The desktop version of Firefox 4 has provided extremely popular since it was launched on 22 March, clocking up 48 million downloads to date.

Firefox 4 for Android was released on Tuesday and we've had a play with the browser using the Google Nexus S.

The home page comes with a number of tabs and shows the addresses of sites that have been accessed recently. It is also possible to view bookmarks, history and pages that have been synced from a desktop.

Mozilla has claimed that Firefox 4 is up to three times faster than the stock Android browser. Although web pages load extremely quickly on the mobile edition of Firefox, it is hard to see such a big difference and depends on the network connection.

However, an area where Firefox 4 is head and shoulders above its competitors is in usability, with gesture control at the heart of the interface.

Swiping right brings up the pane of tabs which are open and allow users to open and close windows. In contrast, a quick swipe to the left will bring up options to favourites, cycle backwards and forwards between pages and access preferences.

Meanwhile, pressing the context sensitive settings button on the bottom of the handset brings up a multitude of options, including the ability to save a web page as a PDF or share it via Bluetooth, Facebook, Gmail, Twiiter or text message.

The menu also allows users to download add-ons, change preferences and view pages that have been downloaded as PDFs.

Although Firefox 4 for Android brings most of the functionality of the desktop version, there are a couple of gripes. Firstly, Flash videos don't work even though our device has Flash 10.2 downloaded. Mozilla confirmed to V3.co.uk that there is no support at present.

"Firefox 4 for Android and Maemo does not currently support plug-ins like Flash. Since Mozilla believes that the web is heading towards HTML5, they support the video tag," the firm said in a statement.

"However, Mozilla is working on a way to deliver a smooth user experience with plug-ins like Flash."

We also found that it is all too easy to accidentally close a tab when trying to switch between windows. This is because the cross is little too big and a finger tap needs to be very precise to avoid it.

Firefox 4 for Android also supports pinch-to-zoom and there is a setting that asks whether text should be reformatted on zooming. However, when this is enabled, the font size does increase but is not reformatted.

Despite these niggles, the general functionality is certainly better than the Android browser and even the Safari app. If Flash support can be added to Firefox 4, it will be the definitive mobile browser.

Firefox 4 for Android is definitely worth a download and is one of the best free apps in the Android Market.

01 Apr 2011