Just a day after hitting the Apple App store the Opera Mini browser for the iPad, iPhone & iPod touch topped every regional downloads chart, worldwide (see the screenshot at Mashable). With the app such a huge success we thought it might be worth reviewing to see what this, the only alternative browser to Safari on the iPhone OS, had up its sleves.
It’s tidy
The Opera Mini app is tidy. Under settings there is an option to activate ‘Full-Screen’ mode, this removes all the browser chrome (address bar and buttons at the bottom) and adds two small buttons on the lower left and right of the screen. Essentially what you’re left with is a screen with 100% website, and it’s amazing. Browsing is so much more intimate and despite all Apple’s claims of the iPad being an immersive experience this App manages to take that to another level.
It’s lacking Javascript support
The core of the app shares much with the Opera Mini browser available on other platforms, including, unfortunately, a serious lack of Javascript support. It seems that both MooTools and jQuery, two of the most popular javascript libraries, both seem to be poorly supported by the app.
The main effect of this is that sites that are Javascript heavy, such as GMail, simply don’t load. Thankfully many sites (including The Tablet Blog) have mobile alternatives which work just fine and I personally prefer the Mail app built into the iPhone OS to the online GMail version anyway. This may be more of an issue for sites which require either Flash or Javascript for any core functionality. Thankfully theres still the fall back of the mobile Safari browser, which by any measure, is superior to a number of desktop browsers.
It’s quick
The app is not only quick for browsing the web but is also great for getting to the web. When the app is loaded its default screen, as with the desktop version, is a series of assignable tabs, each linking to one of your favorite sites. Many people will remember this tab layout from the Google Chrome browser, the difference being that you get to choose the content of each of the tabs (and in all fairness, Opera where the ones who invented this).
The main benefit of this tab style home screen is, that it’s as easy to get to websites from the browser, as it is to get to apps in the first place, simply touch the icon and you’re away. Its only downfall is the icons it generates, whilst great for the preloaded demos, the screen didn’t look quite so good once we added our own sites to the set.
It’s free
Not only is the Opera Mini app both tidy and quick, it’s also free. No doubt this will help with its adoption and rankings in the app store and follows the Opera tradition of providing great mobile apps (if you have a non-apple phone there may well be an Opera Mini browser for your device aswell), for free. In fact Opera Mini has the largest mobile browser share of the market, which stands them in good stead for the new app.
In summary this is a great app, quick, easy to use and great use of screen real estate, it really ticks all the boxes, the only issue I had with it whilst testing was its slightly irritating zoom function which is either in, or out, with no real in-between setting. However I did discover that by changing the font size (under settings) it is possible to start with website fonts at a slightly more readable scale than the initial ‘tiny’ setting.
So, all in all a great app, it may even be good enough to replace Safari as my primary mobile browser, however only time will tell.
