Opera Mini 5 beta for Android test

As you probably know, Opera Mini is preferred by many, because it runs fast and allows you to slash on the amount of traffic surfing generates with up to 90% (at least according to the software developer). Version 5 looks better than its predecessor and adds tabs functionality, fail safe storage of passwords, start-up screen with shortcuts to favourite websites and copy/paste option, plus you are permitted to search the Internet for selected words. All these options are active in the recent version for Android as well.

We need to point out Opera Mini 5 beta runs significantly faster than the standard browser that comes with the operating system and the interface of the program is really appealing. Typically of Opera Mini, you are still not allowed to zoom in/out smoothly. There are two operational modes - page overview and close-up mode that can be activated by a double tap. On fully loading pages, Opera Mini shrinks the text so as to fit the display size in close-up mode, but we encountered a glitch here – the text of some pages gets formatted in a rather weird way and becomes virtually impossible to read. All told, web pages do not exactly look the way they do in proper computer browsers, but that´s the trade-off you need to accept to get snappy loading and severely slashed amount of traffic.



Still, let´s keep in mind this is a beta version and some of the above-mentioned issues might get fixed by the time the final edition rolls out. Our first impressions of the software are mostly positive and we do recommend the program. Even if you do not intend to use it on regular, get Opera Mini 5 on your Android handset and keep it as an alternative browser. The application may come in quite handy, especially if you want to take a look at a web page, there is no proper 3G coverage and you need to keep the amount of generated traffic down to a minimum. By the way, we need to point out that out test, showed in the short video below was carried out over Wi-Fi.