Opera Mini Blog

Since April 12, iPhone users have had another choice when it comes to browsing the Web.

It is clear that this choice has been welcomed by iPhone users, as Opera Mini had over 1 million downloads the first available day. The iPhone is already the most popular handset for Opera Mini in the US & UK, and 3rd most popular over all.

At Opera, we are very thankful for the amazing response and user feedback that we have seen to Opera Mini 5 for iPhone. The feedback so far has been great, and we are listening closely to our users to continually make Opera Mini for the iPhone even better. Since Opera Mini launched last month, we have been hard at work continuing development, and have now released the first update.

Introducing Opera Mini 5.0.1

As of today, April 29th, 2010, the Opera Mini 5.0.1 update is now available in the iPhone App Store. We recommend all users to update to the new version of Opera Mini for the iPhone. Updates and bug fixes in 5.0.1 include:

• Fix for "stuck at first start-up" and issues caused by certain network conditions
• Hungarian language added
• Language fallback set to English, not Arabic
• Various smaller bug and stability fixes

Get the most from Opera Mini

Opera Mini is a special kind of browser that delivers compressed Web pages from Opera's servers, and as a result, browsing is fast and data use is reduced to about 10% of what you would normally use.

There has been feedback from many users asking how to maximize the benefits of Opera Mini on iPhone. We want to point out a few ways that you can really benefit from Opera Mini:

Longer Battery Life
By turning off 3G on an iPhone 3G and 3GS and you will significantly extend your iPhone's run time. With Opera Mini, you will barely notice a difference in your browsing speed.

Make an old iPhone feel like new
Have a 1st generation iPhone? Since it does not support 3G, your data speed is limited, but Opera Mini can get you browsing faster than you would on a new 3GS.

Use 2G connections without a slowdown
Do you live in or frequently visit areas with limited 3G coverage? With Opera Mini the Web will still be fast.

Keep your traveling expenses low
Are you traveling abroad? Those data roaming charges add up fast! Using Opera Mini will save you a great deal of money.

Squeeze into crowded WiFi networks
Do you frequent busy coffee shops or Airports? Those WiFi networks can be crowded, slowing data speed down to a crawl. Opera Mini to the rescue!

Try these features only found in Opera Mini

For most browsing, Opera Mini is a great alternative to using Safari. But how is Opera Mini different than Safari? Here are a few features unique to Opera Mini:

Find what you are looking for, with ease
Find in Page lets you quickly find text in lengthy web pages.

Go back and forth, as fast as you can tap
Opera Mini saves recent pages in memory so that going back to previously viewed pages takes almost no time at all.

Keep your data backed up and in sync
Opera Link backs up bookmarks and speed dials on Opera's servers, and lets you keep Opera Mini synchronized with Opera on your computer -- at no additional cost.

Read easily, with no side-scrolling
Text wrapping makes it easy to read web pages without having to zoom out or pan from side to side. The browser fits the text to the screen just right.

Be kind to your eyes
Adjustable font size means that it's easy to make the text large for less eyestrain -- and Opera Mini reflows the text so that you still don't have to scroll from side to side to read.

Make the most of your iPhone's screen
A Fullscreen setting lets you use more of your screen for viewing Web pages, and still have easy access to controls you need.

Just How Fast is Opera Mini?

To illustrate how much faster Opera Mini is than Safari, we've done a few tests to illustrate this with the versions (not the mobile versions) of the following popular Web sites:

• Facebook (facebook.com)
• New York Times (nytimes.com)
• Wikipedia English Main Page (en.wikipedia.org)
• Amazon (amazon.com)
• PC World (pcworld.com)
• eBay (ebay.com)
• Engadget (engadget.com)

On a 2G connection, Opera Mini readily beats Safari's page load times, reducing the time it takes to get Web pages to as little as a fifth of the time, as seen when loading the New York Times' home page.

Although pages load more quickly while using a 3G connection, Opera Mini is still clearly faster - Amazon is 3 times faster, and Engadget loads almost twice as fast as it does in Safari.

Even on a WiFi connection, Opera Mini still has a consistent lead over Safari, because it requires far less processing on behalf of the phone.

Taking the combined time to load all the pages on each browser, we see how much time Opera Mini can save you on each type of connection.

What makes Opera Mini different from a “Full” browser?

The vision Opera has is to offer the best Internet experience on any device. Consequently, we have two major browsers for mobile phones. Opera Mini and Opera Mobile. Opera Mobile is a full browser, like Safari, that gives you a complete browsing experience, and allows the use of interactive Web applications. Opera Mini is a different kind of browsing solution that offers a less data-heavy version of the Web page. Because of the way that Opera Mini works to achieve its great speed, some functionality of advanced Web pages and Web applications such as local JavaScript execution will not work perfectly. In these cases we would recommend using a full browser such as Opera Mobile on non-iPhone platforms, or Safari on the iPhone OS.

As you can see, there are many reasons why Opera Mini is a great browser to have on your iPhone alongside Safari To get the advantage of having the speed and great features that only Opera Mini can offer.

Post written by J.D. Lien, Opera Software ASA