The struggle between web browsers flooded into the region of smartphones almost as soon as such platforms became available. Nowadays, there is a multitude of browsers to choose from, regardless of whichever mobile operating system you choose to use.

Firefox 4 for Android (previously codenamed Fennec) is the smaller brother of Mozilla’s immensely popular browser for fully-fledged PCs. This week, Mozilla announced the recent release of Version 4 Beta, the latest update to the application.

According to Mozilla, their benchmark tests have demonstrated that this newest version is faster than any before it, while also being faster than the stock Android browser. New or improved features are also abundant, including:

• Firefox Sync – a tool to help you synchronise information such as bookmarks, tabs and passwords with the browser’s PC counterpart
• Increased stability, a reduction in installation memory usage and improved readability
• Firefox Mobile Add-ons Gallery – a library of plug-ins and extensions which enhance the browsing experience (such as support for Personas themes)
• Improved support for HTML5, CSS and JavaScript
• The ‘Awesome Screen’ – Improved access to searching an navigational controls

The new version of Firefox is available to download from the Android Market. To read more, visit the blog post on the official Mozilla website.