Android’s built-in browser is a great piece of software, some might wonder why you’d need to stray from it when it does its job perfectly fine but if we always went with the easy route we’d all still be running Internet Explorer.
The Opera browser itself is far older than many realize and was available on portable devices over a decade ago and despite their desktop browser never really taking off (Chrome has had more users since release than Opera ever had) their mobile browsers have always been the best available, especially when using a WAP phone or a Blackberry.
The Opera Mini browser really excels when it comes to speed. After a brief loading time, which sadly occurs every time you switch back into the browser, you’ll be welcomed by a browser that loads pages twice as fast as the stock one found on Android. The speed isn’t without a cost however, images begin appearing as colored squares that eventually are replaced by a low quality version of the true image (quality can be adjusted in settings) but this is a small price to pay for the speed improvements. Further speed improvements come through Opera’s claim that bandwidth is reduced by 90% through compression, if this is to believed then the potential cost savings for those unfortunate enough to be paying by the MB could be very substantial.
Other features such as bookmark sync, full screen mode and tabs are all present and correct as well as the option to save pages for offline viewing, searching inside of a webpage and the ability to download file regardless of if you have an application registered with the extension. All these features make the Opera browser a tight package that’s well worth checking out.
Please note, the reviewed software is currently marked as beta and is not a final release.
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Hi Mark – great piece, just noticed you’re missing the domain in your download link – the correct link is:
http://www.appstorehq.com/search/source_id?q=com.opera.mini.android
Hi Mark – great piece, just noticed you’re missing the domain in your download link – the correct link is:
http://www.appstorehq.com/search/source_id?q=com.opera.mini.android
Hi Mark – great piece, just noticed you’re missing the domain in your download link – the correct link is:
http://www.appstorehq.com/search/source_id?q=com.opera.mini.android
so does the lack of mention of the lack of support for javascript mean they’ve added it since the initial release? because as soon as i saw there was no javascript support I uninstalled it and won’t be reinstalling it until they’ve added it.
otherwise dolphin will tide me over just fine until fennec is released for android later this year.
It does support JavaScript. It’s just that it’s done on the server.
It does support JavaScript. It’s just that it’s done on the server.
so does the lack of mention of the lack of support for javascript mean they’ve added it since the initial release? because as soon as i saw there was no javascript support I uninstalled it and won’t be reinstalling it until they’ve added it.
otherwise dolphin will tide me over just fine until fennec is released for android later this year.
so does the lack of mention of the lack of support for javascript mean they’ve added it since the initial release? because as soon as i saw there was no javascript support I uninstalled it and won’t be reinstalling it until they’ve added it.
otherwise dolphin will tide me over just fine until fennec is released for android later this year.
It does support JavaScript. It’s just that it’s done on the server.
I never had any issues with javascript on this version. It’s worlds better than the old 4.x release that came out last year, which felt more like a poor port than a native app.
I never had any issues with javascript on this version. It’s worlds better than the old 4.x release that came out last year, which felt more like a poor port than a native app.
I never had any issues with javascript on this version. It’s worlds better than the old 4.x release that came out last year, which felt more like a poor port than a native app.
downloads that require me to wait “x” amount of secs don’t work. the count down just sits there it never actually counts. any ideas?
downloads that require me to wait “x” amount of secs don’t work. the count down just sits there it never actually counts. any ideas?
downloads that require me to wait “x” amount of secs don’t work. the count down just sits there it never actually counts. any ideas?
This is very misleading:
“The Opera browser itself is far older than many realize and was available on portable devices over a decade ago and despite their desktop browser never really taking off (Chrome has had more users since release than Opera ever had)”
Fact: Opera has just been free and without ads for about four years.
Fact: Chrome has been out for about two years.
Fact: Chrome is heavily promoted through Google’s online advertising monopoly, while Opera has no such monopoly to rely on for ads.
The desktop browser has more than 50 million users by now. That’s 50 million users in about four years. Not too bad for someone who doesn’t have Microsoft’s OS monopoly or Google’s ad monopoly to promote their browser!
This is very misleading:
“The Opera browser itself is far older than many realize and was available on portable devices over a decade ago and despite their desktop browser never really taking off (Chrome has had more users since release than Opera ever had)”
Fact: Opera has just been free and without ads for about four years.
Fact: Chrome has been out for about two years.
Fact: Chrome is heavily promoted through Google’s online advertising monopoly, while Opera has no such monopoly to rely on for ads.
The desktop browser has more than 50 million users by now. That’s 50 million users in about four years. Not too bad for someone who doesn’t have Microsoft’s OS monopoly or Google’s ad monopoly to promote their browser!
This is very misleading:
“The Opera browser itself is far older than many realize and was available on portable devices over a decade ago and despite their desktop browser never really taking off (Chrome has had more users since release than Opera ever had)”
Fact: Opera has just been free and without ads for about four years.
Fact: Chrome has been out for about two years.
Fact: Chrome is heavily promoted through Google’s online advertising monopoly, while Opera has no such monopoly to rely on for ads.
The desktop browser has more than 50 million users by now. That’s 50 million users in about four years. Not too bad for someone who doesn’t have Microsoft’s OS monopoly or Google’s ad monopoly to promote their browser!
Don’t get me wrong I love Opera and I had been using it on the desktop for as long as I remember. I even paid for the ad supported version.
But w3schools.com show that when Chrome launched in Sept 08 it grabbed 3.1% market share where as Opera peaked at 2.4% of December of the same year. Now Chrome account for 12% of the webpage hits and even with Google’s weight behind it that’s very impressive
Don’t get me wrong I love Opera and I had been using it on the desktop for as long as I remember. I even paid for the ad supported version.
But w3schools.com show that when Chrome launched in Sept 08 it grabbed 3.1% market share where as Opera peaked at 2.4% of December of the same year. Now Chrome account for 12% of the webpage hits and even with Google’s weight behind it that’s very impressive
Don’t get me wrong I love Opera and I had been using it on the desktop for as long as I remember. I even paid for the ad supported version.
But w3schools.com show that when Chrome launched in Sept 08 it grabbed 3.1% market share where as Opera peaked at 2.4% of December of the same year. Now Chrome account for 12% of the webpage hits and even with Google’s weight behind it that’s very impressive