Google Chrome vs Safari speed test on iPhone

By , Jun 28, 2012

It’s funny to hear so many reports about how much slower than Safari Google Chrome will inevitably be, due to its lack of access to the Nitro Javascript engine. While that may be true from a technical standpoint, and no doubt data heads will be able to show me numbers that back that fact up, in real world usage, such stats tend to be tossed to the sidelines.

I’m not going to claim that the following speed test is anything close to scientific, but it will give you a decent idea as to what to expect from Google Chrome.

So, who won our speed test? Check inside for the details…

Note: As stated, there is nothing scientific about this test. Google Chrome was installed on an iPhone 4S using iOS 5.1.1, and Safari was ran on an iPhone 4 running iOS 6 beta 2. Granted, you’re going to expect the scales to tip a bit in Google Chrome’s favor due to the completely optimized iOS install, and the faster hardware. Even still, this test will give you a good indication that Google Chrome isn’t exactly a tortoise when it comes to speed. In real world usage, I found it more than adequate. Judge for yourselves.

What do you think? Is Google Chrome the downright slowpoke that everyone makes it out to be?

Update: For those crying foul, here is a video showing the reverse scenario. i.e. Chrome on the iPhone 4, and Safari on the iPhone 4S.

The point of these videos isn’t to show one browser blow another out of the water, it’s just to show that Chrome is entirely usable from a real world perspective.

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  • Sina

    WOW, Chrome is much faster (Especially on WSJ) …
    Thanks Jeff for the benchmark test. :-)

  • http://www.facebook.com/lanre.ogun Lanre Ogun

    very interesting

  • http://www.facebook.com/randle1 Phil Randle

    Chrome is quick, but I think Safari may have had it on the 4S if it was reversed, I noticed a big speed bump when I went to the 4S. The features I get from Safari would stop me from switching though. I love the seamless bookmark syncing, and the tabs is already available for people with iOS 6 Beta.

    I do love the silver and black look though.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Arthur-Ribeiro/100000334723179 Arthur Ribeiro

    Why didn’t you also test the chrome on the iPhone 4 and the safari on iPhone 4s ? It would have made the test more fair..

  • http://www.facebook.com/tanju.mrt Tanju Mrt

    You should of shown the opposite aswell, the 4s runing safari and the 4 chrome

  • http://twitter.com/drgfrt Fırat Çiftçi

    Chrome FTW..

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Diaz-Escandon/569033218 David Diaz Escandon

    Chrome is awesome, maybe not the fastest but still lot better than safari, i almost want uninstall safari. Safari become my new instapapper, not useful anymore

  • http://twitter.com/J_Walker75 The Pied Piper

    Hey Jeff aren’t you also on IOS 6 on the iPhone 4?? And i’m not a Smart guy but isn’t that beta safari?

  • http://fearless-assassins.com/forum BBL

    I dunno but little Helpy running chrome on 4S that dual chips A5 vs safari on 4 on A4!!!
    Anyway chrome with sunspider bench got 7300 ms on my iPad

  • KiKO4LiFE

    Yup, it supprisengly fast rendering and page loading,,, tested on iPad 2

  • http://twitter.com/seanodotcom Sean O

    This is comparing iPhone 4S/Chrome to iPhone 4 (original)/Safari.

    Not a valid comparison.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1028181478 Omar Abu Asbe

    i love the bookmark sync in chrome :D

  • http://twitter.com/geekinit geekinit

    Everyone keeps talking about the Nitro JavaScript but I don’t think JavaScript is really an issue on mo

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1028181478 Omar Abu Asbe

    and it also little fast huh :)

  • http://www.youtube.com/myjailbreakmovies/ Jeff Benjamin

    The point of this test wasn’t to see who was faster really, it was just to prove that Chrome isn’t some diseased browser that can’t even lift a leg. That’s all.

    • Eric Armstrong

      Fair enough. It’s clearly pretty good. Maybe when you have more time, you guys could do a more fair test with two 4S’s. I’d also be interested in seeing startup time, i.e. with all apps closed, which can bring up a website more quickly. Thanks for the fast video!

  • http://twitter.com/geekinit geekinit

    Does chrome not work on the iPhone 4? I don’t think Nitro JavaScript plays a very big role on most websites.

