IE9: Wow!

So who would have thought? Redmond has got their act into gear and done some serious work on Internet Explorer. Personally, the first thing that I’ve always done when installing Windows is replacing IE, first with Firefox and now with Chrome. But I decided to check out the IE9 beta.. and wow! Admittedly it does look like a rip off of Chrome but Microsoft has also made some serious changes that seem to have sped up loading times, new tab open times, rendering also seems faster and it appears to be more standards compliant.

Finally! IE9 comes with a download manager! As well as the Chrome/Opera/Safari style start screen with the thumbnails. It also comes with a very Chrome-esque interface. Removing all toolbars and leaving only a few buttons. It takes full advantage of Windows 7’s transparency. When I first started it, it gave me the option to disable any add-ons (showing the time that they took to load). I ended up killing the Adobe toolbar saving 2.7 seconds.

Microsoft's Latest Attempt To Recover Browser Market Share

I did some really quick tests.

I used the following:

  • Chrome 6.0.472.62
  • Internet Explorer 9.0.7930.16406 (beta)
  • Opera 10.62
  • Firefox 3.6.10
  • Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
  • Internet Explorer 8.0.6001.18943 (Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit)
  • WebKit nightly build r67643 (Mac OS X 10.6.3)

Don’t forget that IE is still in beta! It’s doing really well compared to IE8. Still not up there with Chrome in some areas (but beta remember!!). To say I’m impressed is an understatement. Microsoft have come a fair way.

WebKit SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark (lower is better)

So clearly IE9 has made HUGE improvements on IE8, closing in on the Presto/WebKit based browsers with Opera just nudging in front of Google V8 JavaScript rendering engine.

HTML5 Compatibility

Chrome and the nightly build of WebKit hold a huge lead over the others (as is to be expected) but IE9 has still made drastic improvements over IE8

CSS3 Selectors

Once again, all but IE8 passed each test. IE9 also passed every single test. An improvement on IE8 again.

CSS3 Tests Completed
CSS3 Tests Completed

Again, as per above. IE9 was on par with the other major browsers improving on IE8 dramatically

I also quickly ran the Acid3 test.

IE8 - Acid3 Test

IE9 - Acid3 Test
Chrome - Acid3 Test
Firefox - Acid3 test
Opera - Acid3 Test
WebKit - Acid3 Test

So where IE8 failed, IE9 is on par with the other major browsers. Not quite sure what was going on with Chrome though…

Some other cool features that I’m finding in IE is the use of pinning and jumplists in Windows 7. This is what happened when I pinned Twitter and Facebook to the task bar. I could see this coming in handy in the future when IE9 comes out of beta.

So overall, it’s not ahead of browsers such as Chrome and Opera but it is DEFINITELY an improvement on IE8! And that’s a good thing. Well done Redmond!

I do note one thing though, and that is that Firefox needs to do some serious work to get ahead of the WebKit/Presto browsers. Maybe I should check out Firefox 4 beta?

I do recommend that you check it out here guys: http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/ for other cool features! And get rid of IE8.

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