Chrome for Android does not let you block ads. That single sentence explains why millions of people have installed something else — and why Brave has become the most recommended alternative browser on the platform. It blocks ads and trackers by default, loads pages visibly faster, saves data and battery, and gives you YouTube in the background for free. It also ships with a cryptocurrency scheme most users neither want nor understand. This APKSix review separates the genuinely excellent from the merely marketed.
What Is Brave?
Brave is a Chromium-based browser (same engine as Chrome, so sites behave identically) with an aggressive built-in ad and tracker blocker called Shields. It is free, open source, available on Google Play, and funded by an optional advertising and cryptocurrency ecosystem you can ignore entirely. On Android it is one of the very few browsers where blocking works out of the box with zero configuration.
Why People Actually Install It
Ads and trackers gone by default
Shields blocks ads, third-party trackers, fingerprinting attempts and cross-site cookies from the first launch. The effect on a typical news site or recipe page is dramatic — content appears instead of a wall of interstitials, videos stop auto-playing, and the page stops jumping around as ad slots load. This is not a subtle improvement; it is the difference between a usable mobile web and the one most Android users endure.
Speed, data and battery
Because Brave never downloads the ad and tracking payload, pages load measurably faster on slow connections, use noticeably less mobile data, and burn less battery. On budget phones and limited data plans this is the strongest practical argument for the browser — the savings are real and compound daily.
Background YouTube playback — free
Brave lets you play YouTube (and other video sites) with the screen off or while using other apps, in a picture-in-picture window, without a Premium subscription. For podcast-style listening this single feature converts people permanently.
The privacy toolkit
Private windows with Tor routing for genuinely sensitive browsing, HTTPS upgrading, fingerprint randomisation, script blocking, and per-site Shields controls when a page breaks. Brave Search is the default engine — an independent index, not a Google or Bing reskin — with results that are decent, occasionally thinner on obscure queries, and switchable in two taps if you dislike it.
Chromium underneath
Everything works: sites render exactly as they do in Chrome, extensions are absent on Android as they are in Chrome, and sync across devices is available. There is no compatibility cost to switching, which is the reason so many people who try Brave simply never go back.
The Crypto Elephant, Handled Honestly
Brave includes Brave Rewards — an opt-in system where you can view privacy-preserving ads and earn BAT tokens — plus a built-in crypto wallet. This is the part of the product that generates most of the criticism, and it deserves a straight answer.
You can ignore all of it. Rewards is off unless you enable it; the wallet sits unused if you never open it. The browser is fully functional, ad-free and fast without touching a single crypto feature. Our position at APKSix is simple: the ad-blocking and privacy engineering are genuinely excellent and worth installing for; the crypto layer is a business model, not a benefit, and we recommend leaving it switched off. A browser should not be an investment product, and treating it as one is how people get hurt.
Performance on Real Android Hardware
Brave is a Chromium browser, so its resource profile resembles Chrome’s — with one important difference: by not loading ads and trackers, it does substantially less work per page. On budget phones this often makes Brave feel faster than Chrome despite the same engine. Memory use with many tabs is still Chromium-heavy; the browser is not magic, and forty open tabs will still punish a 3 GB phone.
Setting Up Brave Properly: Five Minutes
- Install from Google Play (developer “Brave Software”). Never from an APK mirror — a browser holds your passwords and sessions, making it the single worst app to sideload from an untrusted source. Our safe-download guide explains exactly why.
- Leave Shields on Aggressive and learn the one gesture that matters: tap the lion icon → toggle Shields down when a site genuinely breaks. Ninety-nine percent of sites do not.
- Turn Brave Rewards OFF unless you specifically want it. Settings → Brave Rewards → off. The browser loses nothing.
- Enable background video playback (Settings → Media → Background video playback) — the feature people install Brave for without knowing it exists.
- Set your search engine — Brave Search by default, but switch to whatever you prefer in Settings → Search engine. Nobody should keep a search engine they dislike out of loyalty to a browser.
- Optional: enable HTTPS-Only mode and set “Clear browsing data on exit” if you want the browser to forget you every night.
Brave vs Chrome vs Firefox on Android
Chrome is fast, deeply integrated with Google services, and structurally unable to block the ads that fund its maker. Firefox is the only major Android browser with real extension support — meaning uBlock Origin in its full strength, plus container-style isolation and a genuinely independent engine; it is slightly slower on some sites and the extension catalogue is curated rather than complete. Brave gives you blocking with zero configuration, Chromium compatibility, and better performance than Chrome on ad-heavy pages, at the cost of a crypto layer you must consciously ignore.
Our recommendation depends on temperament. If you want it to just work with no thought: Brave. If you want maximum control and are willing to install and tune extensions: Firefox. If you are deep in the Google ecosystem and do not mind ads: Chrome, and our sympathies.
APKSix Rating: 4.4 / 5
- Features: 4.5 — blocking, background video, Tor windows, sync, all built in.
- Ease of use: 5 — install and it simply works, no configuration required.
- Performance: 4.5 — faster than Chrome on real-world pages; still Chromium-hungry with many tabs.
- Privacy: 4.5 — excellent defaults; the crypto features add complexity rather than risk.
