Maxthon Test

I tried out the Maxthon browser quite a while ago - maybe a few years ago now, and saved some screenshots for a quick review. It's long over-due, but here's a quick breakdown of the more noteworthy facets of this unique browser's interface and finesse.

Nothing to see here. Well, apart from a pretty slick Install screen...

This was the version I installed: v3.4.5.2000. Plenty of room for revisions! Information is concise and easy to browse, and there's a little 'System Info' box too if you're interested.

Speed is one of the key elements in choosing browsers nowadays, but since Chrome came in and revolutionized the game it seems all browsers are fast. If you're running a good computer. Maxthon uses some special type of script/library/not-sure-what to further speed up websites when you need it, though it supposedly doesn't work with sites that don't support it. I didn't really notice a difference, but of course that may have to do with computer limitations. Compared to the browser I prefer and usually use - FireFox - Maxthon was pretty resource intensive! Almost like Chrome.

From what I read, Maxthon were way before their time with this feature, but now it doesn't stand out quite as much as it should have when it was new.

There's a looot of options and features to browse though! Here's the basic selection. They also have a useful sync feature to keep your settings and bookmarks between browsers. Neat.

Their History tab looks mighty nice and easy to filter through. It's the nicest History tab I've seen, similar to Chrome but just a little neater. I almost kept using the browser thanks to this one feat, but system resource usage was what ultimately chased me away.

A nice and handy way of finding what content's embedded on a certain page, and sorted by content type too! That's a clear advantage.

There's a little notepad built-in too. I really liked these little gadgets; especially this one. Some of the others felt like potential bloatware.

These were 'included' by default, but you can add your own linked resources. Seems potentially useful.

Ah, the ability to zoom in and check gradient and dimension, useful for webdev!

And finally, there was this neat little gadget. You basically take a printscreen of a browser window (seamlessly - to the user it looks like nothing's happened when you click the 'draw' button) and are free to apply your own artistic touches. Useful if you need a screenshot with captions, etc, but as it is limited to the browser window itself I'd rather use a different program for such purposes.

Overall Maxthon felt like a very feature-rich browser, and it had a homely and helpful touch to it along with the slick interface - where most browsers try to remain 'strictly professional'. Even Mozilla. It was fun to use for a while, but in the end FF was faster, less resource-intense, and with all things considered - I didn't really need most of the additional functions this browser provided anyway.

I do wish Mozilla would mimic their History page a bit, though, and maybe add a little note jotter and split media view on page elements. If I had a more powerful computer I might've kept using this, it's a good browser all in all.