Earlier today I’ve released a new version of the HTML5 test. The goal is still the same: to show an indication of how well your browser supports the upcoming HTML5 standard and related specifications.
It was clearly time for an updated test, because browsers were starting to get very close to the original maximum score of 160 points. If you disregard the codecs for a bit: a current nightly of Safari scores 95 out of 106. That is very close and demands a new challenge. The maximum of 160 was always intended to be a moving goalpost. The original test suite did not test for all of the new HTML5 features and I always intended to keep adding tests until the specification is stable and all features are properly tested.
That is exactly what happened: I’ve added a large number of new tests. If you compare the results of the original test with the new one, you may also notice some changes to the already existing tests. The original HTML5 test may award points for a feature, while the new test does not. We made some of the original tests stricter, so a browser must follow the specification more closely before points are awarded. We still don’t test all current features of HTML5, so expect more updates in the future.
The maximum score of the new test has been raised to a total of 300 points. This does not include any points for codec support. If you support one or more codecs you can get additional bonus points, but the maximum score of 300 points is in reach of every browser regardless of which codecs you support.
Safari takes the lead (for now)
The release of Apple Safari 5 yesterday marks the first time a shipping browser scores higher than 200 points on the HTML5 test. To be exact, Safari scores a total of 208 points and 7 bonus points. That is quite a milestone because Safari 4 scored 129 points and Safari 3.2 which was released just a year and a half ago scored only 29 points.
But Apple isn’t the only high performer on the HTML5 test. Given that both Safari and Google Chrome use the Webkit engine, it is no surprise that Chrome is the current runner-up. Chrome 5 trails Safari just below the 200 on 197 points and 7 bonus points.
A bit further away are Firefox 3.6 with 139 points and Opera 10.5 with 129 points. As usual, Internet Explorer 8 concludes the list of currently shipping browsers with a meagre 27 points.
But the race hasn’t been decided yet
So far we’ve only looked at shipping browsers, but most of the browser manufacturers also release nightly builds or beta versions. These are not ready for public consumption, but should give a good idea of how well the next release of each browser will function.
We should not expect much difference from the Webkit based browser, because both Safari 5 and Chrome 5 were only recently released, but work on Mozilla Firefox 4 has been going on for quite a while. Expect a large jump from Firefox.
Unsurprisingly Safari and Chrome still hold the lead when it comes to nightly builds. Safari keeps the advantage with 220 points over the 217 points of Chrome. Both nightlies were downloaded earlier today. As expected, Firefox makes a big leap with their nightly builds to a score of 176 points and we should see further improvements before Firefox 4 ships.
And what about Internet Explorer?
Internet Explorer is an interesting case. Microsoft has been using HTML5 as a buzzword like crazy. It seems like HTML5 stands for everything cool that is happening in the browser and if you have hardware accelerated rendering, just call it hardware accelerated HTML5. If you have a nice demo for SVG, just call it a HTML5 showcase.
Microsoft even released their own HTML5 test suite in which they score 100% and all other browser score less. Of course they only test the things they actually implemented: Text selection, Foreign content and getElementsByClassName and forget about all the things they haven’t implemented.
Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview 2 scores a meagre 32 points. Let’s hope they manage to improve on this score.