Mercury Web Browser Pro (for iPad)

Note the full-screen button at top right, and how each tab shows an X that lets you close it at any time.

Mercury is one of the few popular alternative iPad browser that offers themes to dress up your browser for all occasions.

When you switch to full screen view, smal icons appear along the bottom of the screen. Touching the circular one pops up this round toolbar, from which you can perform almost any of the browser's functions.

Gesture support isn't as extensive as that in Dophin, but it's still a big help for full-screen browsing.

Since the iPad has no download folder as such per se, Mercury offers a download manager to accommodate sites that offer downloadable files.

Mercury's file manager can transfer files to your PC via iTunes or upload them directly to Dropbox.

Like Safari and Maxthon, Mercury includes a reading mode to let you concentrate on the text of a web article.