Browsers have become more than simple gateways to our favorite sites; they are the central operating system for our digital identity, managing everything from our communications and entertainment to our banking and health records.
I’m always excited to test new browsers, and when one promises to be 5x faster than my default Android browser and 2x faster than Chrome, it becomes even more interesting.
That’s the claim the Dolphin browser makes, and I decided to put it to the test.
The bold claim: 2x faster than Chrome
What Dolphin promises and how I planned to test it
Dolphin is a mobile browser with no official desktop versions, and it’s positioned around speed. Here’s the official claim according to the Dolphin browser: 5–10x faster than the default Android browser and 2x faster than Chrome. This isn’t a subtle claim, especially on mobile devices where battery and memory are already limited. It would be remarkable if it truly doubled Chrome’s speed.
Chrome is already deeply integrated into the Android ecosystem. It’s backed by Google’s engine-level improvements and typically optimized for Android updates. You’d only assume that for Dolphin to beat it by a factor of two, it would take more than a few UI tweaks and an ad blocker.
Of course, the browser isn’t just about speed. It includes tabbed browsing features, extra browsing tools and add-ons, its own Web App Store, as well as a user-agent switcher that lets you toggle between desktop and mobile views. If it adds speed to that set of features, it could be a rare mobile browser that you use in place of Chrome.
Testing Dolphin vs. Chrome in the real world
Benchmarks and resource usage: the complete picture
The best way to verify Dolphin’s claim is to run industry-standard browsing tests, and that’s what I did. I ran three BrowserBench tests on my Samsung Galaxy A72 using both Chrome and Dolphin. These tests simulate loading pages, running scripts, and rendering graphics—your everyday browsing workflow. They determine how quickly browsers respond when you click, scroll, or stream.
The first test I ran was the Speedometer 3.0 test, which measures responsiveness. While Chrome scored 3.73, Dolphin narrowly edged it out, scoring 3.77. This shows that basic interactions like typing or switching tabs on both browsers will feel almost the same.
Next, I ran the JetStream 2 benchmark to evaluate how both browsers execute JavaScript and WebAssembly. Here, Dolphin scored 225.78, which was more than Chrome’s 218.49. This is a modest difference, showing Dolphin is slightly faster at processing scripts. However, this is still not a 2X speed difference.
In the MotionMark test, which measures browser efficiency while handling graphics, Dolphin outperformed Chrome by 244.70 to Chrome’s 215.77. This suggests you’ll experience smoother visual rendering and transitions on Dolphin. Finally, with only one tab running, I checked RAM consumption, and again, Dolphin had the edge, using 277MB of RAM as opposed to Chrome’s 376MB. This lighter footprint suggests Dolphin may feel snappier on devices with less memory, even though, in real-world use, it is faster by small margins, not by multiples.
What makes Dolphin feel faster (or not)
Under the hood: tweaks and performance perception
Both browsers have near-identical benchmark scores, showing Dolphin isn’t drastically faster, even if it sometimes feels that way. The speed difference may be due to tiny optimizations and not necessarily raw processing power.
Dolphin runs a leaner architecture that allows it to launch quickly and use less memory, creating this illusion of speed, especially on mid-range phones. This is unlike Chrome, which has many background services tied to the Google ecosystem.
Dolphin also has built-in ad blocking and caching that help reduce loading times while surfing media or ad-heavy websites. Some pages that drag on Chrome load almost instantly in Dolphin, even though the rendering engine isn’t much faster.
This speed advantage wouldn’t be so noticeable on sites that rely heavily on modern JavaScript frameworks. The browser is quite efficient and lightweight, but it wouldn’t necessarily outperform Chrome in complex, script-heavy tasks. What it does is trim away the extras that slow down Chrome. You may rather switch to other lightweight browsers if you want to prioritize browser speed.
My verdict after testing and using Dolphin
The 2X speed claims seem to be more marketing hype than reality. But I still went ahead and immersed myself in the Dolphin mobile browser experience for a whole day. It delivered a smooth experience in several scenarios. It gets an edge thanks to its lightweight design, efficient memory use, and built-in ad blocker, especially on low- to mid-range phones where RAM counts.
However, it doesn’t come close to being a Google Chrome alternative. It’s modestly faster but not noticeably more powerful or capable for everyday tasks. There’s still a place for it, especially if you want an efficient browser without the background clutter that comes with Chrome.