{"id":16512,"date":"2012-01-06T22:08:18","date_gmt":"2012-01-07T05:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wapreview.com\/?p=16512"},"modified":"2012-01-06T22:12:03","modified_gmt":"2012-01-07T05:12:03","slug":"uc-browser-goes-gold-first-look-at-uc-8-0-5-for-android","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wapreview.com\/16512\/","title":{"rendered":"UC Browser Goes Gold, But Is It Still A Proxy Browser – First Look at UC 8.0.5 for Android"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"UC<\/a>\"UC<\/a><\/p>\n

The first production (non-Beta or Gold) release of UC Browser 8 is now available in the Android Market<\/a>. At the\u00a0moment\u00a0it’s only for Andoid 2.1 and later. The Symbian (3rd edition and latter) and Java versions are still at Beta V 8.0.4. \u00a0UC has ended development\u00a0for Symbian 1st and 2nd edition, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry although older 7.8 or 7.9 versions are still available for these platforms from ucweb.com<\/a>\u00a0(PC) and wap.ucweb.com<\/a> (mobile).<\/p>\n

\"UC<\/a>\"UC<\/a><\/p>\n

This release sports a brand new UI that’s quite different from that of the 8.04 Beta. Version 8.04’s single tabbed menu (above, left) has been replaced by two separate single page menus labeled “Menu” (above, right) and “Settings”. The “Tabs” menu has also been redesigned (old – below, left; new – below, right).<\/p>\n

\"UC<\/a>\"UC<\/a><\/p>\n

Other changes in the new release are the addition of a built in RSS Reader called “Quick Read” and a new home screen dubbed “Quick Dial” (below, right), \u00a0consisting of a grid of bookmark tiles replaces the old “Quick Links” Home Screen (below, left).<\/p>\n

\"UC<\/a>\"UC<\/a><\/p>\n

There are a couple of other less positive changes. The “Night Mode” option that gave most pages light gray text on a black background is gone. I’m not a fan of night modes but many people seem to like then. The other unwelcome change is that the latest release uses slightly more memory than its\u00a0predecessor. The table below compares UC 8.04 and 8.0.5’s memory\u00a0consumption, as reported by the preinstalled Task Manager app on a Motorola Photon running Android 2.3.4 (Gingerbread). Tests were conducted with image quality set to medium and “Mobile” (single column) browse mode enabled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Tabs open<\/th>\nUC 8.0.4<\/th>\nUC 8.0.5<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
None – browser freshly launched<\/td>\n25 MB<\/td>\n42 MB<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
One – identi.ca timeline loaded<\/td>\n42 MB<\/td>\n49 MB<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Two – added the WapReview\u00a0WordPress Dashboard<\/td>\n45 MB<\/td>\n60 MB<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Three – added the BoostApps.com phpBB Forum<\/td>\n50 MB<\/td>\n63 MB<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Four – added Google Reader (desktop version)<\/td>\n82 MB<\/td>\n89 MB<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Five – added Facebook (mobile version)<\/td>\n95 MB<\/td>\n98 MB<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The increased memory usage is greatest with no or just a few tabs open. The Photon has a gigabyte of RAM and showed no signs of distress with five tabs open in the UC Browser with several other apps were running in the background at the same time. \u00a0Phones with less RAM may not be so fortunate. There are already several Android Market comments<\/a> reporting out of memory issues with the new release.<\/p>\n

Traditionally UC has been a proxy based browser, similar to Opera Mini. \u00a0I suspect that starting with version 8.0 for Android, the UC Browser is a direct (non-proxy) browser created with an embedded\u00a0Android webview. I believe this for two reasons.<\/p>\n