Chrome for iOS Review

Earlier this year, Google Chrome for the desktop recently took over Internet Explorer the most used web browser of all time, a huge feat. Since then, they have released Chrome for Android, and even more recently Chrome for iOS. But how does it stack up to Apple's own and stock web browser, Safari.

How does it look?

Upon installing Chrome, just like any other app (right from the app store), you'll be presented with a page to sign in to your Google account. The interface consists only of a single bar along the top with a back button, a settings button and a button to see all your open tabs. Finally, the desktop's famous omnibar makes an appearance here as well. And basically, that's all there is. It's incredibly clean and offers more screen real estate than Safari.

The sign in page

Tab switching

One thing that's definitely noticeable is the way Google has implemented tab switching. When you press the tab button, you can swipe up and dwn through all your open tabs. To close a tab, you swipe the tab left or right and the tab is swept off the screen. It's pretty neat and funnily enough, pretty satisfying.

New tab page

The new tab page is also very neat. It's just like you would expect. Like the desktop version, but shrunk down. Swipe all the way to the left, and you can see your six most visited pages, in the middle is your favourites and swipe all the way to the right and you can see your open tabs across all your machines.

Performance

To date, Chrome for iOS has been very stable and snappy. In personal experience, the performance seems almost on par with Safari. While benchmarks may prove otherwise, they're not always a good measure of real world performance. The bottom line is, Chrome is solid, and you won't really notice and significant speed differences to Safari (and if you did, you probably wouldn't want to be surfing the web on a phone in the first place).

Syncing

Hands down the number one reason why you probably want to use Chrome is for syncing. Like we said before, statistics say that you are probably reading this post from Google Chrome for the desktop and if you are, you've probably set up sync and keep your bookmarks and passwords synced across all your computers. No mobile browser, Safari included, has offered a simple way to import bookmarks from my desktop web browser, let alone passwords, auto-fill, search history, settings, web apps etc. Not only was I able to have access to all my bookmarks with seconds of my first run of Chrome, but I could even see what web pages I have open on my other machines. The desktop version can even send pages to my mobile device right from the omnibar. If there's one thing Google has consistently got right, it's syncing and Chrome for iOS does not disappoint.

See web pages from all your devices

The Catch

Chrome has been a far superior experience than Safari in almost every category. So at this point, maybe you might be feeling just as I did. "Throw away your Safari, Apple. I have Chrome now." Well, unless you have jailbroken your iDevice (as I have, but realize most people won't), Apple doesn't give you a way of changing your default browser. That means all external links, even bookmarks create on your springboard, will open in Safari. It's a shame, because the only thing that would keep me from using Chrome is that fact that I can't set it as the default browser. Lame!

Conclusion

Since the very day Chrome came out for iOS, I have been using it and can't recall even one time that I open Safari that wasn't by accident. I have not had a single reason for wanting to open Safari. It's just been that solid. The only disappointment I have experienced is not even Google's fault, so it's hard not to recommend Chrome for iOS.

9.5/10