Just got an N9. I knew that the browser would not have the ability to save passwords. But I am shocked to find it has no settings at all. And it lacks even the ability to save a bookmark (but there are quasi- bookmarks saved as applications, which is not the same at all.) I truly can not get over how basic it is. No font size settings. No options. No find on page. No save page as...Quite literally nothing but going to websites. This is a gorgeous phone and the OS is very slick, but wow....and since I read alot before buying without discovering this I thought a thread was in order.

wow is it really that crippled ...I thought I saw opera for the n9 or does that suck as well?

So far I have found tutorials explaining how to install Opera, because regular installing doesn't work. It will be worth looking into...

i was looking at the opera install and found this

Add to apps - Creates an icon in the N9's app launcher. The N9 browser doesn't use bookmarks, Add to apps is the only way to save a link to a web page on the device itself. I rather like this because it gives Webapps equal standing with native apps. However, I bookmark a lot of pages and I'm afraid that the single flat (no folders) app laucher page will quickly be overwhelmed by Webapp icons on my N9. The next firmware release for the N9 is supposed to include launcher folders. If the page has an apple-touch-icon the shortcut uses it, otherwise it displays a screenshot of the page. The image below, center shows a number of Webapps shorts. WapReview, Google+ and Identica are the only ones that have apple-touch-icons.

http://wapreview.mobi/15548/?wpmp_switcher=mobile

Actually, it appears to save passwords. Did for this site even after a reboot. So there's that...

I have to agree, the browser is very very basic. Compared to the very usable and rather advanced microB of N900, the browser on the N9 is like taking a few hundred steps backwards.

Opera and fennec seems to be available, but that's no excuse for such a prime device to have such a crappy browser. I suppose its part of the apple-fying of devices whereby things are so simplified that even a toddler can use it. This can be seen in the lack of configurability all over harmattan as opposed to the flexibility and freedom of fremantle. For shame Nokia. We are not toddlers. No need to treat us like Apple treats its babies.
/rant

Honestly, other than the lack of settings, the browser is quite nice. Functions well and reformats text quickly on zoom in/out.

I do agree it needs some type of settings though. The only ones I can find are in Settings-device-web- and it's only clear cache or something.
Oh well, suits me enough. Fennec and Opera are both quick enough to do more advanced things with.

Compared to the n900 version, it blows chunks. half or more of the settings are missing and in spite of supporting multiple tabs, I only use one because the buttons to show a list of all open tabs so one can go to each individually or close then only works infrequently.

But still much better than the built in browser which, as you pointed out, doesn't have any options at all.

The virtual keyboard of Opera is crappy... and the browser is landscape only. As a result, I almost never use it.

In the beginning I used the built-in browser because I rather liked its simplicity and cleanness, its speed, and the way it formats websites, and the ability to add icons to the main app screen suits me well because it treats web apps the same as real apps.

But I've since started to use Fennec a lot more - not because it's inherently so much better (it has its issues too and this version was not designed specifically for Harmattan) but because mobile sites, I've learned, generally suck. For some reason site designers tend to dumb down their sites for mobile, and generally have less content available on the mobile sites. Really bugs me, so I've taken to going to the desktop sites now, which I can only do with Fennec.

Welcome to the commercial mobile space - the OP (and many others) have just discovered what plagues also the TouchPad et al. For those devices that are clearly made and also MARKETED 'for the web', the crappiness of the therefore necessary software that's included (or available on 'their markets') is astounding.