I never use the 'swipe to change tabs' thing but can confirm it's not working on my phone either. I'm generally happy with Chrome on my phone but it's been annoying me on my Nexus 10 so I tried out some alternatives at the weekend (Firefox and Dolphin) and they've all got issues that bug me enough to go back to Chrome.
Firefox is decent these days after a dodgy start on Android and the ability to install Adblock is a real bonues but the performance still isn't there; it would barely play an animated GIF I pulled up that Chrome rendered no bother so it can fuck off. Also, it bizarrely forces you to have separate sets of desktop and mobile bookmarks which takes the otherwise excellent and useful idea of bookmark syncing and throws it under a bus. Idiots.
Dolphin isn't bad but it seems a lot slower than the other two to load pages which is an instant black mark obviously and is odd because everyone raves about it's performance. Also there's a UI flaw/feature that makes me want to murder the person responsible because it's so stupid and impacts something I do all the time. When you tap in the address bar you're doing it because you want to start typing a URL or search term. In Doplhin, when you do that, it highlights the currently URL as normal which makes you think that when you start typing the current URL will disappear to be replaced by your new text; as in every single application on any device and OS ever. What actually happens though is it just start appending your text onto the current URL (i.e. although it looks like the text is highlighted it's actually just put your cursor at the end) which is totally useless. To work round it you need to tap in the URL bar then tap space which, bizarrely, clears the text that's there and only
then you can start typing your new URL/search terms. Bonkers, irritating and completely different to any other app you'll ever use.
And, on a completely unrelated note, some pictures have
leaked of a branded HTC One Max which presumably represents the final hardware. The leak confirms the rumoured fingerprint scanner on the back and, surprisingly for HTC, a removable back cover which hopefully means user-replaceable battery. There's still no confirmation of the chipset in it after chat that it would have a Snapdragon 600 rather than 800 due to manufacturing shortages (the 800 is used in Sony and Samsung's new flagships hence the demand) but assuming there's no serious flaws with it HTC look to be winning my upgrade cash this year.