I’ am going to list the problems that I encountered in the brave browser into two categories :- 1) On desktop[win 10] and on android .
Criticism of Brave browser on Desktop :-
The muon[legacy version] gave the users the ability to enable and disable custom filter lists in the ad block menu. But, the chromium version gives us no insight into which filters are used, and the option to add more, like let us say nano adblocker’s anti ad blocking list , as an example .
For me, Brave shields is good, and I can see it is still under development like the rest of the browser . But, it is too weak for me, I can still see ads which I never saw on the same websites when I used ublock origin by gorhill on other browsers . Which is why, I had to disable brave shield’s in its entirety, and set up my own extensions on brave . I hope in the future you guys will follow the ublock origin route by giving the users the ‘UI’ they need . One of the main lacking features in Brave on desktop is also cookie policies in shields , to be exact, it just does not give the same freedom and user control as it gives me on cookie autodelete, which is another thing brave should work on .
We can block JS through shields, which is great, but it still lacks the power features umatrix gives , for example .
Things which I love on desktop :-
Although I have bashed the browser, it does a lot of wonderful things too. For first time users with no knowledge of how browsers work, this is a all in one product which works for them with no need for additional tinkering . The brave shields do work for the most part, and that is why I have to give them the necessary credit where it is due[though I would love if it also blocked 1st party ads] . Also, the browser really feels speedy and stable to use, and that is before Brave 1.0 is to be launched, so kudos to the team.
Criticism on android :-
I think brave on android is the best mobile browser out of the box, although it still has a long way to go to beat a fully kitted gecko browser in terms of privacy and stability , and the same goes for desktop too . One of the biggest criticism I have about brave on android is that you guys still haven’t figured out a way to solve the chromium bug which causes the browser to crash when the user closes a tab, when the said tab is the only one open in the browser. The issue had been logged like two - three months ago, but it still has not been rectified. I know for a fact chrome also had the same bug on chromium build 71 like brave[which was also on 71 at that time], but the guys at google managed to rectify the issue in chromium 72 update itself, and the brave users still have to wait for the solution to come even after the android browser was updated to chromium 73 !
I have installed brave in all my families/friends smartphones/desktops, but this smartphone bug is making me the victim of abuse, please do a brother a favour and get this thing right .
As for the shields, they suffer from the same problems as on desktop, good for the most part, but just not good enough .
Things which I love on android :- The recent menu bar UI which was changed to the bottom was one of the best updates for me . Also, the mobile browser is so damn smooth, fast and just very frickin good. I think Brave mobile is one of the best apps that I have ever downloaded on my android phone , period .
Conclusion :-
I hope I have made my points as concisely as possible, so as to make sense to the makers of this wonderful browser what users like me want in the future iterations of this browser .
Although my language may have seemed harsh, there is a reason for that, as I expect nothing but perfection from this browser, as I have high hopes that one day, this little lion can topple the giant known as chrome, and give the freedom and privacy back to the masses .
Everything I have said was observed by me on the respective stable builds of the browsers[on android as well as desktop] .