{"id":6640,"date":"2010-03-11T13:58:25","date_gmt":"2010-03-11T20:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wapreview.com\/?p=6640"},"modified":"2020-10-05T16:28:32","modified_gmt":"2020-10-05T23:28:32","slug":"opera-mini-5-beta-for-android-is-here-full-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wapreview.com\/6640\/","title":{"rendered":"Opera Mini 5 Beta for Android Is Here – Full Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Opera \"Opera<\/p>\n

Opera Software today released<\/a> their long awaited upgrade to Opera Mini for Android<\/strong>.  The Opera Mini 5 Android Beta is now available in the Android Market.  Search for “Opera Mini” in the Market to find it.  The Beta installs alongside of Opera Mini 4 rather than replacing it. It’s Version 5.0.18302 for those who track such things.<\/p>\n

I’ve been using the new browser on an HTC Magic  running the latest Cyanogenmod<\/a> ROM. It’s everything I hoped for in Opera Mini for Android, though it may not please Android purists.  That’s because the Opera Mini 5 UI makes no concessions to the Android way of doing things, it’s almost  exactly the same on Android as it is on other touchscreen devices.<\/p>\n

In Market comments on Opera Mini I see a number of complaints that this feature or that is missing or doesn’t work.  Actually I haven’t found any broken features at all. If you are new to Opera Mini 5 please read my Opera Mini 5 Tips and Tricks<\/a> piece to learn how to change the Speed Dial shortcuts on the start up page, select text and  copy\/paste. All these features are there and they work. Actually there is only one trick you need to learn, the long press on the screen<\/strong>. It’s Opera’s equivalent of a right click and will bring up a context menu just about anywhere in the GUI.<\/p>\n

Opera has introduced a number of new UI paradigms in Opera Mini 5 and Opera Mobile 10.  I generally find the Opera user interface efficient and powerful but the lack of any online help in the  browser itself is off-putting to many new users. Opera Mini 5 has been out for nearly six months now, which seems like plenty of time for one of Opera’s tech writers to put together an in app help page for new users.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another thing that’s putting more than a few folks off is the lack of multitouch “pinch” zooming as found in the native browser on the latest Android devices and in most of the third party ROMs.  It’s not there and probably never will be in Opera Mini. Zoom in Opera Mini doesn’t work that way.  There are just two levels of zoom, page overview<\/em> and zoomed-in<\/em>. In overview mode (image, bottom left), which is the default when opening a new screen, the page is scaled so that its entire width fits the screen.  In overview mode, text on most sites will be too small to read, overview is strictly for navigation. Tap on an interesting part of the page and Opera instantly zooms in with text a readable size and columns re-flowed to allow reading without horizontal scrolling.  The zoomed in font size is adjustable in the settings, something you should only need to do once, immediately after installing, if at all.  Unlike other browsers, Opera Mini almost always displays text in a readable size when zoomed in.<\/p>\n

Opera Mini 5 on Android has at least one feature I haven’t seen in Mini on other platforms, flick scrolling<\/strong>.  Update: <\/strong>after using Opera Mini on my Magic some more, I think calling it “flick” scrolling is a stretch at best.  Scrolling is more fluid and “flickier” than with Opera Mini 4.2 for Android but nowhere near as nice as with the native browser.  I can flick Opera Mini  two screenfuls at most.  In the native browser, a strong flick can coast for ten or more screens. <\/em><\/p>\n

The Password Manager<\/strong>, which was removed from Opera Mini awhile ago, is back in this release, though only on Android so far.<\/p>\n

Compared with the Android browser and popular 3rd party variants of it like Steel and Dolphin, Opera Mini has some advantages and some disadvantages.<\/p>\n

Unlike the other Android browsers, Opera Mini can<\/span>:<\/p>\n