$\"UC$ <\/a> $\"UC$ <\/a><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

The biggest news in this release is that UC finally supports Symbian^3, almost two years after the OS launched. This isn’t as big a deal as you might think as the Symbian 5th ed version of UC Browser has always worked reasonably well on Symbian^3 devices.<\/p>\n

I tested UC 8.5 on two Symbian phones, a Nokia N8 running Belle and a Nokia N95-3 (S60 3rd ed. FP1). For the most part it worked well on both phones. \u00a0I didn’t run formal speed tests but the latest UC does seem a bit faster the previous version.<\/p>\n

The QR code reader worked although autofocus seems to be disabled making it tricky to focus on and read some of the smaller QR codes I tried. A dedicated reader like UpCode<\/a> is easier to use.<\/p>\n

I’m not sure what the claimed search\u00a0optimizations are in this release. There’s a built in web search box which defaults to using Google but lets you change the default search provider to Bing or Yahoo. There’s also Find in Page function which I had trouble finding in the Symbian^3 version. (It’s hidden away in the Tools > Help sub-menu. Both search options work well, but I don’t see what’s optimized about them compared with previous releases.<\/p>\n

UC 8.5 was generally stable on both the N8 and N95-3. The only problem I encountered was with the bookmark sync feature which \u00a0caused the browser to crash on the N95-3, just as it has with every UC Browser release since 8.2. Bookmark sync worked on the N8.<\/p>\n

If your mobile browsing suffers from slow page loads or you pay for data by the KB or MB you ought to try a proxy based browser. On Symbian phones you have a choice of Opera Mini or the UC Browser. I prefer Opera Mini’s more accurate page rendering and more\u00a0efficient\u00a0UI, but UC Browser does seem a little faster. \u00a0It’s also able to open some pages that Opera Mini can’t such as outlook.com.\u00a0Conversely, there are also pages UC can’t render that Opera can.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, UC Browser 8.5 is a fast, capable proxy browser for Symbian phones and is a recomended upgrade for UC Browser 8.4 users. It’s available for Symbian 3rd ed. and later from the\u00a0UC Browser site (desktop<\/a>)\u00a0(mobile<\/a>). \u00a0Avoid downloading UC Browser from the Nokia Store if you want the latest version. The one in the Store is 8.2 and it will ovewrite newer versions without warning!<\/p>\n

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

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"