Maxthon launches MxNitro for Windows, claims ‘the fastest PC browser’ loads pages 30% faster than Chrome

Maxthon today released a new browser for Windows called MxNitro (short for Maxthon Nitro), which it claims is “the fastest PC browser in the world.”

This is made possible with a minimal user interface load, as well as “new patent-pending pre-connection and pre-fetching technology.” The company has also stripped out features from Maxthon that it says hog resources and cause delays in both startup times and page rendering.

Under development since March 2014, Maxthon says it has gotten MxNitro to the point that it starts faster, as well as fetches and loads Web pages quicker than any other existing Windows PC browser. More specifically, the company makes the following assertions:

• Installs and starts 3x faster than the fastest Windows PC browser – Chrome 37.
• Loads web pages 30 percent faster than Chrome 37.
• Noticeably speeds up web browsing on any Windows PC made before 2014.
• Has a clutter-free, intuitive look and feel designed expressly to make new users feel comfortable on first use.

From our testing, it seems that MxNitro is indeed very fast. The lack of basic features, however, makes it a bit of a pain to use for anyone who spends much of their time in the browser.

Last but not least, there’s the name. Why not just call it Nitro? I’m sure Maxthon can think of something that is shorter than MxNitro, which requires four syllables to pronounce.

The company says it is targeting users who want a stripped-down, high performance browser with a minimalist design, low memory usage and CPU footprint. If you’re a Windows user looking to try a speedy browser, Maxthon’s latest creation is worth an install.

For those who don’t know, Maxthon is a company that started by producing browser for Windows, but has recently expanded to other platforms as well. While the various offerings have amassed millions of downloads between them, they have not been able to put a serious dent in any of the major browser vendors.

This time doesn’t seem to be much different. Until MxNitro comes out of beta and gains some fairly basic features, we don’t think it’s ready to replace anyone’s default browser.

➤ MxNitro

See also – Maxthon adds cloud storage, sharing and more to its browser on Mac, Windows, iOS and Android and Maxthon launches its mobile browser on Windows Phone with cloud syncing, gestures, and Live Tile support