6 things we like about Internet Explorer 9 beta (and six not so much)
Since the release of IE9 beta on Sept. 15, we’ve been playing with the 32-bit Windows Vista and 64-bit Windows 7 versions — doing nothing technically fancy with them, like benchmarking, but just using them in our everyday Web surfing routine.
Internet Explorer 9: A visual tour
Here are six things about the latest Microsoft Web browser we really like. And six which we think could use some more work before IE9 sees a final release.
Six things we like…
1. Yep,it’s really fast
The overall Web experience with IE9 definitely feels “snappier” than previous versions of IE, especially when we tested both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of IE9 on JavaScript-heavy sites such as Facebook and Gmail, and on Flash-based Web destinations including YouTube.
We tried the famous fish tank demo on the 32-bit version of IE9 and on the latest 32-bit Google Chrome beta. On a low-end notebook (a 6-year-old Dell running Vista), Chrome could only render 20 fish at a pitiful 1 frame per second. Barely. IE9? Around 15 to 20 frames per second.
Besides better coding, IE9 incorporates GPU acceleration — which basically means the browser passes on the heavy-duty processing of such Web animations to your computer’s graphics chipset.
2. Sharper looking font
IE9 features a new font set that makes small text easier to read. We found this very obvious when comparing Gmail on IE9 vs. the latest Chrome beta. Not only was the font clearly darker and more legible on IE9, it was subtly narrower, enabling more text to occupy each line.
The font also scaled up, enlarging, quite well.
3. Web address + search bar = convenience
The URL address box pulls double duty as an Internet search box. Type in a word or phrase, and you’ll be presented with icons representing the search engines you have selected to be used directly within IE9. Click on a search engine’s icon, hit “Enter,” and search results from that service will be shown inside the browser window.
We found this way in which IE9 handles multiple search engines quick and convenient.
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