I’ve long been wanting to review the brand new UCWEB browser which, while definitely not as good as Opera Mobile or IEM enhanced with either PIEPlus or MultiIE, can be a good, multi-tabbed, bandwidth-saving alternative to commercial browsers as soon as its bugs are ironed out and page loading speed increased.


(a QVGA Pocket PC screenshot; a WM6 VGA screenshot)

Availability, installing

You’ll need to use the generic WM CAB version. For Pocket PC’s, use the second link HERE (as of the time of writing, THIS is the direct CAB download link – it may change in the future!). This is all linked from HERE, should you want to know where it’s from.

Note that there’s also a first link in the page (Wince boot programs (Recommend)). I couldn’t find out why the UCWEB people recommend it – I’ve found it completely useless. That is, don’t bother downloading / installing it.

After installing, just click the brand new UCWEB icon in Start / Programs and you can start using it. To enter a IRL to go to, just go to Menu / Open / Enter Address.

Note that there is a MIDlet version of the browser too. Its Chinese download page is HERE. I haven’t tested this version as native Pocket PC browsers are inevitably better than their MIDlet counterparts. Not even Opera Mini 4, the best Java-based mini-browser out there (OM4 for short; see review HERE) comes close to the native Opera Mobile or IEM + PIEPlus / MultiIE combo, feature-wise. (The ease of Web browsing, standards compliance, price, bandwidth usage and speed are completely unrelated questions. In them, Opera Mini just rocks – no wonder the latest beta version of OM4 has quickly become my favourite and most commonly used Web browser.)

Also note that I could only find a Pocket PC-specific non-MIDlet, Windows Mobile-compatible version of the browser. There doesn’t seem to be a MS Smartphone (Windows Mobile Standard) version of it – the above CAB file is Pocket PC-only as can also be seen in HERE

Cons

1. Interestingly, it has problems sending comments to the PPCMag blog (some Chinese error message is displayed). Nevertheless, the comments arrive.
2. WM5+ softkeys are previous/next only; no real menu access via softkeys
3. Really-really unreliable traffic: sometimes it just doesn’t load anything (screenshot of the errror message HERE)
4. It’s still definitely slower than OM4
5. No visible tabs: to switch between pages, you need to use either the backward/forward buttons (WM5+ softkeys or the 7/9 phonepad / keyboard buttons) or go to Menu / Window / Windows list (three screen taps - quite a lot!)
6. It’s very unstable: it has crashed on me several times (particularly when tap-and-holding the screen)
7. It seems disabling Small Screen Rendering in Menu / Settings / System / Small Screen Render results in NOT being able to access the Web any more (it continuously keeps saying it’s in the “Initialize network connection” state and, after a timeout, it displays an error message) – not even if you toggle the checkbox back to enabled state. I’ve confirmed this on two of my Pocket PC’s. That is, NEVER uncheck this checkbox! This is certainly bad news, as the browser defaults to one column mode, which might not be the best solution for all users / pages, particularly not on with (W)VGA devices.
8. Couldn’t find a Smartphone version

Pros

1. Bandwidth saving
2. Unlimited number of windows open (as opposed to, say, NetFront, with its 5-tabs-at-most, really restrictive approach)
3. Configurable User-Agent
4. Configurable image quality (OM4 also supports this – with two quality / size settings)
5. Page transition effects, just like in Opera Mini (fortunately, it can be configured or even switched off entirely; screenshots: 1 2 3)
6. Widely (both size and style) configurable fonts
7. Support for true full screen
8. Hardware keypad support for page scrolling
9. Pretty good favorites support, including access to IEM favorites (unlike with OM4) and even sorting (the latter is painfully missing from even OM4). Screenshots: 1 2

Verdict
A day, this browser may become a serious alternative to current Windows Mobile browsers. Today, however, it is barely usable, even if you take its price into account. (The also free Opera Mini 4 delivers MUCH snappier web browsing and is a much more reliable browser.)

You may still want to give it a try but, again, don’t expect anything. Given that both the browser and the central server it uses is very unreliable and slow, however, you won’t want to rely on it as your only web browser.

Recommended articles

Windows Mobile / Pocket PC Web Browsing Bible

Windows Mobile / Smartphone Web Browsing Bible

Microsoft MVP - Mobile Devices, 2006, 2007. See my PPC & SP blog HERE.

    

I’ve just posted a full review & comparison of the current version of UCWEB to REVIEW & COMPARISON: Another Web browser, UCWEB: is it any good?

Microsoft MVP - Mobile Devices, 2006, 2007. See my PPC & SP blog HERE.