Filed under: Windows, Freeware, Browsers
Maxthon 3 gets turbo-charged with WebKit
by Lee Mathews Sep 1st 2009 at 1:00PM
If there's a solid browser out there that gets less coverage than Opera, it's got to be Maxthon. After testing out the latest alpha build of version 3, it appears that they're going to make sure people start taking notice.
Witness the V8 benchmark score above - that's Maxthon on the left and Chrome 4.0.203.2 on the right. As you can see, Maxthon 3 puts up pretty competitive numbers. In practical surfing on my core web apps and sites? It's just as fast as Chrome, if not just a hair faster.
Witness the V8 benchmark score above - that's Maxthon on the left and Chrome 4.0.203.2 on the right. As you can see, Maxthon 3 puts up pretty competitive numbers. In practical surfing on my core web apps and sites? It's just as fast as Chrome, if not just a hair faster.
What's responsible for the big change? Well, prior versions of Maxthon had used the Trident engine from Internet Explorer. While that meant Maxthon was good at handling IE-friendly pages that didn't work so well on other browsers, it came at the price of last-generation performance.
With WebKit now under the hood, Maxthon 3 looks likes it's ready to make some serious noise. Enthusiasts, get ready - this is going to be a fun year when it comes to browsers.
Many of the core features you'd want in an everyday browser aren't working yet in Maxthon, but if you want to take it for a spin anyway you can download it from Maxthon's forums or from Softpedia.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Lewis said 1:12PM on 9-01-2009
The URL to which the image links, is broken. JSYK.
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Lee Mathews said 1:13PM on 9-01-2009
Missing http://...Thanks! Fixed, etc.
Josh said 1:25PM on 9-01-2009
I was wondering when Maxthon would get the hint and drop Trident. I doubt anyone will choose this over the big Five though. Unless they find a way to become the fastest browser around, switching to Webkit just isn't enough noise to gain very many users, especially when it doesn't have a large Add-On library (if one at all).
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Ron White said 10:56PM on 9-10-2009
Josh.... You're right, just being the fastest browser won't ensure Maxthon's success. But Maxthon has a selection of powerful features, including:
Tear-off videos
Online setting storage
Detachable tabs
Split-screen
Exceptional powerful security and ad blocking
Screen captures
Great group handling of tabs
Language translations
File sniffer to identify media files on a page
Automatic fill-in of forms
The fastest downloads you're likeliy to find
A tabbed collector for compiling information from different sites
The ability to edit a live Web page
And the most versatile tab handling of any browser.
With all this, I can't blame you for thinking we might not have an add-on library. But Maxthon has more than 1,400 plug-ins--not as many as Firefox, but then a lot of the Firefox plug-ins are standard built-ins in Maxthon.
smv_342 said 1:29PM on 9-01-2009
We can also switch rendering engines from Webkit to Trident or vice-versa if something doesn't work...
But it's going to fail. Most regular web users like firefox because of extensions. Period. I have tried Maxthon3 for a week and ended up going back to firefox because I missed the extra functionality of Firefox.
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Lee Mathews said 1:31PM on 9-01-2009
Maxthon is the second most popular browser in China and it's been downloaded a couple hundred million times. There are probably lots of developers that would love to fail like that ;)
Ron White said 10:56PM on 9-10-2009
SMV.... You comparing Firefox's released product with Maxthon alpha version. That's kind of like comparing apples to apple seeds.
libeco said 1:32PM on 9-01-2009
I have been using Maxthon for years now. For web development I prefer firefox, but when it comes to normal usage Maxthon is superior to any other browser. Very customizable and user friendly.... at least, until version 2. From version 2.5 it is not possible anymore to show the regular windowframe, which is a major shortcoming. I'm still using 2.1.5 and will keep using if 3 will not improve a lot. I know it's still in alpha stages, but it doesn't look promising.
The windowframe is something application developers shouldn't touch, just look at Adobe's Photoshop CS4, they made a real mess out of it. The Windows theme is there to give a consistent look throughout the OS, why change that and throw in the craziest solutions?
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Cam said 1:49PM on 9-01-2009
Will definitely be checking this one out once I'm not on a school computer.
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Money Mike said 2:03PM on 9-01-2009
I used Maxthon (formerly called MyIE2) for years until I finally made the switch to Firefox about four years ago and then never turned back. I loved how Maxthon was much more customizable than IE, so I was always surprised that it never caught on like Firefox did, but now I understand what a difference the extensions make.
I can't remember what prompted me to switch to Maxthon back then, but when I started using it, I was immediately hooked. It had tabbed browsing, it allowed you to open links in new tabs in the same window, and it included mouse gestures (which I still can't live without). I knew about Firefox back then, but as far as I was concerned, I had everything I needed in Maxthon.
The problem was that Maxthon occasionally didn't work with certain sites - most notably my bank's website. I was fine with that at the time, but I eventually started fooling around with Firefox more and more to see what all the fuss was about and when I found that my "problem" sites worked fine in Firefox (meaning I could finally ditch IE altogether), I knew it was time to make the switch.
For a fresh install as a new user, Firefox didn't have as many features, but for all those features I was accustomed to in Maxthon, I was eventually able to find an extension to provide the same functionality.
I'll always remember MyIE2 as the first browser that pulled me away from IE, but I just can't see myself going back now. If I was to make another switch, it would be to Chrome (or Chromium), which I've been using more and more lately (I just can't get over how friggin' fast it is).
Interestingly enough, I recently learned from its Wikipedia page that Maxthon is not pronounced like I thought it was. I always assumed it was "Max" thon," but it's actually pronounced "Mack" "thun" (no "s" sound in there). Saying it makes me sound like I have a lisp. I also learned that it comes from China, which I found pretty surprising, but maybe that explains the unique pronunciation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxthon
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motang said 10:03PM on 9-01-2009
So they abandoned the crappy IE engine huh...good!
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Medlir said 7:30PM on 9-02-2009
I also used MyIE2 and Maxthon for years. NetCaptor had stopped getting updated, and MyIE2 was an active project that wasn't resource intensive on my ancient Pentium Pro system, but I finally dumped it in January 2005 for Firefox after a long-lived bug involving it leaking GDI handles on every tab opened and the subsequent browser restart required to resolve it made it no longer viable for daily use for me. Tried for 6 months to get it resolved, or even acknowledged as a bug, but eventually gave up after I got a "new" used P4 system as an upgrade to my PPro that made Firefox that much easier to switch to permanently. Never looked back.
Good luck to bloodchen on the latest versions though, and hooray for the switch to Webkit.
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