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Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Opera browser beta - Android Apps on Google Play

Opera Beta is out! While I'm enjoying the current Opera Mobile browser, the beta version is a step ahead, showing the upcoming features. Plus, it is a great opportunity to send feedback and contribute to that great piece of software.
Here are some of the pros of Opera Mobile, from my perspective:
  • Text reflow- When zooming in and out, the default option is to reformat the text. So, even when you zoom in on a page, all the text is still displayed so no scrolling is needed. This is just brilliantly implemented.
  • Excellent zoom in/out - I find it very convenient to zoom in with double tap, and go back to full page the same way. 
  • Progress bar - I like the way loading progress is indicated in the address bar, reusing the space and showing how long until all the content is loaded.
  • Full screen view - There is an option to show browser in full-screen view, hiding the Android status bar. Status bar is useful at times and it is quite easy to bring it back. This feature is great in combination with the one below...
  • Address bar hiding - Address bar goes away when you scroll the page down and comes back when scrolling the page up. Similar to default Android browser behavior. It would be great if the Android status bar would hide/show at the same time with address bar. More screen real estate could be used to display the page content.
  • Excellent log-in field matching - Finally a browser that properly matches log-in fields and this works on most pages I tried. I often had issues with other browsers, messing up fields and values.
  • Synchronization - Similar to Chrome, Opera synchronizes across all your browsers, desktop and mobile. 
  • Online access to sync data - The feature is called Opera Link and is also accessible online for access through a web browser - here. Quite convenient to access your bookmarks from a foreign device or PC.
  • Rendering quality - For some reason I just see less weird-looking pages on Opera than in other mobile browsers and the whole browsing feel is much more like browsing on desktop. 
  • Rendering speed - Rendering is just reliable and fast. 
  • Bookmarks that work - Unfortunately for Chrome, my bookmarks got screwed up after scrolling halfway through the list. Opera ones seem to work with even the larger amount of bookmarks, after importing the old ones plus adding new ones to the collection.
  • Show Image - a nice feature for pages where not the whole picture fits the viewing area. Long-tap on image and select "View Image" and it will open in a separate tab. Can be zoomed in and scrolled and analyzed for heart's content then.
  • Tab switching - I find this way of tab switching, with previews, just superior to anything else. Maybe the fact that the whole experience is *fast* contributes to the effect.
  • Integrated download manager - This is extremely convenient for sites that require authentication for download. Now downloading finally works properly! No need to use desktop just to download a file when authentication is required.
  • In-browser Notes - This is still something I'm getting used to but is very usefull and often needed. Especially when notes are synchronized with other devices.
  • Zoom-In when tapping multiple links - This is a great feature. When, while tapping, your finger touches multiple links, the browser will zoom in and mark the ones you touched. That way you can tap on the one you really want.
Notes on Opera Beta:
Opera Mobile Beta is the first version utilizing WebKit rendering engine in Opera browser. Now, this change caused a design overhaul so most of the features listed above look and feel different. The drawbacks:
  • No address bar hiding, nor status bar hiding.
  • No progress bar.
Note, however, that this still is *beta* software and things might, and should, change in the future.

Opera browser beta - Android Apps on Google Play

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