Although the new version doesn't sport any major UI changes, the browser is reportedly 20% faster than Firefox 5. Startup time has been improved, especially for those with lots of tabs and groups. Users can now determine whether they want to load their tab groups when launching the browser, or load them within the Panorama grouping tool.
Other improvements include a new permissions feature that allows users to set site-specific permissions for a number of variables, including passwords and pop-ups; a plugins check, which lets users see if they're running the latest versions of their extensions; highlighted domain names in the address bar; an improved Web Console; and a Scratchpad tool for developers testing JavaScript within the browser.
Update: Mozilla has asked us to remove the links to its FTP servers because the versions were not final. We'll post the download links to the final versions alongside our hands-on review Tuesday.