Airlan San Juan's Blog

My Ode to Opera Mini 4

The Beta version of Opera Mini 4 released today, and I gave it a test drive.

First of all, let me say that I've always liked this Java ME mobile browser, mainly because it gave you full web pages at an amazing speed, so much so that the native browser on my smartphone has very rarely been taken out for a ride on the old WWW.

Personally, I love the idea of a fast, nimble application for the masses, a no-nonsense, beautifully optimized and crafted piece of software whose function defines its form. If Apple's iPhone Safari is a tawdry, dressed-up dandy who prances about in voluminous costumes, then Opera Mini is a quiet, earnest, and honest young man who dresses plain, but works hard and fast and gets the job done.

Perhaps many people share my opinion, because Opera Mini is only a year and a half old, but it has already accumulated some really amazing statistics.

• It has more than 15 million user downloads.
• It has served more than 3 billion web pages.
• It is the most popular mobile browser by far, and it will remain so for the foreseeable future.
• It has a larger marketshare than some desktop browsers like Mozilla, and even some major desktop browsers like Safari in certain areas of the world.

I singled it out early last year, then named it as one of the Top 10 Java killer applications a few months later.

However, I was never that satisfied with the look and feel of pages rendered by Opera Mini, and the lack of a virtual mouse was glaring when compared to the bulkier and slower, but more full-featured native mobile browsers. So, I downloaded the new Opera Mini 4, and was instantly floored by the advances made since version 3 just a few months back, and by the fact that not all of the new features for version 4 made it to this beta version, so we're in for more good surprises later on.

I'll hasten to add though, that even with all the new advances, this mobile browser is still blazingly fast, mainly because the server-processed pages coming in are but a fraction of the size of full html pages.

But it's the new features that look to make my mobile web browsing much better.

First, like some native mobile browsers, Opera Mini now sports a virtual mouse that can be moved using my Nokia 9300's joystick. I noticed that I barely used it anyways when testing, but it's good to know that it's there when you need it.

Second, the pages rendered were significantly closer to the original than the previous Opera Mini browsers. For example, images were not stacked on top of text content, but were aligned correctly within the full context of the page. The screenshot below shows the BD-J reviews index page, where the images are right justified and the text content aligned in order along the left side. Clicking on the boxed text magnifies that area for close-up reading, as seen on the next screenshot.

Third, as can be seen in the screenshot above, Opera Mini clearly highlights in a bluish tinted transparent box any links in the page as you scroll close to them. This is one of the best new features among the lot, as it makes easy navigation a cinch compared to the older Opera Mini, which had a much less visible link highlighting scheme.

Obviously, the Opera Mini might not compare favorably in terms of rendering to some high-end browsers running exclusively on more powerful mobile devices, but that is mainly because this gem was crafted such that the varying versions would work in as wide a range of devices as possible with minimal changes, and some of these devices are magnitudes less capable than the higher-end smartphones. Indeed, the fact that the Opera Mini has improved so much and gone so far in so short a time is a testament to the dedication and innovation of its creators. Since feature phones have on the whole gotten more powerful and capable as time passes, it would not surprise me at all if this application gains so many features that it may even threaten the survival of the bulkier native browsers.

For those who'd like a taste of this new beta version without the need for a mobile device, Opera provides a nifty Java SE simulator, but I felt running it on my actual phone showed its capabilities better than the somewhat diminutive screen of the simulated cellphone. In addition, because of the large screen size of my Nokia 9300, I had no need for the magnification "tricks" used in the demo, which has a much smaller screen size.

Here's a screencast of the Opera Mini 4 running on the simulator, courtesy of Screencast-o-Matic, a very useful and really cool applet-based screenshot service.

For those with an itch to lambast the perhaps Java ME-less iPhone a la Hinkmond Wong, here's an interesting vignette from the Opera people comparing their gem of a browser to the iPhone (I know, don't ask me why they're comparing software to hardware, I don't have the latest flash and could not see the film). Opera Mini is free and works with most cell devices, while the iPhone - well, it's expensive, closed and proprietary, over-hyped, and comes with the horribly crappy Safari browser (who even my Mac friends have abandoned for Firefox).

