I’m baaaaaaaaack!
If anyone’s been wondering why (or even noticed that) I’ve been quiet for the past fortnight, I’ve been off on my big family holiday to sunnier climes. Or, in this case, Wales. But, me being me, I just couldn’t keep away from t’internet, so I thought, “Wahey, why not, let’s use it to test drive some mobile internet solutions.”
And yes, that does mean I took a mobile broadband modem with me.
But that’s a story for another day, because today, I’m going to go on about something I finally took the plunge and downloaded while I was away: Opera Mini, the Java-based web browser that’ll work on Java-enabled mobile phones, even the really rubbish, cheapo ones.
I have to admit, I’d never felt the desire to download it before I went on holiday, since I have Opera Mobile, its big brother on my Sony Ericsson P1. In fact, Opera Mobile is the P1′s default browser. So, surely, getting a Java-based mini-version web browser is a backwards step, right?
Well, it was time to find out, because frankly, Opera Mobile on my phone was getting right up my nose. I’ve lost count of the number of web pages it wouldn’t view, due to it saying there were errors in the xml feed. (cue me going, “What?? That site’s not even based around xml! What are you talking about, you JapanoSwedish piece of crap?!”)
It got to the point where I was about to sling my phone against a wall, so, by that point, anything was worth trying. So, thinks I, let’s try Opera Mini, even if it is the cut-down version.
My response upon downloading, installing, and using it…
Why the hell have I waited it so long to get it?! IT’S AWESOME!
Now, remember, this is a Java-based browser, designed to be used on any mobile phone that supports Java. It’s not optimised for smartphones, it’s designed for normal people, using normal mobile phones, who fancy trying to see what they can do with it.
That doesn’t change the key fact, though: it’s SO much better than the default browser in my P1! (In fact, it’s better than ANY web browser I’ve ever used on a mobile phone!)
I should’ve worked out why, sooner, really. Whilst the default browser in my P1 is the latest version of Opera Mobile (although a new one’s on the way), the newest version of Opera Mini is newer than the newest version of Opera Mobile. Which is why it’s so much better!
With proper rendering of web pages, not this Teletext-a-like “mobile view” rendering of previous Opera versions, it is a genuine, proper web browser, and, with the exception of Flash, I’ve not found ANY site it won’t display. That full page rendering is really the most intuitive way of viewing the web on your phone I’ve ever seen, letting you view the whole page in miniature, formatted correctly, then (in my case tapping the screen) selecting the bit you want to zoom in on. Yes, that’s right, just like u do on the iPhone. (Check out the images on this story to see what I mean, complete with virtual mouse pointer that pops up when you scroll through a page!)
Add to that the fact that it is frighteningly fast at loading and displaying pages, it makes it, without doubt, my new favourite app. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, that’s frighteningly fast even when there’s no 3G coverage. When there is… well, Opera Mini is in a league of its own!
Oh, and that’s before I even get onto the Opera start page, with embedded Google Search (and not just Google… Wiki, IMDB, eBay, Amazon and Dictinoary.com all come under the same search banner, so you can search the in the same way you would Google), bookmarks, history… without a doubt, it’s quite simply a fully-fledged web browser.
As you may have guessed I’ve fallen in love. Opera Mini is now permanently installed on my P1, and I shall never remove it. What’s even better is the fact that there’s recently been announced a new version, Version 4.1, that you can download for absolutely nothing, free, gratis, from the Opera site.
And I strongly advise you to get it. And just to hammer the point home, I found a video of it in action, on a P1i (not mine, I hasten to add):
See? Awesome.
Have you used Opera Mini, and love it, too? Do you like being able to get online anywhere? Or do you think Technical Markus is being a sad-act fanboy? Whichever, leave us a comment and have your say!