Firefox 3.0 Beta 5 is now available for download. This release includes “750 changes from the previous beta, improving stability and web compatibility, providing platform and user interface enhancements, and resulting in the fastest Firefox ever. Many of these improvements were based on community feedback from the previous beta” (quoted from the release note).

Adrian had a little hands-on time with Firefox 3.0 Beta 5 now and initial testing shows it to be the fastest browser available as claimed. He put the browser through browser benchmark tests using the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark and ACID 3 test.

Here are the results.

(Source: http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware. All rights reserved.)

As you can see, Beta 5 is 15% faster at processing the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark than Beta 4 and Safari 3.1.

(Source: http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware. All rights reserved.)

In ACID 3 test, Firefox 3.0 Beta 5 is still 4-points behind Safari 3.1 but as it’s not a final release yet I will not be surprised if it can pass Safari in the next tests.

In addition, Beta 5 includes more personalized options like a Places Organizer which lets you better manage your bookmarks, tags and browsing history, with search capabilities, smart folders, multiple views, and saved frequent searches. It also gives you a few more restore settings to save you when your browser crashes. This release has better integration with Windows and Macs with enhanced icons and native interface widgets in the browser and web forms.

I have been running the previous beta and find it actually quite stable and perform well though I miss some favorite add-ons. Hopefully we’ll see a release on schedule, which would be June.