Earlier this month, Apple approved the Opera Mini web browser for release in the iTunes App Store. This was received by critics as revolutionary because Apple had previously not allowed any browser other than their own Safari mobile browser. Opera Mini’s release was seen by many as a step toward a loosening of restrictions of the App Store and a good precedent for apps that directly competed with Apple’s bundled apps.
However, the quality of the browser is more important than any symbolic importance that Opera Mini might have. Luckily, Opera Mini performs well as a mobile browser, quickly loading pages, and performing all the necessary tasks that a web browser should. The real question is: “How does it compare to Safari?” The answer is: “Okay.”
Opera Mini’s strengths lie in the different feature set it has from Safari. Opera Mini’s greatest claim is that it improves browsing speed, especially on low speed networks, such as EDGE, by compressing the page. Unfortunately, I was not able to make a head to head test regarding claim, but I have observed the results of other reviewers, and It appears Opera Mini loads pages significantly faster on an EDGE network than Safari. However, casual browsing on a wi-fi network feels to be about the same speed, with Opera having a slight advantage, because it renders the whole page as it loads and lets the user browse the whole page while it is still loading, as opposed to Safari, which renders the page when it is viewed, which leads to “checkerboarding,” while the page renders.
There are some interface differences that can lead to frustration when using Opera at first, but they become second nature rather quickly. For example, rather than double tapping to zoom in on a column, a single tap will do. Also, pinch-to-zoom doesn’t work, so the column width is the maximum zoom available, which makes links a little hard to click sometimes. However, zooming in and out is easy with the tap-to-zoom, and the browser’s “back” button moves through previous zoom levels in addition to moving through pages. Swiping two fingers across the screen also moves between zoom levels.
One of the most anticipated features of Opera Mini was the tabbed browsing, which allows it to handle several pages at once, more like a traditional desktop browser. The tabbing system allows the user to switch quickly between pages, but doesn’t take up room on the screen; instead the user calls up the tab list when it is needed. Other nice features that Opera Mini includes are live in-page search, and a “Start Page,” which can hold the user’s most visited page.
One of the major advantages that Safari still has over Opera Mini is in mobile pages. Google’s mobile interfaces are not available in Opera Mini, which loads the standard HTML pages. Links on the Home Screen can only be made from Safari. Furthermore, any pages with links on the Home Screen will open in Safari.
Score: 4/5
