QtWeb is a lightweight browser based on Apple's WebKit and the Nokia Qt framework.

The program's familiar interface means you'll quickly feel at home. Address bar, back and forward buttons, a star icon for bookmarking, a built-in search bar, browser tabs which work as you expect (Ctrl+T for a new tab, say) - it's all very straightforward.

Explore a little further, though, and you'll find some less common options. Like a built-in simple Torrent client, for instance. User agent customisation, and the ability to save the current page as a PDF file.

If you don't like the way the browser looks or feels, then there are plenty of customisation options around. You're able to choose different interface styles from a list. Menu bars can be undocked and repositioned as you like (you can leave the bookmarks pane as a floating toolbar on your desktop, for instance). And if a particular hotkey or keyboard shortcut doesn't suit your needs then it's easy to change it to something else.

QtWeb also has lots of privacy-related functions here, and they're generally easy to find. Click the Privacy menu, say, and you can disable JavaScript, images, cookies, pop-ups, plugins, even the sending of a user agent, all with a click.

And this browser doesn't just have "private browsing": it provides a "Reset" option which clears absolutely everything, closes all the browser windows, and resets every QtWeb setting to its default, as though it had just been installed.

On the down side, the program is updated only rarely, something of an issue when the rest of the browser (and security) world moves so quickly.

And it's not hard to find technical issues. Why did the program crash every time we tried to clone a tab? We've no idea.

QtWeb does have the makings of an interesting browser, though, and we hope the developers will get the resources they need to improve it further.

What's new in version 3.8.5:
 - Qt Framework is upgraded to the version 4.8.5
 - Added Shift-JIS encoding
 - Redesigned searches dialog and model
 - WebInspector integration improved
 - Minor improvements and bug fixes