Skip to main content

iOS 4.3 Safari speed tests: Wide open throttle on Apple’s Nitro engine

Apple may have promised a new iOS version to coincide with the launch of the iPad 2 on Friday, but the Cupertino company gave fans an early treat on Wednesday when it released iOS 4.3 two days early. As we found out last week, the update brings Wi-Fi hotspot capability, enhancements for AirPlay and better compatibility with Apple TV, but we were more interested in another feature: Apple’s Nitro engine. Transplanted from the desktop version of Safari, Nitro allegedly executes JavaScript twice as fast in Safari.

Apple no doubt has benchmarks and spreadsheets to prove it, but how does the latest version of Safari perform for everyday surfing? We ran before and after tests with six different commonly visited websites to see whether Apple’s Nitro engine truly delivers a faster browsing experience, or whether it’s merely PowerPoint fodder.

Method

After clearing our iPhone 4’s cache and cookies, we loaded six websites, timing loads times to the tenth of a second and reloading three times to weed out any outlying results. Tests were performed as close together as possible (allowing for the time it took to upgrade to iOS 4.3) to minimize any difference from hiccups in Internet speed throughout the day. All of the sites loaded mobile-optimized versions, except for Yahoo, which we intentionally set to the desktop version. Afterwards, we averaged the three numbers for every site and plotted them side by side.

Results

We hoped for an across-the-board drop in load times, but in reality, numbers barely budged and in some cases pages actually took longer to load in iOS 4.3. The load times, in seconds, have been plotted below (lower is better).

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Sites like Google News, The Weather Channel, CNN and Digital Trends all dropped fractions of a second, but Gmail and Yahoo both slowed down somehow. In the case of the latter, the difference was significant: 5.9 seconds on iOS 4.3 compared to just 3.6 seconds on iOS 4.2.1. Disturbingly, that’s also the only site loading a full desktop version.

Verdict

Apple’s Nitro engine may double JavaScript execution on paper, but the millisecond difference you’ll see in real-life sites probably won’t amaze, and in some cases sites may inexplicably load even slower. We haven’t toyed with enough of the operating system’s other new features yet to know whether it’s a solid upgrade or not, but for now, the promised boost in Safari speed hasn’t panned out to be as impressive as expected.

Editors' Recommendations

Nick Mokey
As Digital Trends’ Managing Editor, Nick Mokey oversees an editorial team delivering definitive reviews, enlightening…
Apple’s iOS 15.3 update fixes critical Safari security bug
iPhone showing Home Screen with widgets resting on soft white cloth background.

Apple has just released iOS 15.3, and while this latest update doesn’t add any significant new features, it addresses at least one critical security flaw. Earlier this month, software engineer Martin Bajanik of FingerprintJS found a serious vulnerability in Safari 15, the browser included in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, that could leak browsing history information and even credentials from online services that a person is using, such as Google, YouTube, Amazon, and sites using WordPress.

As Bajanik explains, many websites use an API called IndexedDB to request that browsers like Safari and Chrome store information in a local database on a person’s device. Under normal circumstances, a given website should only be able to request information about the databases that it created — any others should be invisible to it.

Read more
How to create, customize, and use Memoji in Apple’s iOS
apple iphone 13 vs 12 memoji on in hand

While Apple strives to make its mobile devices useful, it has been known to mix in a zany streak to turbocharge user interest. In recent years, the Animoji and Memoji features have fueled that trend.

Animoji object icons use animals, skulls, ghosts, and poop, among other things, as primary motifs. Memoji — derived from the word “me” — extends Animoji features to avatars that you can create to resemble you or someone you know, kind of like Bitmoji. With Animoji and Memoji, you can control what your friends and contacts see when they connect with you.

Read more
Apple’s iOS 15.1 and iPadOS 15.1 bring SharePlay, camera improvements, and more
iPhones with ios 15.

Apple is rolling out iOS 15.1 and iPadOS 15.1, its third update to the current generation of iOS since it rolled out alongside the iPhone 13. The iOS 15.1 update brings SharePlay, which lets multiple Apple users enjoy movies, music, and other content together during FaceTime calls; ProRes video recording on the iPhone 13 Pro and the iPhone 13 Pro Max, among other improvements to the camera; and some additions to the Home, Shortcuts, Translate, and Wallet apps.

Among the slew of new features that iOS 15.1 delivers, SharePlay is bound to get most of the attention. As its name indicates, SharePlay offers multiple shared experiences using FaceTime, from browsing the web together to watching synchronized movies or TV shows to sharing content across the Apple Music, Apple Fitness+, Apple TV, and other App Store apps. It also gives each user the ability to play, pause, rewind, or fast-forward movies, shows, or music and automatically lowers the volume of the content when it detects someone speaking.

Read more