• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, December 26, 2018

The Chinese consumer electronics company Xiaomi has launched the Android web-based Mint browser. Some reports suggest it’s a direct spinoff from Google's Chrome browser. And it’s available for free from the Google Play Store.

The Mint browser is touted to offer an ad-free experience, but there is no add-on or ad blocker in the browser.

The browser originally shipped as part of MIUI, a popular Android read-only memory ROM, on the company’s smartphones, but now can be downloaded on any Android phone.

IDC ranks Xiaomi at No. 4 in the third quarter of 2018, with 34.3 million devices shipped. The biggest draw, the small browser has data compression and low storage requirements and better aids in supplying entry level low-end phones.

The download size is about 11 MB, whereas Google’s Chrome browser requires about 45 MB and Microsoft’s Edge requires about 76 MB.

Mint supports tabbed browsing, incognito, reading mode and voice search. There’s also a feature that disables images on mobile sites to save bandwidth.

The browser also offers dark mode, a feature that is reportedly better for reading dark text on a bright background, which is intended to reduce eyestrain during nighttime browsing by turning browser elements and webpages dark.