Opera Mini 5 on Android mini review
By Tim Stevens 
posted March 11th 2010 9:25AM
posted March 11th 2010 9:25AM
Mini 5 relies on Opera's servers to cache and compress pages for you, so what's sent to your phone is actually much smaller than what you normally would download if you were to get the entire page. It's not quite like Skyfire, where the entire page is rendered off-site, more of a hybrid where the page is still rendered locally, but using compressed text and images. The result is impressively fast page loads at the cost of reduced image quality -- though you can request it to send you higher quality pics if you're not in a hurry.
But it's not all about speed, and we're impressed by the simple UI of Opera 5. It's not groundbreakingly new or shocking compared to the earlier versions of Opera (or, indeed, any other mobile browser), but creating new tabs is quick and easy, selecting from bookmarks is about as painless as you can get, and the browser really makes great use of screen real estate. It should be no surprise that multitouch is not on offer here, so if you were hoping this would finally let you do some pinch-zooming on your Droid that's not the case, but double-tapping to get a closer look is very snappy, as is ducking back out to a wider view. Still, not everything is perfect. On the Engadget homepage some complex page elements are overlapping, and we often saw similar issues on other pages.
So, there's still some work to do (this is, of course, a beta), but the speed is so good that we won't be uninstalling this one anytime soon.
This is what happens when you have an open market appsystem. Go Android and Opera!
@reader1
What planet are you living on? Do you realise you posted your comment whilst on the web? You idiot.
@Apple Google Microsoft Don't feed the troll buddy...
@Apple Google Microsoft
Love ur nick. it says so much.
@reader1
Your comments also have no future.
@reader1
Don't make me slap you fool.
@reader1 Is it me or on almost every Engadget post you start to bullshit about every compagny except Apple? No wonder why all of your comments are down-ranked into oblivion...
@darkNiGHTS
I still think the best browser on Android is xScope. It seems like no one really knows about it but it's way faster than stock browser and absolutely destroys Dolphin.
xScope has tabs that work really well, allows you to download files from the browser! and it has a file manager too that can come in handy if your not already using something like Astro.
@darkNiGHTS Cool This can only make the android native browser better. I love competition.
@reader1 I was looking at a couple posts from a few months ago, and I saw a bunch of your comments, all downranked. Way to be a freaking troll.
@darkNiGHTS I love what little tweak they did to the new tab thing! Fewer taps...
@Apple Google Microsoft Lol
@darkNiGHTS: It's a mixed bag. Competition does advance the quality of consumer offerings, however in the context of technology the cost in complexity and related usability is often too much for most people to bear.
For example, could you imagine today's Fortune 500 operating without an IT department given the complexity of present technology? Of course not. Should one of the goals of those who intro new technologies be to eliminate the IT department? Why of course.
At the end of the day, how much better is one modern browser over another? Is there enough of a difference to justify the complexity of installing and managing multiple browsers for the general computing population? On a computer, OK. On a phone, probably not. Do we really want to make the same mistakes all over again?
@Bobbo I totally agree. Xscope is THE browser to use on Android. Gives root access, has a task manager and file manager all built in. It's the default browser for my N1.
@Bobbo I agree. I have been using xScope browser on my android. It is way better than this one. pinch & zoom, download manager, easy tab mechanism, speed are just some of the awesome feature offered on xScope. Be sure to check this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUAYyUQRb4Y&feature=player_embedded
@reader1
crapple's prison-store is on the web einstein, if it's gonna challenge web (i don't see how, but hypothetically) the fail is going to be so epic stevie will cry like a little girl...
@darkNiGHTS exactly! Hooray for giving your users choice.
I tried this and its not good enough to replace the default browser, or even Dolphin for that matter... but its page loads are so fast that I'm keeping it around to use when I'm stuck out in the boonies on some hideously weak edge connection. That's when this server side rendering trick will really pay dividends.
