Since its arrival on the PC scene, Mozilla Firefox has literally spread like wild fire, out stripping both Windows IE and Opera, to become the number one choice for internet users the world over.

And while it has taken sometime, Mozilla has finally released its heavily anticipated mobile internet browser for the Maemo 6-powered Nokia N900.

Installation wise, getting Firefox Mobile up-and-running on the N900 takes no time at all. You simply access the Ovi Store, search for Firefox, download it and open it - simple.

However, once you open Firefox Mobile you quickly realise it isn’t the same as the one on your PC - although, Mozilla seems hell bent on claiming it is.

Nevertheless, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. For starters, Firefox Mobile has a wealth of functions and tricks up its sleeve, such as “mobilise” which allows you to switch to mobile versions of websites and the ability to post Tweets from the address bar.

In addition to this, you can also search Google directly from the URL address bar, which will definitely save you some time throughout the week, as will the one touch bookmarking function.

One of the key features of Firefox mobile is a free add-on called Weave Sync. However, to use this feature you will have to set-up a Weave Sync account online, but don’t worry this doesn’t take very long.

The idea behind Weave Sync is ingenious and, for this reason, it has the potential to be something of a game-changing addition to the world of mobile web browsing as it syncs all your bookmarks, passwords, and favourites, which means your Firefox PC browser is exactly the same as the one on your mobile – at least, that’s the theory anyway.

Unfortunately, during testing we couldn’t get the Weave Sync account to connect to the Mozilla server and after nearly an hour of trying we gave up, which was very disappointing as we were really looking forward to trying it out.

Nevertheless, Firefox Mobile makes up for this in other departments. And while it may not be the best looking browser in the world, it does have all the features, functionality and usability you’d expect from Firefox – although, be prepared, it does take some time to find them all.

Another nice feature is the ability to navigate between tabs and settings on the main screen by swiping either, left for “Settings” – where you can manage all of your plug-ins etc – and right for “Tabs”.

You can also load up Firefox Mobile with all the plug-ins you want, which means the customisation options within it are practically endless.

Mozilla built Firefox Mobile using the same engine as Firefox 3.6, and set themselves the task of creating a “PC” like web experience on a mobile handset – and in some ways they’ve achieved this.

Obviously, there are a few glitches, such as Weave Sync, video playback and the fact that it’s a little complicated at first. But overall it’s difficult to be too harsh as Firefox Mobile on the whole is still a very accomplished browser.

So much so, that sometimes when you're using it, you can't help thinking that Mozilla has definitely brought something new to the table with Firefox Mobile.

Lets just hope it appears on other devices and operating systems soon.

Firefox Mobile

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: Maemo

Cost: Free

Version: 1.0

Developer: Mozilla

Website/Demo: Mozilla website