Browsing on the go has become the norm nowadays. With the advent of 3G services in Pakistan, the dream of faster browsing on our smartphones has indeed become a reality. It comes with caveats attached though, mobile internet buckets with data caps of 500MB to 8GB a month are offered and unlimited packages are a distant dream. Most hardcore users end up consuming their allotted data cap within a matter of days. Worry not! There is a solution to this problem, which can be acted upon by using these browsers mentioned below:

1) Opera Mini (iOS & Android)

Opera Mini is a browser that specializes in compressing mobile data. It can deliver significant savings and can be downloaded for Android and iOS from these URL’s respectively: (Android) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.opera.browser.beta&hl=en (iOS) https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/opera-mini-web-browser/id363729560?mt=8

On both Android & iOS versions of the browser, Opera Turbo feature is enabled by default to deliver significant cost savings to your mobile data usage:

2) Chrome (iOS & Android)

Chrome for iOS and Android also offers the feature to compress mobile data and deliver significant savings to your mobile data usage. It can be downloaded for Android and iOS by searching on the Google Play Store & App store respectively. To enable Data Compression on iOS or Android, click on the Chrome menu button---->Settings--->Reduce Data Usage and set the slider to ON as show in the screenshot below:

Assuaging privacy concerns for both the browsers, while accessing HTTPS websites they do not use the compressing feature for it. Meaning, it will deliver less mobile data savings but your confidential information is secure in that regard for e.g. accessing your email. On a fast data connection, performance may be a touch slow because the connection isn’t direct and you’re waiting for the proxy. Other browsers like Dolphin, UC Browser HD on both iOS and Android offer the same features above and can be downloaded from their respective App stores.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, March 22nd, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play