    • http://www.facebook.com/frank.chacon3 Frank Chacon

      it worked pretty well for me I have the Iphone4

  • http://www.facebook.com/cubanno2031 Adrian Rodriguez

    Jeff trustme in my iphone 4 is really fast!!!! And better ui( for me)

  • 2008crna

    I wish Mozilla would follow suit and make a Firefox browser. I haven’t converted to Google Chrome so I can’t say if it is better or worse than Firefox but I know I hate Safari and IE.

    • No Whammy

      Chrome is infinitely better than Firefox these days. No fanboyism, if anything I had a pension for Firefox for too long. I still do development in FF since I prefer the development tools, but for everything else, Chrome all the way.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=705610770 Felipe Postigo

    I’m not really sure, I also thought chrome was a little slower at first, maybe it’s because I didn’t delete the cache on Safari when I tried it. I’m sticking to Chrome though, I’ve been using it on my mac for years and has all my history, favorites and passwords so it really rocks, plus you get to open your tabs on other computers as well so that’s kind of nice. I’m just waiting for Browser Changer to get updated to use it with Chrome :)

  • Qidichen

    jeff. definitely chrome on 4s will faster than safari on 4.
    can you make another video that chrome on 4, and 4s with safari.
    that will give us a nice to see chrome is faster or not~~~

  • http://www.facebook.com/frank.chacon3 Frank Chacon

    seem to work fine for me on my iphone4

  • http://yoursn0w.com Ali Wadi

    I’m using Google Chtome on iPhone 4 to visit your site hehe

  • http://www.facebook.com/lucas.kunert Lucas Kunert

    Echo Jeff!!

  • dady king

    Firefox is already in AppStore

    • http://yoursn0w.com Ali Wadi

      that one it just for bookmark if I’m not wrong.

  • http://www.youtube.com/myjailbreakmovies/ Jeff Benjamin

    I’m uploading another video with the reverse scenario.

    • http://yoursn0w.com Ali Wadi

      That is awesome, although I believe Chrome will still win the scenario, but can’t wait to see that!

      btw what is your upload speed of your home internet? haha

    • Qidichen

      thank you!!!

    • goofygreek

      Whats up with the wifi on your iphone4? Its jumping up and down a lot.

  • Dan

    it’s fast enough, I’m done with safari

  • http://fearless-assassins.com/forum BBL

    What I really want as a browser is a one where, especially on a iPad, I can surf, download, upload and save my sites password… Dunno why is it so complicate to make one ?
    I have iCab mobile which the best on what I want but still little slow and missing saving site passwords and can’t handle download some kind of files.. The only way for me to get all I want is through jailbreaking

    • http://yoursn0w.com Ali Wadi

      Because the iOS is not as easy as you thought.

      Apple made it very difficult especially for the browser (not a default like safari) to handle all those stuff that you want.

      Like chrome now you can do everything except download stuff because once you can download stuff on to the browser then you will start see problems about security issues, and performance on their apps. That is why nothing is perfect in our eyes.

      • http://fearless-assassins.com/forum BBL

        I know but a lot of browsers on the AppStore got some basics functionality that safari don’t allow but Apple allowing them to use it like downloading but I took iCab mobile as an example because it’s the only one that added upload function of any kind of files under ios 5.xx without have to wait for ios 6 … I hope dev can do more, of course without compromising security

    • http://twitter.com/JasonBjerke Jason Bjerke

      Tried Terra for the ipad?

      • http://fearless-assassins.com/forum BBL

        I almost tested all knowing browser on the AppStore, terra was one of them… Also last update terra had was in 2011 nothing new since then

  • Qidichen

    i always love chrome!!! and now can enjoy in my i4

  • insp1112

    I turn on the browsermark test (4S, iOS 6) and guess what?

    Safari : 108008
    Chrome : 47893

    …What?

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000514380051 John Sklikas

      This also happens on my iPad 2 which is on iOS 5. Browsermark for Safari is: 100310 and the browsermark for Chrome is: 50093

      • insp1112

        Also I did the test on ipad 2 (iOS 6)

        Safari : 128410
        Chrome :59873

    • Brandon Weidema

      its iOS6.. obviously Apple had loads more time to optimize Safari for it lol

    • http://www.facebook.com/antman217 Anthony Antunez

      The bigger the number the better. Chrome is slow as hell. I didn’t even have to run a benchmark to figure that out. I tried loading this site and found out quickly.

      • http://www.facebook.com/antman217 Anthony Antunez

        Why am I getting dislikes? I’m just being honest. Chrome is slower than Safari, get over it. It’s not like I said you can’t use it if you want to. The benchmarks have shown that Safari is still the better browser, end of story.

