Opera Mini

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I’ve been playing around with Opera Mini. If you haven’t heard yet, Opera Software ASA has released a Java ME (J2ME) version of their browser called Opera-Mini. Opera is the Norwegian company who make the browser of the same name for many platforms. All their browsers have a technology they call small screen rendering™ which reformats full desktop web pages for display on tiny phone screens. The reformatting works remarkably well – although reformatted pages aren’t likely to be as easy to navigate as well designed mobile pages.

The Java ME part means that you don’t need a smartphone to run Opera anymore. Most phones made in the last three years support some version of Java ME (which was called J2ME until Sun renamed it this year). Non-Smartphones generally don’t have the processor power and RAM to do all the manipulation that is required to implement small-screen rendering. Opera Mini gets around this by doing the reformatting as a web service, the Opera server resizes images and optimizes the page for the phones screen size and then compresses the resulting mobile page into some sort of binary code which the Java ME app on the phone can easily render. The result is that pages load quickly even on old slow phones. This also means that Opera can easily start charging and shut the service off for anyone who doesn’t want to pay the price. But for now at least it is completely free.

Opera Mini won’t run on every Java ME phone, there are a lot of incompatibilities between Java Me implementations but I believe it will run on the majority of them.

By now you are probably asking, “how much?” and “how can I get Opera Mini on my phone?” The good news is that for now at least, Opera Mini is free. The bad news is that it is only officially available in Norway. You can read about it on the official Opera Mini page. Fortunately for all of us, who don’t live in Norway, the application has been “liberated” and can be downloaded from a number of sites on the web. The legality of these copies is, of course questionable although a mainstrean Palm site is among the many places you can find the download. If you want to try it yourself, be aware that there are two flavors of Opera Mini, “lo-fi” and “hi-fi”. The differences between the two are that lo-fi is MIDP1.0, essentially the first version of, Java ME and hi-fi is the latest version MIDP 2.0. MIDP 2.0 is backward compatible to MIDP1 so if hi-fi doesn’t work on your phone be sure to try lo-fi. Opera has a list of supported phones by version but I don’t know how accurate it is, as it doesn’t work on my Moto i50sx which is on the supported list. The only apparent difference in features is that hi-fi adds font- smoothing and the fonts do look a little nicer, although the lo-fi fonts aren’t bad at all.

Opera Mini has been confirmed on various web sites to work on SE K750, S710, w800, Nokia 6100, 6320, Motorola V330, Razr V3, Palm Tungsten C, Treo 600, Treo 650, Tungsten T3, Zire 72, Lifedrive, Sony Clie TH55-U, UX-50. Palm OS users need to first install a KVM (Java ME virtual machine) from IBM or Palm.

Here are images of MSN, Yahoo, HowardForums and Flickr’s web sites as they appear in Opera:
MSN imageYahoo imageHowardForums imageFlickr image

Here are some sites with information on downloading and configuring Opera Mini
Opera Mini Help, Opera Watch Thread, Howard Forums Thread, Engadget thread

Opera Mini download links:
These first four are a slightly later version (1.0.1520 v 1.0.1479) then I’ve found anywhere else although I don’t see a difference in functionality between versions. If you phone supports installing Java ME midlets OTA you should just need to point your browser at the JAD file. If you are ‘side-loading’ from your PC via bluetooth or cable you will need both the JAD and it’s matching JAR.
Lo-fi JAD Lo-Fi JAR
Hi-Fi JAD Hi-Fi JAR

An alternate source which has all the files as a .RAR archive and also individually but they are the older version: Bluemonkey.org

Finally, a link to a Treo compatable .PRC file (free registration required to download)
MyTreo.net

222 thoughts on “Opera Mini”

  5. i am using nokia 6111.i live in nigeria and the opera mini 4.2 won’t still install.I don’t understand your SOLVING OPERAMINI CONNECTION PROBLEMS.I use GLO

  6. hi,please i downloaded op 4.2 on my nokia6111 and it doesn’t install.anytime i try 2 install it it writes ERROR.please i have tried all the possible method but it doesn’t still work.please help me

  7. I had nokia 7210 supernova.recently i have installed opera mini 4.2, it was successfully but whenever i try to run it shows an network connection error.I had bsnl configuration and also internet connection.

