Maxthon is an interesting web browser that aims to combine the best features of the competition, with plenty of new additions of its own.

The program includes two rendering engines, for instance. It can display pages using IE's old Trident for compatibility, or Webkit, as used by Safari and Chrome, for much improved performance.

Maxthon opens with a useful Quick Access display that resembles Opera's Speed Dial, with large icons for commonly visited sites. It's easy to add more links for your favourite pages, and so build a useful startup portal that gets every browsing session off to a speedy start.

A clean browsing interface means that navigation via the toolbar is easy. But in another feature borrowed from Opera, you're also able to use mouse gestures. To go one page back through history, say, hold down the right mouse button and move the mouse from right to left. It's all very easy, and once you're used to the technique then it can feel a very natural way to control the program.

There's also a favourites manager that can synchronise your bookmarks. Magic Fill automatically completes logins and web forms. And the latest version of the program's Ad Hunter technology now blocks even more unwanted popups and unnecessary ads, speeding up your browsing.