      • No Whammy

        I dislike your comment because it completely omits the reason for Safari’s superiority: Apple sucks.

        It makes me really sad (read angry) that Apple favors its own apps yet doesn’t provide the features its users want in them.

  • seyss

    Fail

  • Appletiser

    although recognised and admitted as not a valid test, it didnt matter which device used which browser the iPh4 still suffered a heck of a lot more in this shoot out due to a poor fluctuating wifi signal. that would also have an impact on page load speed too :)

    • Falk M.

      Noticed this, too.
      Hmmm…
      Let’s just try it ourselves, Chrome is a flipping free app, so what the heck :P

      • Appletiser

        it seems faster to page load but i need a little more time before deciding which i prefer.

        edit: i think my decision has been made

        Benchmarks (3GS on iOS 5.0.1)

        HTML5 Speed Reading
        Chrome : 7 FPS / 237 Draws / Avg 130ms
        Safari : 26 FPS / 224 Draws / Avg 38ms

        Sunspider
        Chrome : 15508.7ms +/- 0.7%
        Safari : 4760.3ms +/- 1.4%

        BrowserMark
        Chrome : 23306
        Safari : 40885

      • Falk M.

        Interesting… Hmmm…

  • http://twitter.com/chrpye chrpye

    Hi,
    How to transfer current Mobile Safari bookmarks to the Chrome iOS Mobile bookmarks app ?

  • Well_Said

    Can’t find it on the app store Australia

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002477860376 Luke Malia

      its up now

  • http://twitter.com/Ghost7wee7er Ghost Tweeter

    It’s not in the UK store yet!!

  • http://twitter.com/Ign0ttus Tom García

    I believe it depends on the device you are using! 4s is faster, for whatever you are doing.

  • http://twitter.com/Mkhan1544 Muhammad Khan

    I guess spongebob was right
    Everything in the future will be chrome (google chrome)

  • http://twitter.com/klouud Timothy Polumbo

    I know chrome is faster on my mac’s but I use safari because of the seamless user experience from iOS to OSX. You just can’t beat the iCloud continuity across platforms.

    • http://twitter.com/jpbl1976 jpbl1976

      Well, it’s pretty seamless between Chrome and iOS Chrome/Chrome for Android as well. That isn’t a feature exclusive to iCloud.

      I always found Safari clunky to use. Chrome is just a better overall browser on desktops but for as long as Apple locks down features to favor its stock apps, apps like Mobile Safari will always enjoy an advantage, QED.

  • YujinNY

    Chrome is very slowish on iPad 3

  • Well_Said

    Google is fluid and easy use, I love the voice search on the URL bar

  • CashDolla83

    Does anyone know the keyboard tweak that jeff is using on the black iphone?

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1342020151 Rohan BluJay Prabhu

    No need to upload another video but I noticed that T-Mobile is probably slowing your phone down with either browser

    • http://twitter.com/idjcastro Gerardo Castro

      how? he was on his home wifi…

  • http://www.facebook.com/kim.hong3 Kim Hong

    are you testing both iPhone 4s or diffrent?

  • Purple112

    Been using Chrome ever since the release. It has issues, but also a lot of potential. I would give it a few updates before it will be a major safari competitor.

  • http://twitter.com/e420kush e420Kush

    I dont know if anyone said this or not, but for a real comparison you would need to have 2 of the same iPhones. Love your videos as always Jeff!

  • http://twitter.com/m13253 陆仁贾

    Did you see the wifi signal icon in the second video?
    the left is strong and the right is week!

  • http://twitter.com/warrenskipper Warren Skipper

    The deal breaker for me is, Chrome doesn’t have Reader. Safari wins regardless…

  • http://twitter.com/13xavi131 13xavi13

    Is this like testing? I wish there where flash on it :( one the most future it’s need

  • nick

    why wouldn’t you compare two phones that are EXACTLY the same.. this is the stupidest concept of speed testing.

  • notewar

    Nothing beat dolphin browser!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/antman217 Anthony Antunez

    Chrome is slower though. If you make a fair test using the same device with the same iOS you find that out. All browsers on ios use safari’s JavaScript engine so all they are is a skin for safari. And safari is the only browser that can take advantage of nitro so it should always be faster. Safari is even faster that chrome on macs since chrome is still using webkit 2.0. Fail.

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