I Used SigmaOS for 1 Week: Here’s My Review of the Modern Browser
I am a big fan of Safari when it comes to web browsers. It has almost everything I desire in a browser.
But after the latest update of Safari and the introduction of the amazing tab group feature (no other browser has done it better than Safari, trust me), Safari is filled with bugs.
Closed tabs are re-opening. Tabs which I have opened gets closed on their own. Even Google’s search page was not able to open links in it. After a couple of weeks of tug-of-war with it, I gave up. 🤷🏻♂️
I decided to switch my browser.
That’s when I came across SigmaOs, the modern browser which felt like fresh air! ⚡️
I decided to use it for a week and see if I like it.
Here’s my review after 1 week of using SigmaOS
User Experience & user friendliness
😎 The good
SigmaOS comes with a completely redefined UI and UX. It’s unlike any browser out there. It claims to be the modern browser built for modern workflows and I can’t argue with that.
It has workspaces like Slack. Each workspace can have tabs relevant to that workspace.
In my case, I created 3 workspaces, one for my work, one for personal stuff and a third one for the articles I want to read.
Now I can put the tabs in each workspace accordingly and switch between them seamlessly using shortcuts!
They also introduced a lot of keyboard shortcuts to do the basic tasks you do in a browser like copying the current page’s URL, moving between tabs, do a Google search, snoozing a tab(so that it doesn’t send alerts), closing a tab etc. Most of these shortcuts are one key shortcuts, which means you don’t have to remember a key combination. For e.g. pressing Dwill mark the page as done, or close the tab.
There are other improvements as well from the traditional browser. For e.g., you can open a page as a split view. So if you have a link on a page which you want to quickly peak then using the shortcut shift and right click you can open it as a split view page.
I have figured out that once you get used to the new workflow, you can be really productive while using these shortcuts.
🤒 The bad
While I loved the shortcuts, It can sometimes interfere with your normal usage of a page as well.
As I said, most shortcuts are single key shortcuts. Which means that on pages where you are already using those shortcuts to interact with the page, it becomes a hindrance.
For e.g. on a Youtube video page, pressing down/up arrow keys usually controls the volume. But since SigmaOS has a shortcut to shift through tabs when you click the arrow button, that won’t work. This is the case with many sites on which you have got used to certain shortcuts. But SigmaOS provides an insert mode where the browser shortcuts are disabled and you can interact with the page as usual. But that’s an additional thing to get used to.
Also on some pages, like Google Sheets, the SigmaOS shortcuts don’t work. This can lead to you getting frustrated and have to try again and again to get something done. All the productivity gain kinda becomes useless this way.
Moreover, the fact that the tabs are shown on a side bar means that you can never have a full tab view of your pages. The sidebar needs to be there all the time to browse easily through the tabs.
Also, I found the scrolling very buggy. It doesn’t scroll at times and many a times it’s just stuck!
Another thing which I felt is missing in SigmaOS was the fact that there was no customisation for these shortcuts. Some of them were not very intuitive and I wish I could change them.
Also, when I am entering a URL, there’s no autocomplete. I usually have to end up typing the whole web address or choosing an option from the dropdown, which was kinda weird given the fact that this feature is quite common in other browsers.
Speed & Performance
I don’t have much to say about this!
SigmaOS has killed it in terms of speed and performance. Page loads are pretty fast. Even the back button works really well in caching the page and loading it back quickly.
It doesn’t seem like consuming a lot of battery power either.
I was really impressed with the speed with which it could switch to workspaces and help me continue from where I left off.
The Verdict
I was pretty impressed by how they transformed the browser experience.
But this needs a lot of work to make it more user friendly. You will have to change your habits a lot to get used to the shortcuts and new workflows in SigmaOS.
Given the amount of bugs it has right now and for the various reasons I have stated above, I am not in a position to switch to SigmaOS. Though I would love to revisit it after a few months and see if the experience gets better.
So as of now, my search for a better browser is still on. Do drop in the comments if you have suggestions. Cheers! 🍻
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