We’ve been waiting a while for Skyfire to tag into the mobile web game properly. Every few months checking their site and disappointedly leaving as a message of incompatibility stood between us and a shiny new browser.

Skyfire sounded great. And finally last week s60v3 and s60v5 mobile owners got their mitts on the browser they craved.

The following is what I’ve found in the last week.

Skyfire claimed that this was the most advanced mobile browser we’d ever seen. So straight away I logged onto the mobile web and installed it on my Nokia 5800.

Now before I begin I should state that the Skyfire 1.5 browser is still in beta.

First of all, after trying to get it to connect to the web (three or four times it should be noted) I was pleasantly suprised at the homepage.

Unlike Opera’s now familiar 9 speed-dial icons for my favourite sites, I had live web feeds and connections to a multitude of sites.

Straight away I was disappointed to see that logging half way down the page I experienced blank unfinished loads of Google News and Digg updates.

Deciding that the sheer amount of loaded feeds could be to blame, I customized the home page to hold my Twitter, Digg and our NerinOnline Forum Rss feed.

This wasn’t the case however, and I still experienced that annoying grey and white pixellated blank page load.

Ignoring this, as I was more interested in the claims its faster than Opera, I typed in the mobile address for Twitter.com.

It took a bit longer than usual, and then the full site popped up. That won’t do, I wanted the Mobile version.

Again, I type in the URL for Google Mobile and again, was brought to the full Google page.

I clicked around the settings and in advanced options found Hint For Mobile version. Clicking this supposedly makes a link to a mobile version of the full website you are browsing appear in the screen corner. This was not the case, and it isn’t working for me.

Boards Mobile however stayed true to its name and didn’t force me onto the main site. I used boards to test the speed and feel of the browser. Nothing jumped out for me comparing it to Opera Mini or Opera Mobile.

The browser simply “feels” sluggish and stocky compare to Opera.

One thing I hated about the Nokia native browser was the fact that every action required pages to reload. In opera this is not the case, you simply press back and back you go. Even some settings and the bookmarks folder require loading time.

Another pain I felt with Skyfire was the lack of a cancel/stop button. The toolbar has Back, Home, Zoom, Bookmarks and Options buttons, but no Stop.

The biggest feature with Skyfire seems to be its Flash abilities.

I honestly found them to be nothing amazing, although a nice addition.

Youtube videos load and experience small bits of lag, even on a great connection.

All in all Opera Mini is staying as one of my 4 quick launch shortcuts on my phone.

Skyfire has some interesting features, but in the end it failed with the simple side of things.

I hope they fix the problems the beta has and I can re-test it.

Try it youself at m.skyfire.com