Has Chrome just been optimised far better?

[ptrkhh]

I'm a serious Pocket user, and having to go through a couple of steps to save something to Pocket for later reading/reference is a pain

Use apps for that. Then you can just swipe in from the right, tap share, and tap the app.

clicking in multiple directions (or pulling out my phone) to fill in a password I don't use all the time -- how trustworthy is the IE password repository, as opposed to my LastPass repository?

Not as bad as iCloud as far as I remember. Sorry, Jennifer Lawrence