The interface is spartan but pleasing and uncluttered, exactly like the Maxthon interface. The current trend amongst new Browsers is underlined once again, namely maximum screen area. We do not quite feel that way though, for, we like to see what add-ons and plug-ins are running, while we browse!

Unlike Chrome, CometBird and Maxthon (our review of Avant is peppered with references to Maxthon since the two resemble each other so much - so much so, that one has to look at the title bar, to check which one is being used!), Avant does not have a Start Page that lists your favorites or last-visited sites. You do have the mandatory Bookmarks Menu Item - Avant calls it Bookmarks a la Firefox, although it is based on rival Microsoft's Internet Explorer Browser engine. (Maxthon calls it Favorites, in keeping with Microsoft's naming convention).

As we have repeated monotonously during our Browser reviews, (indeed, throughout this site), Browsers need to integrate with top-of-the-line Security products: inbuilt security is bound to fall short quickly, for Browser developers do not have the experience that Security products developers have, with respect to stopping security threats. Even if we assume that the current release of Avant is adept at stopping current security threats, it would quickly become insufficient, with new security threats brewing worldwide, on a daily basis! We would have liked to see Avant integrate with, say Norton 360, thus bringing the latter's Password Management and Phishing protection features right into Avant!

While the engine is Microsoft's and the interface a dead ringer for Maxthon, Avant lacks the user base of the former and the innovative features in the latter. We did not see any way of adding external programs to work from within Avant. When multiple tabs are open, we did not find options to refresh or close the tabs other than the current one. These and others are features that Maxthon has (and Internet Explorer does not!) What we did find was an e-Mail client integrated into Avant - something that did not interest us too much, for we have been using Outlook all along!

Avant saves your passwords online. Thus if your Computer crashes, you ought to be able to retrieve your passwords. We did not check this feature out since we are strongly against putting your passwords online. We prefer using Norton 360 or Password Corral or one of the many excellent offline Password Managers for this, for, what if Avant's server is compromised? What if the company decides to stop developing its browser? What happens if they are forced to shut down their server for maintenance or other work? To read and review Password Managers, click here!

We believe that Avant is a beginning and that it has a long way to go before it captures market or mind share. To do either (or both), it needs to innovate, add new and useful features and add them faster than the competition. Therefore, it is not in the running for our Thumbs Up. However, we wish it the very best, for the beginning is definitely good!