A Review of a Decent, Free Web Browser, Minimo 0.012

http://www.meer.net/~dougt/minimo_ce/MinimoCE_0.012.exe

New versions of the, not counting in Opera Mini and ftxPBrowser, a "plain" Pocket Internet Explorer plug-in, currently only free alternative Web browser, Minimo, are released in rapid succession. It was just a few weeks ago that I've reviewed the – then – new 0.011 version. Version 0.012 has been released in the meantime; now, answering some questions at FirstLoox, I've also given it a test ride. Please note that this review is not a fully-fledged review – it's building on my reviews of previous versions. I only concentrate on the 'problematic' aspects of previos versions, with mentioning what's new in the new version. You, therefore, may want to follow the above link to my 0.011 review; you may want to follow the links to the previous versions from that article. Pros

• It no longer has the problem of the inability to enter URL's. That problem really plagued the previous version; now, it's working OK
• much more fine-grained text zooming capabilities than in the built-in Pocket Internet Explorer (PIE); it's even better than that of NetFront. You can fine-tune of the zoom in/out rate in Settings as can be seen here, at the bottom
• you don't need to soft-reset your PDA to be able to restart it
• attaching (HTTP uploading) of files works (another screenshot after upload)

Cons

• it's still as unbelievably slow on the iPAQ 2210 as before – about an order of magnitude slower than on the Pocket Loox 720 when writing something to the address bar or, even worse, choosing any URL from its history list. Dunno whether this affects all WM2003 devices or just an incompatibility problem with the iPAQ 2210. The page loading and rendering speed isn't that bad, though; it's still definitely slower than on the Loox. Also note that while in a text input component, you won't be able to hide the actual, activated Software Input Panel on the iPAQ 2210, unlike with the Pocket Loox 720, where you can hide the panel even without transferring the focus to a non-text input component (for example, some text in the HTML page).
• its setting dialogs are still ugly in standard SE VGA mode on VGA devices because of the double-sized checkboxes
• the same stands for in-page checkboxes and radio buttons, as can be seen in this screenshot (see the radio buttons under the text input field). It's only after (using the Zoom buttons, which can also be seen in the screenshot, at the top left) zooming in the contents that the size of these components becomes comparable to text. (You wouldn't want to use Minimo with so big characters, though.) Note that this isn't an issue in native VGA mode – then, these GUI components have the right (small) size.
• the context menus of hyperlinks in 0.011 still had a (never-working) "Copy" option. In the new version, this option has been removed, which is a pity because 'Copy link address' is really important functionality.
• Some scripting incompatibility problems: on my Pocket Loox 720, version 0.011 was able to log into Yahoo Mail, 0.012 isn't. On my iPAQ 2210, it was able to log in, though.
• In (the default) SSR mode (which is something like One Column in WM2003SE+ PIE or Just/Smart-Fit Rendering in NetFront), JavaScript-compliance is limited. For example, you can easily switch to the non-SSR mode by unchecking 'Use SSR' and 'Use Site-Specific SSR' in Settings, in the General tab. Then, scripting will work.
• It still has severe incompatibility problems with Dell Axim x50v/x51v devices.

Verdict Give it a try if you are fed up with PIE but don't want to pay for or wait for its official 3.3 release of NetFront or the new Opera. This version of Minimo, apart from its bugs and problems, already a decent browser – in many respects, better than PIE.