Comments

• Opera Mini is a wonderful application that I use every day. The new version 4 beta is even better with the new zoom feature. Congratulation to the team!

  Posted by: gfx on June 20, 2007 at 08:44 AM

• " horribly crappy Safari browser" - I'm genuinely intrigued - have you ever actually used Safari? I don't know a single person who would describe it as "horribly crappy", much less "a tawdry, dressed-up dandy" - compared to the competition Safari is actually very stripped down and minimal - it doesn't have a billion features but what it does do it does very simply, elegantly and well. It's probably the most standards compliant browser around - generally neck and neck with Mozilla (first to pass Acid2, for instance). Also, it's not really "closed and proprietary" as you state in your posting- the WebKit renderer is open source and a version is used, for instance, in my Nokia N80.

  I think maybe you should have a chat with your "Mac friends" and ask them why they don't use Safari - the only real reason that I've ever heard for using Firefox over Safari is if you want to pimp your browser with extensions - if you want a " fast, nimble application" I'd say Safari fits the bill pretty well.

  Posted by: jportway on June 21, 2007 at 11:24 AM

• jportway:

  I called the iPhone as "closed and proprietary", I did not refer to Safari in that sense if you'd care to reread my post.

  In fact, my evaluation of Safari as "crap" is heartfelt. Our company is 50% mac: 50% windows (I myself have a mac laptop), so we have had extensive experience with Safari in the past (and I know of several people who still use it). Generally, we have found that it does not correctly and reliably render some web pages, where sometimes we get missing images or the inability to correctly run background javascripts - so much so that we could not use it for our web CRM system (a big vendor that I will not care to name).

  
  As to who else might think it's crappy, a quick trip to google would acquaint you with quite a number of people who feel like we do.

  Posted by: asj2006 on June 21, 2007 at 02:09 PM

• I've just downloaded this and have it running very nicely on my Samsung Blackjack with CIngular/ATT 3G. An excellent find and probably the best browser I have run into yet :-)

  Posted by: jonbruce on June 21, 2007 at 02:25 PM

• I forgot to add, my description of the iPhone safari as a "tawdry, dressed-up dandy who prances about in voluminous costumes" refers to the fact that its garments (iPhone) is a closed, expensive, and proprietary system with pretensions of coolness, perhaps full of artsy disdain towards what it considers the lower masses of mobile devices. And there you'll find Opera Mini, whether it be on a Series 60 Nokia Symbian phone, or a Windows Mobile smartphone, or the innumerable Motorola Razr feature phones. It's an app for the masses, one that has no pretensions of its own but just gets the job done, and done quickly. Jobs once castigated Microsoft for not creating beautiful products (I paraphrase), and this reminded me of Opera Mini, because it surely displays no exceptional beauty in its design or appearance, save the beauty of simplicity, and the art of brute functionality.

  Posted by: asj2006 on June 21, 2007 at 02:32 PM

• I've just downloaded this and have it running very nicely on my Samsung Blackjack with CIngular/ATT 3G. An excellent find and probably the best browser I have run into yet :-)

  It's a beta, so be sure to tell Opera of problems :-)

  http://www.operamini.com/beta/feedback/
  http://my.opera.com/community/forums/forum.dml?id=111

  Posted by: asj2006 on June 21, 2007 at 02:36 PM

• I love opera mini. I never find myself bored or idle because of it. But keep in mind that web pages are pre processed at operas servers and so there is dependency on them. Posting this comment from opera mini 3.

  Posted by: raharsha on June 23, 2007 at 08:53 AM

• But keep in mind that web pages are pre processed at operas servers and so there is dependency on them.

  Which brings to mind this very good observation, and one that smalljava developers must always keep in mind....

  Mobile services are like icebergs. The part you actually see is only a small part of the whole.

  http://www.paxmodept.com/telesto/blogitem.htm?id=214
  

  Posted by: asj2006 on June 23, 2007 at 10:05 AM

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