Safari Browser APK

Pros

• Reader mode
• Fast rendering
• Relatively low installation footprint

Cons

• Different from genuine Safari
• Doesn't support Apple's cloud services

Safari is a simple and intuitive web browser that comes packed with a ton of features. While it's long been associated with the iOS and Macintosh platforms, this package allows you to install it on Android devices. While it's by no means an official product that takes advantage of the latest version of WebKit, it's certainly an interesting piece of software that should prove attractive to those dissatisfied with their current browser of choice.

Mobile browsers might be known for their minimalist design ethos, Safari takes this to an extreme. Users are presented with the addressed bar in the top of the screen and only a few other controls. Most of these are hidden whenever you take your fingers off your device. That helps to save screen real estate and show you as much information as possible in spite of the size of your mobile device.

A single tap is all it takes to get all of your UI controls back. You could select the application button to visit a setting screen, or tap on the bookmarks control to check out your favorites. While Safari's setting screen is every bit as minimal as the rest of the browser, it does a good job of getting out of the user's way.

Perhaps the most notable feature is the inclusion of a reader mode, which is somewhat rare on mobile browsers outside of Apple's official ecosystem. Android users who weren't able to access this on their phone are only a single tap away from getting a zen reading experience on their own devices. When you visit a text-heavy page, Safari will give you the option to enter this unique mode. Once you do, the browser will take a moment to strip out unnecessary images and animations. It'll also remove every embedded video and advertisement, so you'll be able to focus on reading an article as opposed to searching through pages of uninteresting spam.

Reader mode also helps to conserve vital system resources, since the browser's rendering engine doesn't have to pay attention to anything else on the page whenever it's activated. That being said, Safari uses Android's underlying engine to render pages, so you shouldn't run into too many issues even when you're just browsing the web.

Native Safari packages on Apple-branded devices actually use a different technology called WebKit, which this version of Safari has decided to eschew in favor of relying on built-in libraries. This makes it behave somewhat differently than an official build of Safari would, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. This design choice helped to dramatically reduce the installation footprint, which should be good news for those running out of onboard memory.

Keep in mind that while this certainly does have the look and feel of the Safari browser, it's technically a different product. That means it's not going to interface with external Apple services. However, it's optimized for use on Android devices and that's the only thing that's going to matter for most users.

Best of all, it should install in just a few moments due to its comparatively small size, so it's a great option for those who want a second browser.

Pros

• Reader mode
• Fast rendering
• Relatively low installation footprint

Cons

• Different from genuine Safari
• Doesn't support Apple's cloud services