Version 4.0 of IE also provides a full-screen mode that removes tool bars and menu items, displaying more of the Web page. However, users who want to take advantage of IE 4.0's security zones will find that there is no way in full-screen mode to see the security level of the site being viewed. Both browsers have movable tool bars, but Communicator's are better implemented. In addition, users running their system window at 640 by 480 pixels will find the Communicator tool bar less cluttered than the IE 4.0 tool bar. The best of these is Communicator's ability to continue a download from where it left off if a connection is lost, which will be especially useful for dial-up users.
Communicator also has a print preview feature.
Both products do a good job of running Java applets, although in tests using the JMark 1.01 benchmark, IE 4.0 outperformed Communicator in most areas. Using a variety of pages stored on a local intranet server, we tested the speed at which each browser loaded pages. Under these conditions, both did very well, consistently loading pages in times ranging from 3 to 10 seconds, and usually within a second of each other. However, connection problems and Internet traffic will lead to pokier loading times on the Web. We also tested startup times of both browsers, starting with a clean install and an empty cache.