Zen Browser 1.16.1b is available for download, and although I've heard some chatter about it, like many people I hadn't gotten around to trying it. I mean, I have Firefox with all my usual Extensions (NoScript, uBlock Origin, Privacy Badget, etc) and I'm relatively happy with it so I didn't see much point in using another Firefox-based browser.

I grabbed the latest beta from Github via zen-browser.app and extracted it to ~/bin/.

My test machine is a 6th generation Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga with an i7-1185G7, 32GB RAM, running on battery power with Arch GNU/Linux (Kernel 6.16.8-arch3-1).

Like modern Firefox, it has a setup routine on the first run which has a lot of [unnecessary, but elegant] animations and allows you to import browser settings and select your default search engine out of Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo; I would have liked to have seen StartPage.com or some others, but it is a beta and there's room for more to be added. Configuration is stored in ~/.zen rather than ~/.mozilla.

I have to say, it does seem to run a lot faster and smoother than stock Firefox - at least in a fresh install. Acceleration is smoother, and load times appear to be faster than my stock browser (that may be DNS settings).

The UI layout is modern and sleek - but takes a bit of getting used, it's more of a workspace (multiple workspaces in fact!) than a traditional browser with tabs aligned down a left-aligned bar which makes a lot of sense on today's increasingly wider, high DPI screens. I do like the minimalist design and it resizes and scales really well.

It's also really easy to have a split-view of multiple website just by dragging a tab onto the main window where you want it - making it ideal for web-based development. Another nice feature is when using CTRL-T to open a new tab, an address and search box opens in the centre of the screen.

Now, the Spaces - I absolutely love having different workspaces and profiles, it helps so much when working between different projects and separating personal tabs, settings from work and development. However, creating a new space automatically opens Notion AI which which I found a bit distasteful, along with the other pinned bookmarks/tabs for Discord and Github, but they can be removed so it's not a major issue; Mozilla has added much worse and more imposing features to recent versions of Firefox.

Benchmarks

Zen Browser gets 97/100 on the Acid 3 test, the same as my stock Firefox 143.0.1 which you would expect considering its the same engine.

BrowserBench tests displayed a marginal improvement on Zen compared to my stock Firefox.

Speedometer

On Speedometer3.1 I received 9.77 with Firefox, and 12.6 with Zen (the higher the better).

JetStream

On https://browserbench.org/JetStream/ I received 132.709 with Firefox and 137.579 with Zen.

MotionMark

On https://browserbench.org/MotionMark1.3.1/ I received 951.65 with Firefox and 962.44, both at 60 fps.

Conclusion

Ultimately, it's a sleek and modern adaption of Firefox with some noticeable performance improvements out of the box. Its default state out of the box is good for developers as well as office productivity with easy access to workspace and profile management. It comes pre-installed with Cisco OpenH264 and Widevine plugins, which can be removed if you don't want them. There is also a mods store with 70 different visual and utility modifications to customise the browser.

I think it does a really good job at showing what modern Firefox could have been (when they started playing with the UI and adding things), while retaining a simple and usable UI that is both pragmatic and pretty. The performance increase over stock Firefox is noticeable, not just measurable - it will be interesting to see how it compares to Google Chrome.

I'll definitely be using it for some things as at the moment I'm juggling Firefox Profiles and it's a little cumbersome to say the least, and I'm not fond of the way extensions for workspaces are displayed.

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Written for Cryogenix by int16h