Windows Mobile web browsers are still not up to scratch compared to their desktop counterparts. The small screen size, generally slower data speeds and troubles with flash and Ajax websites all contribute to a less than enjoyable surfing experience. Skyfire web browser conquers many of these problems that mobile browsers suffer from.

Skyfire works differently to other mobile browsers in that it shows you the full web site and not the mobile version. It appears to me that Skyfires servers render the page before delivering it. This results in Flash, Silverlight and Ajax content working properly on a Windows mobile device. It has been a long wait.

With Skyfire servers doing a lot of work, I expected pages to download much slower, however I did not find this to be the case. This was especially surprising seeing that I am not in one of the supported or optimized countries. I was even able to watch Youtube videos at a reasonable quality.

Skyfire shows the full page which you can scroll around, or zoom in on text you want to read. I was very impressed that it automatically zoomed in on a text input box when I tapped it. It is very user friendly.

Skyfire probably won’t solve all of your mobile surfing problems, but it will let you view most of the sites that have not been viewable before. My recommendation is to use this side by side with Internet Explorer mobile, depending on the site you want to visit. Saying that, this is still a beta version. There may be bigger plans for the full release. Hopefully the plans aren’t to charge for the product.

I look forward to seeing how Firefox mobile evolves over time. It is looking quite promising. It may be the answer to many of my surfing problems.

Skyfire isn’t supported by all Windows Mobile devices at this stage, but it worked fine on my HTC touch. Supported device information, and much more is available on their website. Grab your copy of Skyfire from Skyfire.com.