I for one (and others 1, 2, 3), really dislike this new tab design.
Please do not get rid of the old design and offer a choice between the old attached design and this new “floating” design.
I could probably come to terms with the floating design, but i really dislike that the topbar AND the tabs themselfs have increased in size:
- New Topbar is now 58px in height, previously it was 52px
- New Tab is now 48px in height, previously it was 45px
In general i feel it’s too tall all in all. If it were slimmer i would have less qualms with it. 46px would be ideal height for the topbar (atleast for windows).
Instead of just complaining about it, here is the current design, in comparison to a mockup of the 46px design:
Current Design:
46px Mockup:
Legibility is not hurt and usability shouldn’t be hurt by those couple pixels either, but it surely makes it look a lot sleeker.
I dislike the current design enough, that i would probably start evaluating other browsers if this current design is enforced. For now i can get around it by disabling it via the flag: brave://flags/#brave-horizontal-tabs-update.