  8. I use nokia 3110c,MTN Nigeria is my network.I have opera version 4.2 installed and a working GPRS conn. but each time I try to connect to opera mini, I receive an error message to contact service provider for settings. Plz I urgently need your help

  9. i have nokia 7210 supernova…when i use opera mini browser with reliance connection, it works…but when i use it with bsnl connection, it doesn’t work…plz send me settings for bsnl for using opera….

  10. hi, I have a nokia 7610 supernova. I have installed the Opera Mini, which seems ridiculously small and installs very fast. Seems almost suspicious, especially since it does not seem to be working on my phone.

    How do I use opera on my phone once it is installed? I see an icon for it, but there seems to be no way to open and browse html files with it. When I click on an html file on my phone it only opens with the default browser, which does not have the capability to view images embedded in the webpage (mht files actually, not html files).

    I only use my phone offline, I never connect to the internet with it. But I transfer files from my laptop to phone for reading while I am on the bus (2-3 hours per day). It would be great to be able to read these webpages with images enabled.

    If you can help me it would be much appeciated.

    • To use Opera Mini you click the icon like any other app on your phone.

      Opera Mini is a proxy-based browser, a thin client that requires a connection to an Opera proxy server which compresses and pre-renders web content for it. If you don’t have a working internet connection it will abort on start up with a message telling you to check your connection.

      Opera Mini can only open web pages that the Opera servers can access using the public internet, it can’t handle local html documents.

    • Dennis Bournique says:

      April 28, 2010 at 5:32 pm
      To use Opera Mini you click the icon like any other app on your phone.

      Opera Mini is a proxy-based browser, a thin client that requires a connection to an Opera proxy server which compresses and pre-renders web content for it. If you don’t have a working internet connection it will abort on start up with a message telling you to check your connection.

      Opera Mini can only open web pages that the Opera servers can access using the public internet, it can’t handle local html documents.

      I hope the quote tags work fine.

      Thanks for the info Dennis, you obviously know your stuff.

      Perhaps I can bother to ask your opinion about any possible solutions for viewing mht files with embedded images in a nokia7610? the default web browser seems only capable of rendering text, which for the most part is adequate, some info I read would be greatly enhanced by seeing examples of what is being explained.

      I hope that makes sense.

      Thanks again,
      nap

    • .mht is a Microsoft format that no browser that would work on your S40 phone can recognize.

      What might work is opening the .mht files in IE and then saving them in “Web page complete” format. This will create an html file and a sub-directory containg all the page’s resources (images, CSS, etc). Copy the html file and the sub-directory to your Nokia’s memory card and them open it using the Nokia browser as file:///E:/name_of_your_file.html I don’t have an S40 phone so I can’t verify that this would work but others on the web claim that it does.

      Opera Mini can save pages in it’s own propritary obml format and it can open local obml files offline. You will need an active connection to install Opera Mini and open the page in order to save it.

      BBCode doesn’t work here but HTML quote tags (<q>, </q>) should

  11. Pls i have up to 9 different versions of opera mini including multi servers and opera mini mod 2.06 but i cannot browse with my phone. I am using NOKIA 3230 with an MTN sim. I even try the same settings and the same opera with another phones and it worked beautifully. Pls help me out of this either through email- [email protected].

  12. pls i need settings for opera 4.2 free browsing and opera mini mod.my number is [number removed]

    • Posting your mobile number on a public internet site like this is very risky, there are bots that harvest numbers and sign you up for pricey subscription ringtone and text scams.

      As for settings, I don’t have them. There are tens of thousands of possible settings depending on the combination of your operator, country, whether you are a prepaid or postpaid subscriber, etc. I’ve written an article listing some resources for finding settings for any operator that you might find helpful: http://wapreview.com?p=466

      Browsing is only free if there is a flaw in your operator’s security – which is unlikely as operators prefer to make money. These “tricks”, if they exist at all, are hard to find and tend to stop working once the operator gets wind of them. You best bet for finding them would be on a phone hacking forum that’s popular with users in your country.

  13. pls i went u poaple to sand me opera mini setting, pls i have be using zain for so 6 yaer now and my family are so using zain pls pls if u poaple do not want me to buy other network. pls i have nokia 3110c

  14. my phone is 3110c.ive downloaded mini opera but on few sites pics and images remains black or grey cant c the pics.what would i ve to do to c the pics.

