A Closer Look At Safari 4: How Does It Stack Up?

by Marco Chiappetta — Tuesday, July 21, 2009, 12:35 PM EDT

In early June, Apple released what is arguably its most significant upgrade to Safari yet: Safari 4. In typical Apple fashion, the company was quick to deem it the "world's fastest and most innovative browser." Today, we're setting out to find if that bold claim is indeed true, and we'll be breaking down the features of it--along with its fiercest competitors--on both the Mac and PC side.

One of the nicer things about Safari 4 is that Apple has made it available for both Windows (XP and Vista) as well as its own OS X operating system. It's also built around the Nitro engine, which--according to Apple runs JavaScript up to 4.5 times faster than the prior instance of Safari, nearly 8 times faster than Internet Explorer 8 and over 4 times faster than Firefox 3. It also supports HTML 5 and advanced CSS effects, and Apple claims that it can load HTML web pages over 3 times faster than IE 8 and Firefox 3. Apple also added a number of new, unique features that help to set this browser apart from the rest: Top Sites, Full History Search and Cover Flow.

A Closer Look At Safari 4: How Does It Stack Up?

Tags: Apple, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Browser, camino

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com