UC Browser is China’s leading and most popular mobile browser. The browser recently launched in Kenya and other African markets. You will all agree that not so many Kenyan consumers use the browser. Opera, who UC Browser by launching in Kenya is targeting directly and other browsers like Chrome are the most common used.
UC Browser currently has 400 million users around the world and their presence in Kenya could even see these numbers increase.
By launching in Kenya, UC Browser say they are bringing the latest browser technologies to offer faster downloading options on their smartphones. Is that really the case? I have been trying out the browser and in this review article I will be telling you what I found out.
You can also read: China’s UC Browser is here, this is what they are bringing to the Kenyan market
User Interface
I tried comparing it with Opera, UC browser’s main competitor and the difference was not that quite big, except that UC Browser comes with more customised settings. Its user interface is also crowded but gives you so many options to choose on what to do. I tested it on my TECNO Boom J8 smartphone running on Android 5.1 and my experience wasn’t that bad.
The screenshots below show the Opera vs the UC Browser User Interfaces:
Despite of the crowding, the UC browsers user interface is also clean and truly optimized for for small mobile screens, so it can work quite well on a 5.0 inch screen or even a 5.5 inch like screen like that of my TECNO Boom J8.
The browser also has the best download manager I have ever interacted with. The Download Manager is able to handle concurrent downloads with virtually no lags. It also automatically reconnects when the download is disrupted. Normally most browsers would lag with simultaneous downloads, this was not the case with the UC Browser.
Download Speed
This is probably one of the most interesting things I found out about the UC Browser. The download speed is quite fast. It took me less than a minute to download a file from my Gmail inbox
and as I had mentioned earlier, unlike Opera, the browser supports simultaneous downloads and a clean, well organised download manager for all your files, this also includes pages for offline reading.
I can can rate the UC Browser as the best browser for downloads. It is the only browser that displays a download in progress bar and also gives you an option of pausing and resuming downloads. This means that the browser is really fit for the increasing number of Kenyan smartphone users who are always on the internet downloading music or any other files.
Technologies, features and performance
UC Browser utilises cloud technology that turns it into a powerful downloading machine as well as a smooth browsing tool. To achieve the fastest download speed, the browser utilises segmented file transfer and multi-threaded downloading technologies to split a single file into separate parts and download those parts simultaneously through multiple channels, while maximizing download efficiency based on the user’s network. Algorithms for downloading have also been optimized to enhance the efficiency of fetching data from servers.
These technologies makes its performance quite first and smooth. Its support for dynamic wrapping and pinch-zoom is also quite interesting. With the slightest pinch, texts respond quite fast.
The Page sharing feature the UC Browser is also one interesting thing I also discovered during my review. With it you can share everything you see with your friends via Facebook, Twitter and other social media pages, but again you will be required to sign-in to your various networks to do all this.
The browser also allows you to have videos offline and watch them later. This is really nice since it helps you save time and data. I mean who wouldn’t want to save his data 🙂
The UC Browser also has Incognito browsing, meaning you are able to protect your privacy without leaving any trace on the phone. Apart from that, the Theme Centre comes with a variety of themes giving you a chance to customise your own UC Browser. Another feature is Night Mode, which makes it comfortable for reading at night. With this you don’t need to strain too much when reading during the dark.
Overall, the browser is fast and easy to use and loads pages really quickly. If you haven’t already picked a favourite browser, then UC Browser is a pretty good option and it’s also free. Launching in the Kenyan market is a good move for UC Browser and it will in interesting to see how it is going to compete with Opera.
UC Browser is available as a free download for Android, iPhone and other platforms. If you are already using it you can also share your experiences with us.
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