Long-time readers will know I’m a fan of Opera. No, not the music (long-time readers will also know I’m an unashamed metalhead), but the company who make web browsers for mobile phones. I’ve got both Opera Mini and Opera Mobile on my phone (I downloaded ‘em both to review), and I still say their browsers top any other mobile browser in existence (mentioning no names *cough*Safari*cough*).
So, imagine my excitement about Opera Mobile 10 going on beta release. Then imagine my annoyance that it’s only available for Symbian S60 phones like the Sony Ericsson Satio, when the phone I own is Windows Mobile…
So, what’s new in Opera Mobile 10? Well, basically, the best way I can describe it is that it’s Opera Mini 5. It really is, it looks absolutely identical to the Mini version that’s available in Java format.
Not that that’s a bad thing, of course, because Opera Mini 5’s really very, very good. I do have one complaint with Mini, though, when compared to the version of Opera Mobile we have on Windows Mobile (currently, version 9.7), and it’s this: Opera Mini doesn’t seem to be able to zoom in as far as Opera Mobile, and also, it doesn’t support multiple different levels of zoom, which the Mobile version (at least on WinMo) does. I sincerely hope Opera Mobile keeps the multiple levels of zoom that the WinMo version currently has, because it’d be a real shame if they do away with that feature.
However, considering the Symbian version of Opera Mobile had been lagging badly behind the WinMo version, this update is a very good thing, and there’s also rumblings that those of us with WinMo phones will also be getting version 10 at some point, so if and when we do, I’ll gi’ it a try.
In the meantime, Symbian users, I’ll leave you with video of it in action, since it’s almost certainly better than whatever web browser you’re currently using…
If you’ve got a Symbian S60 phone, you can download Opera Mobile 10 on Opera’s website.
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