Define older -- 4.1.x and later represent more than 50% of devices out there: http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html http://developer.android

Define older -- 4.1.x and later represent more than 50% of devices out there: http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html I agree with you on box-shadows -- its a big no-no in the android-land. There are some things however android chrome does better than mobile safari, batching browser repaints for instance. If you focus on CSS-driven animations/interactions for your ui, you should be able to reduce the performance issues on android though.