I just joined Skyfire’s private beta and my response is wow. Skyfire crams a full desktop experience into the tiny mobile screen for Windows Mobile with impressive speed and sleek design.  This includes full Flash support, putting all of YouTube and Hulu on your phone. Even Ajax and Java heavy sites like Google Reader run smoothly.  Many options are lacking in this early version, but the browsing experience is an impressive sign of browsing to come.

Skyfire’s compatibility works better than the iPhone Safari but lacks features needed to be the best.  You can’t change your start page (though the Skyfire homepage conveniently includes your bookmarks and history). There’s no tabbing or fit-to-screen zoom like on Opera meaning I’ll keep Opera around for text heavy sites.  The touch controls take some getting used to - the iPhone still wins on easy-of-use with multi-touch zoom. Most frustrating is the free browser needs to authenticate and closes if you loose your connection.

Unfortunately, Skyfire remains in private beta with no invites, so a lot of this is just me showing off. These many frustrations prevent Skyfire from becoming my default browser, but showing off YouTube and Hulu to my iPhone wielding friends makes it a must have application.  See screenshots after the jump.