Opera has released the first public version of its new mobile browser, initially on Android. As part of its bid to claim a bigger piece of the pie in mobile devices, Norwegian company announced in February that is moving away from the in-house Presto rendering engine in favor of the open-source WebKit, the software engine that powers the Chrome and Safari browsers. Opera Software says its new WebKit-powered iteration its "fastest browser for Android", capable of loading webpages "almost instantly". Users who have download the beta version on Google Play mostly agree as the app now has more than 190 five-star ratings out of a total of 275 and an average mark of 4.5.
What Else You Need To Know
- Aside from the WebKit rendering, the still-beta Opera browser touts a handful of extra features, including an updated speed dial page for easier launching of favorite sites, off-road mode to conserve data, a discover tab, and HTML5 support.
- The browser still includes the features that have allowed Opera to hit 300 million monthly users across all platforms: optional server-side compression to cut down on data usage and speed up page loads, and the ability to save pages for offline reading, among other things.
- Opera has not yet released an iOS version of its new mobile browser.
Other sources
This was a much-needed overhaul. Opera’s problem has always been that it looked very different...- David Meyer, GigaOM
Opera browser for Android looks and feels like an entirely different beast. It bares little resemblance to Opera Mini or Mobile, having taken oodles of design cues from both iOS and Android’s Holo design conventions.- Pallab De, Techie Buzz
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Opera’s new Android beta is out, and it includes some pretty big changes
The start screen, meanwhile, is in my opinion now leaps ahead of the competition, being more intuitive, more feature-rich and perhaps even more attractive than that offered by Chrome.
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