Not sure if this is working as intended:
Ctrl-T to open a new tab.
User should be able to start typing immediately. I think that’s probably a pretty basic requirement for any browser at this point! 
For me the experience is that the focus doesn’t quite make it to the address bar until some few moments way too late, making me lose a large amount of what I’ve typed.
That’s a deal killer for sure.
This started happening to me today as well. I first thought I was sloppy on the finger but literally every time I open an new tab and start typing, the first two letters are ignored, seemingly because I type them too quickly.
You know, I had kind of stopped noticing this after adjusting, but it is a bit annoying to have that pause when other browsers don’t seem to have it. If I forget, it’s a pain to start over with the URL or search terms.
I wonder if blocking the default new tab page would reduce or stop it. I’ll try that and report back.
5 or so minutes later: Indeed, using New Tab Override does put the address bar in focus so quickly it might as well be instantly. Could the devs change the code of the default tab to emphasize getting focus ASAP?
A caveat for those putting a URL in New Tab Override’s options: I’m still puzzling this out, but if you put a site in there then your new tab will show it (still with snappy focus), and the shield icon will be greyed out. However, it looks as though shields may still be active, since sites I’ve whitelisted as not needing shields have (most) content shown, but those I’ve not show varying degrees of content in the new tab. In any case, it’s probably best to leave that option blank or use a site you’re sure is safe in case shields aren’t used in loading the page.
@mirkwood,
I had a user on Reddit mention the same thing – was that you?
Regardless, as I mentioned over there, I don’t seem to have this issue. Any chance you’d be willing to take a brief recording of the behavior?
Im experiencing the same issue since a couple of days. It happens when you start typing while the new tab is still loading. Once it is done loading the stuff you just typed is automatically selected (similar to when using crtl-a) and then, when you continue typing after that, the previously typed is removed. Usually it loads the new tab pretty quick and everything works like it should, but when the loading takes a bit longer you might have already typed a couple of characters.
I’ve sent you a recording
That lag doesn’t seem to happen in any of 0.61.52 Chromium: 73.0.3683.86 (Official Build) (64-bit), 0.62.25 Chromium: 73.0.3683.67 (Official Build) beta (64-bit), and 0.63.18 Chromium: 73.0.3683.75 (Official Build) dev (64-bit) MacOS 10.14.3, now. I create a new tab and start typing and it shows up in the address bar, not seeming to get selected when the default new tab is done loading, and when it’s a domain and finish entering it it stays in the bar and loads as expected.
I just wanted to add (as a new user of Brave) that as soon as I began to try Brave 0.61.52 today, I also met with this issue. I would describe it as follows — when opening a new tab with Ctrl+T (or the button) and then immediately typing one’s required URL into the address box, Brave displays the user’s input thus far, but then begins to open its pictoral screen during the time the user is still in the process of typing, but unfortunately, when the pictoral screen is complete, it erases the user’s input and in consequence the first part of the user’s input is lost.
Some of us are fast typists. A user who is slow to respond or slow to begin entering a URL is unlikely to be hindered by this.
For me it’s likewise a deal-breaker, as someone else mentioned, as I have difficulty with software that inconveniences me and in this case the picture screen is unwanted anyway.
I created an account to start a thread about this, and I’m glad to find out that I’m not crazy :]
It happens to me randomly throughout the day, and I wind up with these scattered useless tabs, because once the first ctrl+T/type fails, I immediately hit ctrl+T again, and the 2nd time works fine, maybe because the updated new tab page/image is already cached.
I think this is the most accurate description of the problem.
Many thanks for adding this note, Joehahn, I also signed-up for an account today for exactly the same reason!
I’ve been a Brave user on Android for several months and liked its performance and trouble-free use in comparison with Firefox for Android. Likewise I’ve been experiencing serious performance and reliability with Firefox on Windows and today felt enough was enough, and I’d switch to Brave on Windows too.
I have carried out the “New Tab Override” suggested above by hnktong and it works fine, so we do have a solution to this. Let me know if you need help installing it — it works well if you choose a new-tab page that isn’t a heavy web page — in my case duckduckgo.com.
Welcome @OsoB. That’s a great choice, but note that there’s no need to specify any URL. If you leave that option blank, it works fine and even faster. Pragmatically, your choice is probably better since more often than not, at least for me, a new tab is opened to do a search.
For everyone here, we already have an issue open for this – can ve viewed here. I’ve added this thread as a +1:
Thanks @hnktong, good to get the clarification on that. As it happened, DuckDuckGo was the first URL I tried after reading your earlier post on this and the thing I liked about it, is that it doesn’t waste time displaying main web-page content; rather it just displays the DuckDuckGo logo next to the address input and you’re away! Oso
Thanks @Mattches, certainly it’s great to have a built-in fix, without necessarily needing to use the new tab override extension. However, I would say, as a user who really values speed of response in a web browser more than anything else, I wouldn’t always want to see the opening tab pictures. I know they look great but depending on what we want from a browser, sometimes we need just bare-bones functionality and no distractions from what we’re quickly trying to do.
One of my reasons for dropping Firefox last week, after 15 years of using it, was that depending on what part of a web page had focus, Firefox didn’t respond to keyboard functions unless I reached for the mouse and clicked in the page. I tend to regard keyboard presses as needing to take precedence over anything else you’re doing at the time. I guess some of us have become too impatient.
@OsoB,
We’ll be working on our own New Tab Page in the upcoming months to make it more flexible and functional with options like this. We do appreciate the feedback!
Looks like insats already sent a recording.
Sorry, I got swamped and then didn’t check back here!
Thanks for the attention to this matter.