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For a long while the default guide to latest standards support for browsers was the Acid 3 Test. I've just run this on Windows 7 (x64) for Chrome 15.0, Firefox 7.0, Safari 5.1 and IE 9.0 and they all score 100. Some of the animations could be smoother but on the whole there's not much to differentiate them.

I've then looked at the scores for html5test.com which show much wider variation:

  • 343/450 : Chrome 15.0
  • 298/450 : Firefox 7.0
  • 293/450 : Safari 5.1
  • 141/450 : IE 9.0

Are there other tests that are a useful measure for browser feature support? What minimum score on the HTML5 test is a 'good' score?

How important is the HTML5 test score and can it really test all the new features properly? Is it a good replacement for the Acid 3 test?

Are the modern browsers now compliant enough that the end user can remain ignorant of the level of standards support?

Dave Anderson
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  • Firefox 11.0a1 currently scores 314, for what it's worth. Also, Firefox 8 has hit the stable channel and has much better memory use ;) – Trezoid Nov 10 '11 at 08:08

1 Answers1

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The ACID 3 test isn't a definitive measure of a browser's capabilities. The test includes edge cases and handling of bad code, which are not as relevant as which standards are supported and how well. ACID 3 is just one benchmark, and not an especially useful one at that.

The obvious issue is Internet Explorer. v9 is rather good, and v10 looks even better; v9 will probably be the mainstream baseline for some years to come.

Also take a look at caniuse.com, which lists browser capabilities by technology and browser version.

Grant Palin
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