The Apple iPhone comes with its own browser; but besides Safari, many alternative browsers for the smartphone have been released these last few years and some are even better than Apple’s native browser.

Here are some that made it to our Top iPhone Browsers this year.

1. Dolphin Browser

Dolphin Browser is undoubtedly the best browser for the iPhone – maybe even better than Safari. Thus it ranks first in our list for the top iPhone browsers. Aside from the fact that it works faster, has better and more functional tools for download and crash recovery, sports a full-screen mode and features tabbed browsing, it also has features that Safari does not have. One example of this is Gesture, an easy and accurate interface that responds to mere gestures of a finger on the screen of the device. It also has built-in Twitter, Facebook and RSS.

On the down side, Dolphin does not have the ability to import bookmarks from Safari. But if that does not really bother to you as it does not to us, Dolphin could be the perfect browser for your iPhone.

2. Opera Mini

The Opera Mini could sure make for an awesome alternative browser if you what you’re seeking is faster browsing speed. This browser runs faster than Safari because it uses a server-side rendering technique to compress data before sending them to you. That is the main reason why Opera Mini is considered one of the top iPhone browsers. In addition to that, the browser also has bigger navigation icons, which makes it more comfortable and easier to use. The only letdown is that Opera Mini does not have very good zooming and pinching control. But apart from that, the Opera Mini browser can really make for a good third-party browser on your iPhone.

3. Atomic

Although not yet ready to compete with the browsers mentioned above, Atomic has great potential in becoming a good alternative browser for iPhone. It features Gestures, uses tabbed browsing and has a full-screen mode that works even better than Dolphin’s. It can also import bookmarks from Safari – a feature that rival browsers apparently have not figured out yet – and has a version made specifically for use in the iPhone. If you like a customized browser, Atomic would be a good choice for its wide array of options and settings. Although it is slightly slower than the others on the list, Atomic could be a really good browser. If you’re not really in a hurry, that is.

In addition to Dolphin, Opera Mini and Atomic, which made the top 3 browsers for the Apple iPhone, there are also some browsers that are actually good and worth mentioning, but these are set back by buggy features.

One of these is Mercury. It has a splendid full-screen mode, offers tabbed browsing, can import bookmarks from Safari, and features Gestures. It works very fast, too. However, it does not work very well for downloading and its Gestures could also be buggy sometimes. If these glitches could be fixed, Mercury could prove to be a useful browser in its own right.

Another one is Photon. Photon is one of the few browsers for iPhone that render Flash – an Adobe plug-in software practically banned on the iPhone. Obviously, video streaming is slightly slow in this browser, but it works. Although videos could become a little blurry and pixelated, especially over Wi-Fi connections, the playback is continuous and the audio never precedes the video or hangs back.

About Francis Rey Balolong

A coffee junkie who spends most of his time writing about the latest news on social media and mobile technology. I would definitely consider myself a nerd (in the coolest most hipster way possible). That being said, I love technology, music, writing, and all things mobile. Follow me: Google+ Twitter

Don’t forget to subscribe and receive our latest posts in your inbox.