@reader1 What happened reader1, did trolling Dailytech get too boring for you?
Awesome! I couldn't use a phone that didn't run Opera Mini.
I'm surprised no one picked up on the fact that they also just released a native WM app, versus the Java-based one we all had to run previously.
@seven5suited
Engadget covered that a few days ago.
@PresidentObama I stand corrected. I can't find it here using search. Can you link me?
guys, come on! you have like 5 notifications up there!
::cringe::
@spasewalkr
lol
@spasewalkr
haha I felt the same way! clear those notifcations! I cant stand them.
Been trying it out all morning. Speed is impressive! It's great if you just want to hop on the internets to look something up quick.
I just had a university conference given by operas chief standards officer :D
@mark29 big yourself up
Still waiting on that 2.1 update I was promised.
@Fr4nk13 http://www.alldroid.com
I've been running 2.1 for days now, with my pinch-zoom enabled browser.
@outphase84 official OTA?
if so, I'm gonna be pissed.
@Fr4nk13
the site is actually www.alldroid.org
You can get many various custom ROMs there. Some are using the stock build that leaked a while ago and is supposedly the same version that is going to hit Droids soon. Others use that ROM as a base and customize it from there.
Why didn't the reviewer demonstrate pinch zoom? It is, you know, available now.
@jussipussi I wish that were the case. There's still no multitouch.
@jussipussi
Opera browser doesn't support multitouch at the moment.
Pinch to zoom is there in (the old) Opera Mobile 9 on the HD2, so I'd expect it on Android and the Mini version, too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUrsL_aoiF0
Although I read that some people managed to make it work in Mini with a tweak.. (google it).
Still can't wait for Opera Mobile (the full Opera browser for mobile) and Skyfire on Android.
Meanwhile, Dolphin Browser (on older Android version) or even the default browser (on 2.1) are pretty good.
Is it possible to view full resolution images on an image-by-image basis, or do I need to change my compression settings and re-download the page every time I want to see a higher quality photo?
If it's not clear what I'm asking...I mean, for example, can I just select an image on a page and choose to view just that image in full quality? Or, as I suspect, if there's an image I want to see more detail of do I need to change my settings and redownload the whole page and then change my settings back when I'm done?
@mr88
just highlight the image then go to view image which shows images full size, or just use medium or high quality image settings instead, how you do it varys (different phone types and OSs)
@OCEAN CLAK Alright thanks! Don't have Android (yet) but this looks pretty cool, esp considering it's only beta still.
I just can't wait to play with this on the iPhone 3GS. C'mon Apple let it through. You aren't scared of a little competition.
Also can someone load it onto a Nexus One, to see if its any faster?
just installed on the g1 w/ cyanogen mod... F-ING SWEET.
@dudeguylikesandroid
also, i would really like to use it as my default browser! idk what they call it when you program in androids dalvik vm, but i should be able to set it as the default browser!!!
not that they're listening to me or anything...
stock android browser on the n1 still owns it
@lightforce
+1 Doesn't provide enough value-added to make me switch from default browser on N1. Zooming UI isn't as good although the tab interface is nice. Shows you the page is done rendering, but the images aren't there... well then it's NOT actually done rendering then is it?
@skyshock21
No ,but the skeleton of the page is there for scrolling and browsing. Some other mobile browsers make you wait for the entire page to load before you can scroll or do anything.
@lightforce
Agreed. It's really only slightly faster than the stock N1 browser, and zooming and panning doesn't feel as smooth.
On windows mobile I never really liked Opera Mini either, but Opera Mobile was excellent. I wish they had released that instead.
@lightforce
How does it "own" it? Opera Mini is clearly faster and more polished.
Ugh, it was fast, but completely unnatural. It couldn't render my iGoogle home page properly.
I love it!
The ease of use of mobile web browsers is further evidence that the web is the future.
I love it!
The ease of use of mobile web browsers is further evidence that the web is the future.