Overall, QuickSurf shows promise. The full-screen mode is nice, and many image-heavy sites do load much faster than they do in Safari.

iBlueAngel: iBlueAngel from may be the most ambitious of the current Safari alternatives, as it offers a huge assortment of features, and a unique interface to access those features.

Amongst other things, iBlueAngel can select and copy blocks of text on a Web page, and then e-mail that copied text (along with the page URL) via the iPhone's Mail program. You can't select just any text you want, however--only blocks (paragraphs) of text. Still, this can be quite useful when you want to give someone a portion of a page, and not just send them a link.

You can also paste the text into the URL box (which doubles as a Google search box if you don't enter a recognized URL) to search the Web for that text. Documents can also be saved for offline viewing, and the program handles a number of formats: PDF, Word and Excel, text, and images (PNG, JPG, GIF). Saving happens in the background, too, so you can return to surfing while your file saves. I tested this with both PDF and image files, and it worked very well. The saved files are available on a dedicated screen, and can be viewed at any time, regardless of network connectivity.

To get to all of these features, you use the magic dashboard, activated by a tap in the upper left corner of the screen. The magic dashboard is a screen overlay, populated with some somewhat cryptic icons. These icons control text selection mode, copying and pasting, mailing, bookmarks, history, and saving files locally. It may look a bit intimidating, but a quick read of the iBlueAngel explained things well enough.