Chrome is excellent I find too.
Nexus - have you tried Dolphin beta? I find it super smooth and fast - can you see if it's as fast as Dolphin+Jetpack?
I do like chrome too and really like the UI etc. but the font rendering puts me off completely, I don't like how it enlarges the majority of text and keeps some other text tiny and due to this, double tap to zoom doesn't work as well then.
Just tried it out now and can't say I notice a huge difference, I think dolphin with jetpack addon, renders the pages quicker (i.e. as a whole).....
But it has the same issues as dolphin with the jetpack addon, text reflow not fully working
If I had to rate the browsers for speed/quickness rendering, it would be as follows:
1. dolphin with jetpack and dolphin beta
2. normal dolphin, xscope and holoweb
Those 5 are very close though and IMO not really worth worrying about that one area.
3. quick ics browser/ics browser +
4. firefox/chrome
Again the above 4 are very close.
For smoothness, I find them all more or less the same, but pinch to zoom and the UI is the smoothest on dolphin.
I really like dolphin, it is always updated and with each update it just seems to get better features/improvements unlike quick ics etc., nice UI (I do prefer the minimal ICS style of quick ics though), fast and has the addons.
I would love to use firefox as my main browser for the desktop to mobile sync feature and the stylish & adblock addon, but the font rendering issues with it and poor UI puts me of completely.