I use my Dell Mini 10v hackintosh mainly to get online and surf the Internet. As a hackintosh laptop user, I get to use Safari as my default web browser. Apart from Safari, I have installed four ‘other’ web browsers on my hackintosh laptop. These ‘other’ web browsers are Firefox, Google Chrome, Camino and Opera. With so many web browsers available for the Mac OS X, which is the best web browser for my hackintosh laptop? To find the answer, I did a comparison between these 5 web browsers, to find the one I like the most.

The Best Web Browser For A Netbook Challenge

The Dell Mini 10v display resolution is only 1024×600 pixels. This is the standard display resolution for most netbooks available today. The netbook display resolution is of course, smaller compared to the popular 1280×800 resolution for entry-level laptops. Because of the smaller screen, my most important web browser feature is the ability to view web pages in full screen view. I have to make every pixel count. I also want to have easy keyboard shortcuts for navigating between tabs. I prefer using the keyboard instead of the tiny Mini 10v trackpad.

The Criteria For the Winning Netbook Web Browser

1. Full Screen Mode – The web browser must be able to display web pages in full screen view. It should be easy to switch between full screen and normal view using the keyboard.
2. Keyboard Shortcuts – Secondly, it must be easy to navigate between web pages and open new tabs using the keyboard only.

Since all the web browsers support keyboard shortcuts, I’m going to focus my testing on the full screen viewing capabilities of the various web browsers.

The Five Candidates

The surprising thing is, not all Mac OS X web browsers support full screen view. For those that don’t, I hid the address, bookmark and status bar to optimize the view for the browser window. Below are screenshots of the five web browsers with their default view and their full screen or optimized view.

1. Safari 4

The address and bookmark bar together with the Mac OS X menu bar and title bar takes up one big chunk of space. Hiding the address and bookmark bar as shown in the optimized view will reclaim around 50 pixels in height.

Safari Default View

Safari Optimized View

2. Firefox 3.5

The address and bookmark bar in Firefox takes up even more space compared to Safari. When the address and bookmark bar is hidden, the view is the same as Safari optimized view.

Firefox Default View

Firefox Optimized View

3. Camino 1.6

The default Camino view has bigger icons in the address bar and so takes up more space compared to Firefox and Safari address bar. After removing the address and bookmark bar, Camino optimized view is still a few pixels smaller compared to Firefox and Safari. There’s no option to hide the Camino status bar in the menu.

Camino Default View

Camino Optimized View

4. Google Chrome 4

Google Chrome default view doesn’t come with a bookmark bar and has the biggest space for the web page among the browsers tested. In the full screen view, with Chrome address bar and tabs removed together with Mac OS X menu and browser title bar, 94 pixels or an additional 15% of the screen height is available to display the web page.

Google Chrome Default View

Google Chrome Full Screen View

5. Opera 10

Opera default view has slightly more screen space compared to the default Camino and Firefox view. When in full screen view, it is the same as Google Chrome full screen view.

Opera Default View

Opera Full Screen View

The Champion of the Netbook Web Browsers Battle

The champion for our Netbook Web Browsers battle is undoubtedly Google Chrome. Google Chrome full screen view with toggling by keyboard makes it the winner in the battle of the netbook browsers. Opera 10 comes in at second place  with full screen mode too but without keyboard toggling for full screen view. To toggle full screen view on Opera requires using the touchpad with the Menu or Context Menu.

Update: Both Google Chrome and Opera 10 has full screen view with keyboard shortcuts. They are both champions in our battle of the hackintosh netbook web browsers. Earlier, I declared Google Chrome as the winner because I thought it was the only browser with keyboard shortcuts for full screen view, but since then, I’ve found the full screen view keyboard shortcut for Opera. Option+F11 on Opera Mac OS X will toggle full screen view. (Thanks goes to Rijk, for the tip).

For the browsers doesn’t support full screen mode, the next best thing is to turn off or hide the address, bookmarks and status bar of the browser. This will give the maximum viewing space for the web page. Setting the Mac OS X dock to auto-hide will also save some space.

The Aftermath

I was disappointed to discover Safari, Firefox and Camino doesn’t have full screen view on the Mac OS X.

I am now using Google Chrome as the default web browser for my hackintosh laptop because of its full screen view. Google Chrome also seems faster compared to the other web browsers.

The next battle of the web browsers will be based on performance. I will conduct a performance benchmark to compare the various web browsers on my Dell Mini 10v. Come back soon to check out the benchmark results.

Related posts:

1. Battle of the Netbook Web Browsers: Javascript Performance Benchmark on a Hackintosh Laptop
2. Google Chrome Beta coming to Mac OS X in Dec 2009
3. The 7 Ways I Am Using My Hackintosh Laptop
4. Google Chrome for Mac (Beta) Is Out
5. Running Google Chrome OS on the Dell Mini 10v

camino browser, chrome browser, firefox browser, opera browser, safari browser, web browsers