Rating: 
Review Conditions
Digia @Web 2.02 (beta) was installed in a Nokia 5800 XPressMusic, an s60 5th edition mobile device running Symbian version OS 9.4.
Installation
Installation is using the Nokia Application Installer. Digia @Web can be downloaded here.
First View
There are quite a few web browsers out there. In addition to the native S60 browser (which is new and improved), there are many popular ones like Opera Mini, Skyfire, Bolt, UC Browser and so on.
Digia @Web from Digia is the new kid on the block. Lets find out how the experience of browsing the Internet on Digia @Web is.
Main Review
Digia @Web is a full-featured web browser for the S60 touch device. It starts up with a Welcome page that has detailed instructions on how to use each function of the browser. The browser window layout is conventional, yet elegant. The top of the window has the Address pane. On the right is the control for zooming in and out of the text. On the bottom is the Control pane. All the controls hide unobtrusively and expose a full screen when you start navigation on the web page.
Address Pane & Tabbed Browsing
The Address pane is always at the top of the page and is hidden automatically when it is not used. It is shown again when the Menu icon is pressed. I liked the auto-URL complete feature in the Address pane.
On the left of the Address pane is a small box that allows tabbed browsing. When tapped, it opens up a new window with a mini-box of all the other open pages. No other browser has implemented tabbed browsing so well. Its easy to use and you do not have to search for other open browser windows.
Quick Menu & Settings
A long press on any empty space on a page reveals the Quick Menu. The Quick Menu, in addition to providing the usual “About”, “Help” and “Exit Browser” options, lets you browse the web by “Enabling private browsing” and takes you to a “Settings” page where privacy and other General settings like home page, pop-up management, etc can be configured.
Control Pane
The Control pane gives you access to the functions to manipulate web pages. The Control pane is hidden and it comes up when the Menu icon, present at the bottom of the page is pressed. The Control brings up the Address pane, browser window navigation options, Next and Previous, Page Zoom scroll bar, New Page and Bookmarks.
Bookmarks
Bookmarked websites have a bright yellow star against them, similar to Mozilla. New bookmarks can be added by just bringing up the Control pane. The usual functions that come in a Bookmark Manager are available in Digia @Web.
Flash
Digia @Web handles Flash content very well. Playing youtube videos was a breeze.
Pop-up Blocker
Digia @Web has a built-in pop-up blocker too.
Handling
Digia @Web is simple to use and very intuitively designed. The automatic full screen mode is a delight to use. I didn’t have any problems and the user experience was great.
Weaknesses
I am disappointed that Digia @Web does not support RSS Feeds. That’s a potential deal breaker for me.
The Menu icon is really small and may sometimes be lost in all the text and pictures on the web page. And we could accidentally click a link instead of the Menu icon. It is clearly not designed for finger use but only for a stylus.
The browser crashed a couple of times when I tried to navigate to a secure web page. There were a few instances where I had to simply restart it. This could have been because of low memory on my 5800 too. But hey, Digia @Web is still at beta and there will be a few bugs to iron out and I am sure these will be fixed in later versions.
Conclusion
Digia @Web is built on top of Qt 4.5. It supports a full finger touch UI and renders a full web experience using the webkit browser engine. I enjoyed the direct page control using my fingers, multiple browser windows, URL auto-complete and automatic full screen browsing. The ability to view Flash content (e.g. Youtube videos) and the relatively fast rendering of web pages has made it stand out. Digia @Web is available only for the S60 5th edition devices. It is free, can be downloaded here and is good stuff. I’ll give it 4 of 5.
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