Sure, Opera Mini may (or may not) already be the most popular mobile browser in the world — but why stop there? Following up on the Android release of Opera Mobile 4 just over a year ago, Opera has just launched Opera Mini 5 for Android into public beta.
The jump from version 4 to version 5 is pretty huge, introducing a handful of features that Opera says “makes your mobile browsing experience as close as it can be to your desktop experience.”
The biggest change here is probably the introduction of tabbed browsing — a must, given that just about every default smartphone browser supports it out of the box at this point.
Some of the other big new features:
- Speed Dial: Gives you one-touch access to 9 of your favorite sites.
- Password Manager
- Opera Link: Syncs your bookmarks (and Speed Dial) between your handset and your desktop (be it that you’re running Opera on your desktop, that is)
Is Opera Mini 5 a worthy contender to the default Android browser? I’d say so. Opera Mini’s primary selling point is that they pipe everything through a data compression proxy before sending it to your handset. For those days when 3G just isn’t as fast as it should be, it’ll save you time; for those of us not on unlimited data plans, it’ll save some money. Alas, the current Beta doesn’t support multi-touch, which may very well be a deal-killer for some
Still: throw in Opera Mini 5′s seemingly rock solid build quality and its pretty dang decent UI, and I’d say it’s worth giving it a serious test session at the very least. Look for it in the Android App Market.
Are they ever going to release Opera Mobile 10 for Android? It seems like it’s taking them forever to develop for the Android platform.
Opera Mobile is going to the OEMs. The APK will undoubtedly leak for manual install – but last I heard, there were no plans to release it to the market.
I am yet to see new versions of Opera for other phones..
You mean, apart from Windows Mobile and S60?
Androlib Link of the application:
http://www.androlib.com/android.application.com-opera-mini-android-nnxE.aspx
This is great seeing Opera (Desktop) as the fastest browser in the world and now this, landing on mobile.. I just wonder how this one matches on Firefox (Fennec on android?)
It’s faster and generally better than Fennec.
surf http://m.opera.com/next
result :
Opera for Mobile Devices – Download
Device detected: HTC – Magic
We haven’t yet verified that your device is able to run Opera Mini 5 beta 2. Feel free to try anyway.
Do i really need to download ?
i m downloading :)
Opera Mobile is going to the OEMs. The APK will undoubtedly leak for manual install – but last I heard, there were no plans to release it to the market.
Just used it for a few minutes, but I really like it. Incredibly zippy and the UI’s much more intuitive than the stock browser (or even stock browser + HTC modifications).
Unfortunately…
I don’t care about pinch-to-zoom, but the fact that there’re only two zoom levels is a HUGE deal breaker. Then you try to scroll and realize that, horrors of horrors, this very lovely little browser doesn’t do kinetic scrolling. OUCH.
Strange, but it seems to have kinetic scrolling on nexus one.
Overall I’m quite happy, I’ve been waiting for traffic compression since moving to android (there are no affordable unlimited plans in Russia).
Man! Looks Good!
I would love to see this running on the iphone, maybe in Cydia since apple will never aprove another browser….shame…
Mystic!
Talk about anti-competitive, if MS refused to allow a browser on their mobile OS the EU would be all over their ass!
Different thing as MS has 80%+ of the desktop OS market – hence, they can profit (read:get away with at the expense of competition) from a Monopolistic position. Can’t accuse anybody of monopolistic practices if they are not a monopoly. In Apple’s case, it’s their prerogative to keep just one browser, at their own risk.
Not true! If you are convicted of having a monopoly in one market, it doesn’t have any bearing on what you can legally do in other markets. Microsoft doesn’t have a monopoly with their mobile OS, so they can do what they like. The *customers* would be all over Microsoft’s ass, because mobile IE is crap.
To illustrate the point, if Microsoft were to actively block non-MS phones from syncing with Windows, they would be using their desktop OS monopoly to affect the mobile market, and that is illegal.
that is so true…the browser ballot…i mean why not make apple do the same on there products…including the iphone….
I’m still waiting on mobile IE for Android.
Now that surely makes me want to get an android phone. The speed dial feature sounds killer!
Just downloaded it for the Nexus One. It’s quicker than the default browser and I like the way you can switch between pages/tabs a lot more. However, it’s not as smooth as the default browser when scrolling and zooming in and out. Overall 8/10.
Is I am really liking it. So far, it beats every other browser I have tried for Android. Although, when Firefox mobile finally comes, it’ll likely be my choice because of the extension support. However, in the meantime, this latest version of Opera Mini is great.
+1 for android
I have downloaded this on the HTC Hero. I like the browser and the added extras.
i am not too bothered about pinch to zoom but I cant seem to figure out any other way to zoom on it.
Can someone help?
Just tap to zoom.
I’m still waiting on mobile IE for Android.
I have just installed it on my Galaxy i7500. Much better than default browser or dolphin. While it renders pages slightly different, i care not ’cause on such a tiny screen you have to read text, not enjoy design goodness. And it is MUCH faster than any other android browser.
Opera ROCKS!
Pretty cool, very fast at page loading. The rendering isn’t very good though, and the UI in general lags far behind the stock browser. But the server side rendering thing it does means I’ll keep it around for when I’m stuck on slow-ass edge somewhere in the boonies.
And HOORAY FOR CHOICE.
Pros: fast. Cons: awful rendering.
I’ll be sticking with the Android browser and with the Dolphin browser, but it is good to have an option for when I just need to look something up really quickly and am on GPS and don’t care what the page looks like.
I have to say though: this is much better than Opera Mobile for Android, which was a disaster as it didn’t work at all and kept force closing…
Opera Mobile for Android?
Huh?
Opera Mobile for Android hasn’t even been released yet!
This is great that Opera mini comes for Android.., apart from the fact that the address bar is always showing, but I like it.
Opera mini comes for Android………that’s great
WTF!! I logged in to Facebook with Opera mini beta on my Motorola Droid from Germany. Facebook complained that I’ve logged in from a strange location with an IP from Norway! Guess what? IP belongs to Opera Software: 94.246.127.24
Can somebody explain please? ?!!!
http://is.gd/nomore
Spam fail.
I was using opera 5 beta 2 on my sony ericsson 506 and it work good and i delect it trying to go even bigger in which i can’t, i try reinstall opera 5 beta 2 now opera will get me.
Surprised no one else noticed this: hitting the Home button or otherwise leaving the app kills the app. If you go back to Opera Mini, it has to load from start again.
Seems they likely just dumped all the Java into a single Activity, and didnt care to use any of the Bundle state saving that allows Android to multi-task…
Opera mini Browser now available for the iPhone, can be found in the appstore..
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/opera-mini-web-browser/id363729560?mt=8
Actually, I am still waiting for my Android phone. Probably by next week, I already have it and I am so excited about it. I can’t wait to try it.