UC Browser by UCWeb is the top used mobile browser in India with a market share of 49% according to StatCounter as of August 2015. We take a closer look at the latest version of UC Browser 10.7 to see what are the top features that makes this the top browser in its category.
1. In-App Widgets (Cards)
The browser allows users to access content on a new customizable homepage with a feature called cards. Basically the browser, has the ability to display widgets on its homescreen. These in-app widgets are also known as cards and can be manually sorted to your own liking. You can enable just the ones you like and also customize them to your liking. For example, you can choose which of the websites to display headlines from etc. So if you are just looking to read the headlines, you wouldn’t actually need to open any page or even go to that particular website to check it out. This would save you a lot of time as well as data. Users can also rearrange the cards in the order that they choose. For example, one user can choose to have headlines above jokes but the other can choose to have jokes above all the other cards if he/she wishes to do so. There are a wide range of cards to choose from such as headlines, jokes, top sites, trending videos, shopping and much more.
2. Cloud Boost Technology
Cloud boost technology makes use of UCWeb’s servers to provide much faster loading times for users. Users can choose to have it enabled for either Mobile or Web or both and even choose to disable it for both. In our experience, the advantages of cloud boost are most easily seen on mobile networks. The effect is present over Wi-Fi as well but not as prominent as it is over mobile data. However, it would be more effective if your Wi-Fi network is slow too but if it already is fast, you won’t see much of a speed boost.
3. Download Manager
UC Browser has an integrated download manager that is quite advanced. Users can set the maximum number of simultaneous downloads (Between 1-6), specify the target folder and choose whether or not they wish to be prompted before a download is started. You can choose to enable or disable download update notifications and also enable or disable auto reconnect in case a file download fails. The download manager gives you a quick look at the amount of free space on your device as well as the files that are still being downloaded and ones that have completed download. There is a video manager as well which allows you to download and save videos onto your phone for viewing later even if you are offline. Finally, there is a neat file manager built into the download manager feature that neatly segregates your downloads based on the file types.
4. Customisation
Most browsers don’t have much to brag about customizability but UC Browser has a massive library of themes that you can choose from. By default, you get two themes but there are many more themes online that you can choose to download and use. You can also change the background and text colour separately. If you aren’t happy with the choice of themes available on the store, you can also make your own custom theme by using any of the photos on your device.
5. Night Mode
What night mode does is basically change the entire look of the browser to make it easier on your eyes at night. If you are someone who loves to read at night in your bed with the lights turned off, this will definitely help your eyes feel more comfortable. It changes the black icons on a white background to grey icons on a black background which reduces the amount of hard light hitting your eye.
6. Ad Blocker
Ad blocker works just as its name suggests. It prevents ads from loading on websites as well as any pop up ads that may try to come up. Users can take a look at the number of ads that have been blocked in total as well as the number of ads that have been blocked from each website. You can even choose to reset the statistics if needed.
7. Quick Access
Probably the most useful feature of the bunch is quick access. Quick access basically allows you to have a persistent search bar as well as a quick shortcut to your Facebook newsfeed, messages, notifications as well a shortcut to write a new status. Of course the Facebook integration will require you to login to your Facebook account using the browser but it does make thing a lot faster. Even search becomes much easier as you just have to pull down the notification bar and type in. That is something you can do regardless of what app you are using.
8. Gestures
UC Browser supports various gestures that makes browsing much faster and easier. It also allows one handed usage especially on larger devices such as phablets. Users can swipe to the right to go backward or swipe to the left to go forward. Similarly, videos too support gestures as seen in most media players. You can swipe left or right to seek backwards or forwards in a video. You can swipe up or down on the left side or right side to increase or decrease the brightness and volume respectively.
9. Text Only Mode
Most webpages these days have a lot of image content on them and while you do need them at times, it isn’t always necessary and might end up costing you a lot of data even when you just want to read the text. For example, a review will have many images but you may not require the images when on the move and might be happy just reading the text. Thats where the text only mode steps in. It loads pages with just the text and thus saves you a lot of data. It works only on mobile data and once you are connected to a Wi-Fi network or turn off text only mode, the placeholders will be filled with the images one by one.
10. Add-ons and Speed Mode
UC Browser supports several add-ons. The Ad blocker we mentioned earlier is one of such add-ons and we have another add on called speed boost as well. Speed mode allows you to choose from a lite, mobile or desktop version of sites and as a result also allows you to control the amount of data a page consumes and the loading times. Lite mode will load the fastest and consume least amount of data while the desktop mode will give you a fully immersive desktop experience while consuming more data. Mobile mode will give you webpages that are optimised for mobile phones and cellular data. There are a few add-ons such as speed mode, ad blocker, clipboard, QR scanner etc pre-loaded onto the browser but users can make use of the store to download more add-ons if they wish to do so.