Microsoft tests Project Spartan browser on Windows 10 smartphones

Microsoft’s Project Spartan browser is available for Windows Insider members to sample on mobile phones for the first time.

The Internet Explorer successor is included in the latest build of Windows 10 Technical Preview for mobile devices.

“An early version of Project Spartan is available in this flight. It uses our new rendering engine to give greater interoperability with the modern mobile web, and includes early versions of Reading View and Reading List,” Microsoft’s Gabe Aul wrote in a blog post.

Aul added Project Spartan isn’t the default browser in this preview yet, as it will be available alongside IE11. But Project Spartan’s Program Manager Kyle Pflug wrote in a separate blog post that it will eventually become the only browser included on Windows phones.

Project Spartan includes built-in Cortana support for carrying out voice searches, taking notes and handling a variety of other tasks.

The mobile edition of the browser features the same enhanced rendering engine as its desktop counterpart, optimising it for modern web standards.

Microsoft recently expanded Technical Preview to include more mobile devices, with virtually every Lumia phone now compatible with the tester operating system.

Windows 10’s first consumer build will be released in the summer for personal computers, tablets, mobile phones and Xbox consoles.