Firefox Quantum: New browser is faster than Chrome on Google webpages, Mozilla claims

The company says it's 'by far the biggest update we’ve had' since 2004

Mozilla has released a new version of Firefox that claims to be faster than Google Chrome on a number of popular sites, including some of Google’s.

Firefox Quantum is also said to operate at double the speed of a slightly older version of Firefox from earlier this year.

Mozilla says its new browser uses less memory than its rivals, and has been designed to help people get things done a lot more quickly.

“It’s by far the biggest update we’ve had since we launched Firefox 1.0 in 2004,” the company wrote in a blog post.

“Firefox Quantum is over twice as fast as Firefox from 6 months ago, built on a completely overhauled core engine with brand new technology stolen from our advanced research group, and graced with a beautiful new look designed to get out of the way and let you do what you do best.”

Mozilla claims that Quantum is faster than Google Chrome on a number of popular websites, including Google search, Google’s login page, Wikipedia, Bing, Tumblr and Shutterstock.

Chrome, meanwhile, is said to outstrip Quantum on sites including Google Docs, Instagram, BBC and Lifehacker.

As well as focusing on speed, Mozilla has equipped Firefox Quantum with a new user interface called Photon.

“To create Photon, our user research team studied how people browsed the web,” says Mozilla. “We looked at real world hardware to make Firefox look great on any display, and we made sure that Firefox looks and works like Firefox regardless of the device you’re using.

“Our designers created a system that scales to more than just current hardware but lets us expand in the future.”

Firefox Quantum is currently available on Windows, Mac and Linux, with iOS and Android versions set to arrive in the future.