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The recently released Safari 4 Beta, Apple’s Web Browser is prettier and faster than ever. The new Safari 4 no longer behaves like a snob and integrates into windows interface quite well. Also, it claims to have new faster Nitro engine to handle javascript in web pages. Here is a complete review on what’s new in the Safari 4 Beta.

1. New Tab Page

Safari 4 now shows a Top sites page when you open a new tab just like Google Chrome and Google Toolbar for Firefox but the eye-pleasing Top sites page will surely win your heart. It learns Top sites automatically when you surf. And if you would like to change number of thumbnails, then click on Edit button on the bottom. Also, you can change order of thumbnails with drag and drop. The little star icon displayed on a thumbnail indicates the content has been updated since last time. Another cool feature is when you click on one of the thumbnails in Top sites page, it opens up with a nice animation.

2. View History in Cover Flow

If you’ve been using Mac, then you might be aware of Cover Flow view when viewing pictures on your Mac. Safari 4 now sports the same cover flow view when you view history or bookmarks.

And a search box on the bottom lets you search through the history easily. This is one of the features which is not available in any browser by default though can be achieved with add-on in Firefox.

3. Tabs on Top

Safari 4 now shows tabs bar in place of title bar thus saving space to make more room for web page display just like Google Chrome. Just like Google chrome, you can drag and reorder tabs or drag tab outside window to make it independent window and vice versa. But the catch is that tab can only be dragged via handle region on the right end of the tab. Unlike other browsers, the close tab button is on left side.

4. Faster Web Page rendering

Web apps rely on javascript performance these days and if browser executes javascript faster, the web applications will work well. Though Safari 4 claims to be fastest browser with its new Nitro engine for javascript, but its performance is almost similar to that of Google Chrome 2.0 beta and Firefox 3.1 beta. I personally ran Sunspider Javascript benchmark test on Safari 4 and Firefox 3.0.6 and found it significantly faster than Firefox 3.0

Give Safari 4 beta a try to experience new eye-candy features and tell us what you think about new features of Safari 4 beta. Do keep in mind it is still in Beta, so you might sometime get stuck while using it.

Do you think Safari 4 final release will become the fastest browser on planet? Tell us in comments below.