    • Images as gray squares means Opera is running out of memory. Try setting image quality to low or use Opera mini 3.1 which lower memory requirements.

  15. I dont have smart primary and secondary server settings in my network profile so i cant install opera mini on my lgke770 so please help me

  17. Pls I need correct settings for opera 4.2,4&5. For my nokia 5130c & b/c d current one is very slow & my airtime is always subtracted by mtn.

  18. I’ve change phone to Nokia 5130xpressmusic, kindly send d MTN free browsing code to my mail address. Thanks for your concern.

  19. I want a remedy for a Nokia 2102 phone that was giving me problems alot. Switching on/off often, clock malfunctioning, etc. Kindly send any quick solution to my email address above.

    • Sounds like either corrupted firmware or a hardware fault. If it’s still under warranty get it serviced, otherwise try to update the firmware with Nokia Software Updater and if that fails or NSU doesn’t support that model it’s probably cheaper to replace than repair.

  20. pls can you help me with opramini configuration on mtn nigeria and how to instore it to my nokia 7210 supernova pls

  22. plz help me my phone is 7210 supernova smart users,
    tell me a setup for opera mini , my email

    [email removed]

  25. I am using Nokia 3110 classic i downloaded opera mini 4.2 but i cannot use it to browse please i need the configuration code of it

  26. the first tym i tired downloadin operamini it was`nt workin!! bt when i checked in my phone it was dere. maybe i cn help yo`ll out!! my operamini works well and its really fun!1

  28. Your code actually worked on my Nokia 3110C, I apreciate you first for dat, but d problem now is its not connecting often which i guess is cos’ of d network, but d main issue is dat they deduct little money from my account. can you tel what d exact problem is? you can mail on my mail address pls. thanks alot.

  30. I need opera mini settings for MTN service provider, i use Nokia 3110c. You can reach me on my mail address.

  31. Pls kindly send me the settings so that i can dowload through operamini4.2 with my nokia3110c pls.thanks

  33. pls i hav been trying to download opera mini from its website but it dosent go through nokia 6500 [pls i need help]

  35. Pls can anyone help me by explaining to me on how to download the opera mini 4.2 multi op to my nokia 5130
    Pls i realy need it. if anyone can be of help to me this is my mail [email protected] or send the file for me.
    Thanks

  36. Op4.2 is working no my nokia3110c with MTN and zain settings but op5.0beta fail to install after download. What is the way out? Help me via my email or post here.

  37. Hello..I have nokia 7610..When i install opera mini 5 beta it installed but when i am trying to open it connot open please please please please help me on this..And please email at to me on [email protected].

  38. Opera has help me in way of been use phone to comment in any witty in this world new.

  40. Pls i hav operamini2.00,4.2,5 but they are not opening, even the opera5 has refuse to install in my phone ad my phone is ‘nokia 6555’ please let a good nigerian help me out with the codes to these applications by sending an sms to this numbers(07030721432,08036396073)or email me at”[email protected]. THANKS.

  41. Emenike, tanmay, aderibigbe, Macey and anyone else having connection issues. Take a look at “Solving Opera Mini Connection Problems” especially the comments, lots of good info in there to help you figure out your connection issues. Pleas join the discussion there too. – http://wapreview.com?p=466

  42. i tried dowloding operamini version 4.2 on my phone nokia 6085 but i find out that its not installing.
    So i want to know the setting that i needed to set on my phone, also i downloaded operamini 5 beta but to intall it is becoming a problem, whem i install the reply will be no working network detected so howdo i do it. 2347030669467

  46. i just need a help, i have my opera mini 4.2 and i used it for almost 2 months, but one time i dont know y when i browse it it says an error connection, y? and now i cant use it anymore :-( i feel so sad, i’m using sony ericsson k800i and opera mini 4.2

    plese help me regarding thos matter i will really appreciate ur effort, thanks

  50. I use nokia 6085,MTN Nigeria is my network.I have opera version 4.2 installed and a working GPRS conn. but each time I try to connect to opera mini, I receive an error message to contact service provider for settings. Plz I urgently need your help.

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