I’ve upgraded my Firefox Android install to the new version running GeckoView. That means it’s based on the same engine as the desktop version has been since it’s rewrite in Firefox 57. Like with that upgrade, a lot of plugin support was lost. Unlike for desktop, I wasn’t using plugins, so it didn’t matter to me.
It does seem faster and a little sleeker. It finally supports dark mode, though still few web developers support it. Still, nice on the eyes when applicable.
The tab view is sleeker but also unfortunately seems to eliminate showing the tabs in two columns. It shows more info on each tab but also doesn’t show very many tabs at a time: 7 on my phone, and only 3 on landscape orientation. The tabs are on a sliding drawer, which is kind of nice but can be a little weird too when scrolling.
I’m playing with having the URL bar at the bottom of the screen. They got rid of the back button in the bar, so it at least puts the OS’s back button nearby.
The URL bar has taken up an annoying habit of autocompleting to the URL of the first item that matches what I’ve typed, with only an underline to distinguish what it’s added. Pressing the delete key only deletes the autocomplete bit, thus requiring you to press it twice to delete the your most recent character.
Search in the URL bar works like it had previously if you use the default engine and press the arrow key on the keyboard. There’s no search button to “go” in the bar though. They’ve gotten rid of the nice buttons for searching in other engines. Now you have to press a button to reveal your list of engines. Clicking on one doesn’t search, but instead just switches the icon in the search bar. Then when you hit the arrow key on the keyboard, it will search with that engine. UX team, you had something good in the previous version that other browsers don’t seem to have.
Regarding plugins, they do support NoScript, one of the few I still use on desktop Firefox. I’m not sure if I want to bring in the third party code on my phone though.
I hope they work out the issues and do well with this.