Opera Mini Beta

[Mr.Android]

So I'm not sure if anyone else here has noticed that the Opera Mini browser app was recently added to the Market in Beta. I've already installed it. Just a few quick observations about the browser. The scrolling is smoother using the trackball, although much slower than the native browser due to an "onscreen mouse." Navigating however is very easy from my experience. They've done an excellent job of trying to show full web pages and then selecting the portions you wish to zoom in on (with only a quick tap). No need to bring up those zoom in/out keys. It's pretty quick too. The start page is a list of bookmarks that you can change to meet your needs. In my experience, many pages appear to load quicker than those in the native browser. Although it's only in Beta, it's certainly worth checking out. I like it already compared to the "Chrome Lite" browser (in fact not at all like browsing with Google Chrome). I say hats off to the team working on Opera Mini. They've made a real nice browser for mobile platforms.

 

[HCSC]

http://www.operamini.com/beta/

 

[Loomis2]

How much space does it take up, and if it better than the original is there a way to remove it (the original I mean)? To be honest, it would have to be substantially better to go through the hassle of changing.

 

[cjesse]

Thank you for your mention, i download opera from Market.

 

[Loomis2]

OK, I've d/l'ed it and used it. It seems to rely on the trackball a lot more than the Google one does. I would say it is confusing but it is probably just different enough to be noticeable. If I went from OperaMini to ChromeMini I'd probably be saying the same thing about Chrome.

That being said, what are the points in favor of OperaMini? Why should someone consider it over the browser already on the phone? Playing with it for just a short time I couldn't find any, but I'm sure there are others more familiar with OperaMini that could point out some things I am missing.

 

[Masonator]

Seems genuinely pointless?

 

[sleebus.jones]

The big benefit of Opera is speed. The data is loaded by their servers, compressed, and sent to your device. That makes EDGE service load like 3G, and 3G service is virtually instantaneous. Now, not all of the java stuff works, but it is SMOKING fast. Try it, it's pretty impressive.

 

[Masonator]

loving it. so fast. still struggles to download mp4s though...

 

[Masonator]

scroll is a bit pants compared. im sure it will be improved. plus i dont think 100% happy about everything i surf being downloaded to there servers first...

 

[sleebus.jones]

Yeah, the scroll stinks, due to it being implemented as a mouse, rather than a touch screen. I wouldn't worry too much about the servers being in the loop, Sidekicks have been doing that for years. It would require a pretty prodigious data center to store all the stuff from all the opera mini users worldwide. It's probably covered in their privacy statement, although I haven't looked for it.