Home » Mac, Reviews, how to, Software

WebKit browsers own HTML5 benchmark

3 August 2010 1,854 views 5 Comments


    It’s rather disingenuous to say that the latest Chrome dev channel build is faster than last week’s publicly released version of Safari, especially when it’s so easy just to go get the latest build of WebKit, the open-source development version of Apple’s browser. And, hey, why not invite even more friends to the party?

    There’s an updated version of the HTML5 Test and it features a new 315-point scale versus the previous 300-point version. There’s additional information available that can be crudely summarized by saying “more testing is better.”

    And, here’s how the mainline, as well as some B-list, browsers fare when put to this test:

    • WebKit 8/2 Build — 227
    • Chrome dev channel — 222
    • Safari 5.0.1 — 213
    • iCab 4.8 — 213
    • Sunrise — 213
    • Chrome 5.0.375.125 — 202
    • Firefox 4 beta 8/2 build — 190
    • Firefox 4 beta 2 — 189
    • Opera 10.6 — 159
    • Firefox 3.6.6 — 139
    • SeaMonkey — 126

    My takeaway? Though it’s clearly still early days, if you’re not using a WebKit-based browser — WebKit, Safari, Chrome, iCab or Sunrise — you’re not getting as much as you can from the HTML5-optimized web…

    What’s your take?

    1 Free Audio Book - Audible.com

      5 Comments »

      • Walt French said:

        Thanks, good stuff!

        But it’s actually how the browsers fare. (perform in a specified way in a particular situation or over a particular period of time : the party fared badly in the spring elections,” sez Apple Dictionary)

        I’d've thunked you’d've knowed that.

        # 3 August 2010 at 2:29 pm
      • Jacob Singer said:

        Safari Nightly Webkit (Aug 3) with WebGL turned on gets you a score of 239 (232 + 7 bonus). To turn on WebGL, in terminal enter:

        defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitWebGLEnabled -bool YES

        # 4 August 2010 at 12:50 am
      • Jacob Singer said:

        Webkit 8/3 score 244 (237+7) on the newer HTML 5 test (beta).

        # 4 August 2010 at 12:53 am
      • Stijn de Witt said:

        Well more testing *is* better! And WebKit is definitely a very advanced browser, at the forefront when it comes to HTML5.

        But just today I found a pretty severe (imho) rendering bug in WebKit: WebKit Breaking Float Bug, and I think that it’s even more important to get the basic rendering right than it is to have advanced HTML 5 features. So hoping they will give some priority to these bugs and not just implement shiny new features :)

        # 6 September 2010 at 5:39 pm
      • WebKit browsers [still] top HTML5 benchmark | FairerPlatform said:

        [...] whereas last month’s survey was utterly dominated by Webkit-based browsers, Firefox 4 beta and Opera have greatly improved [...]

        # 10 September 2010 at 8:19 am

      Leave your response!

      Add your comment below, or trackback from your own site. You can also subscribe to these comments via RSS.

      Be nice. Keep it clean. Stay on topic. No spam.