton of excellent features.  From browser tabs to a neat fade-in/fade-out feature when you’re moving from webpage to webpage, it helps make a seamless transition from web page to web page.

Plus it supports both a mobile mode and a desktop mode which render like you would expect them to (one renders a mobile website version if it’s available and the other renders the desktop version).  Even the desktop version which is typically encumbered by a lot of graphics was quite fast and very accurate in rendering (see screenshot on the right).  Keep in mind though that downloading all of those pictures over EDGE or even HSDPA does take some time however.

A really nice feature for us Tilt users is the seamless landscape/portrait modes which allow switching between the two screen modes of our Tilt pretty seamlessly and unannoyingly.

And finally, one of the cooler features I thought was the enhanced tabbed browsing.  It really helped in rapid multitasking and also made things a whole world of a lot more convenient.

All in all I really liked this browser.  It was very efficient at what it did, and packed full of features.  It’s probably going to become my primary browser, and best yet, it’s free.  Be sure to check it out and grab a copy while you can, provided it’s not for commercial use.

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