Skyfire is an exceptional free, mobile browser that delivers rich web media right to your mobile phone. The latest and recently updated version has just been made available for download to the public. This mobile browsing software is incredible. It allows you to play Flash content, video playback and utilize Ajax, with the support of Silverlight, Quicktime, and Windows Media.

Skyfire browser has been mentioned to be not as quick and “cunning” as Opera Mini (see MakeUseOf review) once you start browsing. However it allows for a much quicker viewing of videos on sites such as Youtube with impressive tempo. One of the major differences between the two mobile surfing giants is that Opera Mini requires the use of JavaScript in order to start up – this can easily interfere with loading speeds.

A new feature this version assumes is the “Super Bar” and “predictive text”. Whenever a keyword is typed in anywhere within the browser, the Super Bar searches for this word and returns with a defined word or a synonym. This feature seems much like the one Opera and Chrome browsers have adopted. With Skyfire if you come across a page you’d like to share or send to a friend via SMS, with two simple taps within the menu, a pre-filled text appears on your screen with the specified URL content.

With this new release you’re also able to save images, download files, and in addition Skyfire can now be set as a default browser.

Since Skyfire is in Beta there are a couple of bugs. Some things I wasn’t quite fond of when browsing were that if Skyfire lost service as I browsed, then I would have to completely restart the browser.

Another bug I found consisted of the fact that Skyfire currently does not support Pocket Internet Explorer bookmarks. If you would like to import your current bookmarks from Pocket Internet Explorer to Skyfire, then for the time being you’re unable to. We expect Skyfire’s developers and programmers will address this issue soon enough before its final release. However, besides these tiny bugs, Skyfire has proven to be a fast media-enriched browser.

When Skyfire views Flash content, it can possibly take anywhere from 2-3 seconds in order to update the screen and the video may freeze as well.  However this is still by far a supreme addition to the bundles of mobile browsers available.

Here is a quick graphed comparison placing Skyfire an Opera Mini in contrast with both of their loading times for the designated pages, as well as which applications they support:

Here is a video of the browser operating. Even though the interface is more or less the same, this is a bit of an older version. One of the largest updates within the newer version consists of performance gains but keep this in mind when watching.

The changes and updates made to the new version of Skyfire allow it to become more stable and “rock” the mobile browsing community. However, it seems as though it has quite a bit of time before it can supersede the many expectations of the Opera Mini fans.

Download Skyfire browse here.

Do you use, or have you used, Skyfire? How do you think it compares to Opera Mini or any other mobile browser? Let us know in the comments!