Google Chrome is about to get a considerable speed boost on Android, as the latest Chrome 59 has started rolling out with some cool improvements.
As mobile use has increased tremendously in the past few years, we've become more reliant on smartphones and other mobile devices for a number of tasks — including surfing the web. In fact, it seems that we serve the web more on mobile devices now than we do on desktops, which means that our smartphones and tablets often handle great amounts of traffic, but are they properly equipped to do so?
Fast Mobile Browsing
Just having a powerful smartphone or tablet with a speedy processor and a solid amount of RAM may not always suffice for a fast browsing experience, however. The browser plays an important role as well, and it can either speed things up, or take ages to load webpages.
Google is well aware of this, especially since it handles a lot of that traffic from mobile devices. Its Chrome browser is notorious for hogging RAM, but Google vowed to improve it and the latest version of Chrome for Android aims to make the browser faster than ever.
Google Chrome 59 For Android
Google released Chrome 59 to Windows, Mac, and Linux first, then started the rollout for Android as well. The company touts that Chrome 59 uses less memory, loads pages faster, and packs a number of security patches and stability fixes.
The main highlight is that is loads pages faster, but just how much faster are we talking? Well, quite a lot, apparently. Google says that Android devices running the latest version of Chrome should see a major speed boost of up to 20 percent. That doesn't mean that the browser will load all pages 20 percent faster all the time, as that speed peak will occur when all conditions are right, but it should still boast a minimum speed increase of roughly 10 percent in all cases.
It's worth pointing out, however, that while Google announced the release on Tuesday, June 6, it also notes that Chrome 59 for Android should become available on Google Play "over the course of the next week." This means that it will take another few days for the update to actually kick in for Android users, but it's nonetheless coming soon.
Chrome V8 JavaScript Engine
The greater speed Chrome 59 brings to the table stems from improvements to the Chrome V8 JavaScript engine, which fuels many of the complex functionalities of various websites. At the same time, the fact that Chrome 59 will use less memory means that the browser should better handle even pages with heavy JavaScript content. This, in turn, should translate to a smoother and more responsive browsing experience.
Once the Chrome 59 version becomes ready to roll, Android devices should get the update automatically provided that automatic updates are enabled. Otherwise, users can also trigger the update process manually by heading over to the Google Play Store, accessing the "My Apps & Games" section from the menu, and grabbing the available updates.
