Opera's latest browser can cope with your mountain of open tabs
It starts much faster, even if you have a ton of sites open.
Many web browser creators like to boast about performance in ideal conditions, where there's only one tab and the app is already open. But that's not how it works in real life -- many people launch their browsers with numerous tabs left over from their last session, and that can be glacially slow if you don't have speedy storage or loads of memory. Opera thinks it can do better. It's releasing a new version of its desktop browser (41) with a smart startup sequence that prioritizes the tabs you've been using recently, dramatically reducing the time it takes to get going.
In the company's testing (on a modest Lenovo Yoga 300 with a Core i3 and a hybrid hard drive), the browser typically loaded over 50 percent faster with 10 or more tabs open in the last session. The improvements only got larger for intensive multi-taskers, according to Opera. With 42 or more tabs, the speed-up was about 86 percent -- whether or not the browser was already in memory. Where the previous version of Opera took almost 64 seconds to load from a cold start, the updated software is ready to go in less than 9 seconds.
Of course, whether or not you'll notice a difference depends on your system. If you have a powerful system (particularly if you have a solid-state drive), you aren't going to see the same night-and-day difference. Having said this, Opera 41 could be worth a go if your not-so-beefy PC regularly struggles to keep up with your tab habit.
