There is a new king in town, except very few know about him.

xScope Browser for Android is the fastest, most customizable browser on the market. In short, it supports not only pinch-to-zoom, but double-tap-to-zoom, which, to me, is so much more intuitive (meaning you tap once and on the second tap slide your finger either right or left to zoom in or out). After a while, it just becomes second-nature.

There has been a lot of chatter about how great the built-in 2.0 browser is on Android. Generally, this is true. The built-in browser is fairly quick, supports multiple windows in the same way the iPhone’s safari does (via a selection screen) and HTML5. Pinch-to-zoom also works. So why not just use the default browser? Because it just doesn’t feel smooth.

xScope loads pages faster than the default browser, and keeps tabs on top of the screen when you need them. If you have multiple tabs open, they disappear once you scroll down the page, but you merely need to swipe left or right on the screen (or return to the top of the screen) to change to a new tab. This is incredibly intuitive, and something I now take for granted. The app stores the last state of your pages when you leave it, but does not keep them in memory; this is a good thing, since my Milestone is always hurting for free RAM.

The app’s favourites page needs work, but is entirely usable. It also comes with a built-in task killer, which seems superfluous, but can be helpful if you are noticing slowdown and want to kill off a pesky app without leaving the browser. There is a web-based file browser inside the app, too, which lets you open saved files without leaving the application.

Mostly, however, the app is quick and usable, and the dev is constantly updating it. The same can’t be said for Dolphin Browser, which was last updated before the new year, and Steel, which doesn’t support multi-touch (though it is quick). Opera Mini is a new entrant into the crowded Android browser market, but it is still in beta, and is not a viable default browser as it does not have good font support.

Another HUGE feature in xScope is the ability to copy any text on a web page. Android has TERRIBLE copy/paste support. You can copy text from a text input-box in any program, but if you want to copy text in a program by holding down your finger, a la iPhone 3.0+, you’re SOL. xScope brings this functionality via a button on the customizable address bar, which you press and it tells you to copy any text by dragging it along the page. You can then do just that, and when you’re satisfied, lift your finger and the text will be copied to the clipboard. This is still not nearly as intuitive as the iPhone implementation — which, now that I have Android, can see how perfectly Apple brought its OS — but it’s about as good as you’re going to get for the time being.

xScope was the first application I’ve bought from the Android Marketplace, and will remain one of my most-used applications. It doesn’t yet have the same recognition that Dolphin has, but is growing in popularity. And with a dev as keen as this one (whose name and company I don’t know, since there is neither on the Help/FAQ page), the app will only get better and more usable.

Below is a Webkit Javascript benchmark comparison between xScope (left) and the default Android browser (right). As you can see xScope is almost 40% faster at rendering pages. If that isn’t reason enough to switch, I don’t know what is.

xScope is available for $2.99 in the Android Marketplace, and for those who do not have access to paid apps, there is a free, lite version available.