- Value: 5 — free, open source, and it saves you money on mobile data.
Pros and Cons at a Glance
- Pros: ads and trackers blocked by default; free background YouTube playback; genuine data and battery savings; Chromium compatibility; open source; Tor private windows.
- Cons: crypto and rewards layer that many users find off-putting; no extension support (an Android Chromium limitation); Brave Search still thinner than Google on niche queries; heavy tab use is still heavy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Brave safe?
Yes — it is open source, Chromium-based, and its privacy defaults are stronger than any mainstream competitor’s. The crypto features are opt-in and can be left untouched forever. As always: install from Google Play, never from a mirror.
Does Brave really block YouTube ads?
It blocks most web-page advertising, and background playback works without Premium. Ad blocking on YouTube specifically is an ongoing cat-and-mouse game that no browser can promise permanently — treat any absolute claim about it with suspicion.
Do I have to use the crypto stuff?
No. Turn Rewards off and never open the wallet. The browser is complete without either.
Will sites break?
Occasionally — usually payment flows or embedded logins. Tapping the lion icon and lowering Shields for that one site fixes it in two seconds, and Brave remembers the setting per site.
Verdict: The Easiest Upgrade on Android
Brave is the rare recommendation that requires nothing from the user: install it, and the mobile web becomes faster, cleaner, cheaper and less surveilled the same afternoon. Switch Rewards off, learn the lion icon, and you have the best default browser on Android. More honest reviews, and the download-safety rules that govern all of them, on apksix.com.
What Ad Blocking Actually Saves You: The Numbers
The case for Brave is usually made emotionally — “ads are annoying” — but the practical case is stronger. A typical ad-funded news article on mobile pulls between 2 and 6 MB of advertising and tracking payload on top of perhaps 200 KB of actual article. Multiply that across a month of casual browsing and blocking routinely saves several gigabytes of mobile data — a meaningful sum for anyone on a capped plan. Battery follows the same logic: every tracker is JavaScript executing, every ad slot is a network request, and a phone that does less work stays charged longer. Time is the third saving; pages that once took eight seconds to settle now render in two.
None of that is theoretical. Turn Shields off for a day on a news-heavy browsing session and watch your data counter — the experiment converts sceptics faster than any review can. This is also why we consider ad blocking a legitimate performance feature on budget phones, not merely a preference: it is one of the few changes that makes a slow phone measurably faster without touching a single system setting.
A Fair Word About the Websites
Blocking advertising has a cost, and honest reviewing means saying so. Independent publishers — including small sites like this one — are funded by the ads and affiliate arrangements that blockers remove. The ethical middle ground most thoughtful users land on: block by default because the mobile ad ecosystem is genuinely abusive and unsafe, then whitelist the handful of sites whose work you value, or support them directly. Brave makes whitelisting a two-tap operation with the lion icon. Use it for the publishers who earn it — that is a healthier internet than either extreme.
Final Word
Brave is the single easiest quality-of-life upgrade available to an Android user: one install, zero configuration, and a mobile web that finally behaves. Switch off the crypto, keep the shields up, whitelist the sites you love, and enjoy the browser that Chrome structurally cannot be. As always: Google Play only. A browser is the last app on earth you should ever sideload — which is exactly the lesson our safety guide spends two thousand words earning. More reviews on APKSix (apksix.com).
Who Should Switch, and Who Should Not
Switch immediately if: you browse news, recipes, sports or forums on mobile (the categories most polluted by ads); you have a capped data plan; your phone is a budget device that struggles with heavy pages; you listen to YouTube with the screen off and refuse to pay for Premium; or you simply want the web to stop following you around.
Think twice if: your workflow depends on Chrome-specific enterprise integration; you rely on browser extensions (Firefox is the Android answer, not Brave); or the presence of any crypto feature in an app is a dealbreaker on principle — that is a legitimate position, and Firefox with uBlock Origin delivers the same protection without it.
For everyone else — which is most people — Brave is a five-minute install that makes every subsequent hour of phone use better. That ratio is rare enough in tech that it deserves the recommendation without hedging.
The Bottom Line
4.4 out of 5. The blocking is excellent, the speed is real, the background video is a gift, and the crypto layer is a switch you flip off once and forget. In a category where the default option is structurally forbidden from protecting you, Brave is the browser that simply does — and it costs nothing but the thirty seconds it takes to install from Google Play.
One last practical tip
Set Brave as your default browser (Android Settings → Apps → Default apps → Browser app) rather than merely installing it. Links from WhatsApp, email and every other app then open inside Shields instead of a naked Chrome tab — which is where most of the tracking, and most of the phishing pages our safety guide warns about, would otherwise reach you. Installing the browser is half the upgrade; making it the default is the other half, and almost everyone forgets it.
Verdict in one line
Brave is the browser Chrome would be if Google did not sell advertising — free, fast, private by default, and the single easiest upgrade an Android user can make today.
More from The APKSix
Keep reading: our Google Photos review, the Nova Launcher review, and the essential APK safety guide. Every honest Android app review we publish lives on The APKSix (apksix.com) — no hosted files, no cracked apps, no hype.
