Review: Opera Mini 4.1 Beta

When I first reviewed the Opera Mini at Eten Blog dot Com, I was pleasantly surprised by it. In fact, I even considered it to be the best browser for Windows Mobile devices. That was before we heard about SkyFire, FireFox Mobile, Opera Mobile 9.5 and so on. With these new offerings for us Windows Mobile users, how does Opera Mini stand?

Introduction

Before I go on with the review, here’s a bit of information about Opera Mini 4.1 beta for those of you who are interested. It’s JAVA-based so you will need a JAVA manager to run it. However, that also means that you can use it on just about any phones that support JAVA including Nokia Symbian ones as well. It’s free to download and use so many will find this really attractive.

Also, unlike most of the browsers that you see out there, Opera Mini works by using a remote server to pre-process the web pages that you requested before sending them over to your device. This is so that the content is reduced in size and fitted for your phone which also results in a lower amount of data being transferred (great for those with limited data plan).

For those who are using an earlier version of Opera Mini, be it version 3 or 4, you can still install 4.1 beta without messing up the other version. When you launch your JAVA manager, you will still see all your Opera Mini installations and you can then select the one you want to use. With that in mind, let’s take the Opera Mini for a spin shall we?

Installation

Because it is still in beta, there are 4 versions that you can choose to download and install. If you were to visit the Opera Mini site from your desktop computer, you would only see the standard version. But point to the same page from your mobile browser and you will get several options like the screen shot. Which one should you choose?

Personally, I would choose the one with multiple certificates though any of the other 2 with certificates such as the Verisign or Thawte one would work just as fine. As much as possible, I would not recommend you use the one with No certificate as this would make your browsing experience pretty troublesome later on.

Settings

When you first launch Opera Mini, you will get these screens. Here’s one of the reasons to get a signed version which I was telling you about earlier. With these versions, you will get the option to only be asked the questions once so that next time when you launch it, it will go straight to the application. Saves you a bit of trouble right?

Next screen you’ll get introduces you to the features of the browser. Accept the terms to move on. Now this screen is what you will see every time you launch Opera Mini. But before you can start surfing, you will need a special passkey. Don’t worry, Opera Mini will guide you. Just enter random keystrokes be it with your DPAD or action key or softkeys or whatever keys you have. You don’t even need to memorize which buttons were pressed or in what order. You just need to generate this pass key one time for Opera Mini and that’s all. Remember that Opera Mini uses a server to patch your page before sending it to you? Well now you know what the passkey is for.

You’re all good to surf but I would recommend that you go to Menu > Settings first to adjust the options before you do. Not compulsory, but it would make it better. There are not too many options to play around with anyway as you can tell from the screen shot.

Navigation

Navigation is a great experience with the Opera Mini 4.1. In fact, if you ask me what Pocket Internet Explorer can do to improve, I would say to just copy Opera Mini. There are a few features here that make it really great.

Entering Address

If you have a keyboard or keypad on your device, then you can enter the web address directly in the bar as you see the screen shot above. If the address you are entering is from a site you have visited before, it will list it as well so you could just as easily select it.

If you do not have such an entry method, then the new address bar is not for you. Turn it off in the settings and use the old method of Menu > Enter Address to surf. But don’t be discouraged. This rather plain method does have it’s perks too. You can choose a list of previous addresses that you have visited or even the current one that you’re at (if you need to make slight changes).

Scrolling

Here’s where the fun begin. Scroll with your fingers. Of course you would need to be using a Pocket PC to do this but if you are using a smartphone, don’t be discouraged. There’s the shortcuts (which I will cover in just a short while). For me, it was pretty smooth and when I need to zoom in, I just had to press the action button or tap on the zone I wanted to look at. Simple eh?

Shortcuts

For those without touchscreen, this would be your method of choice for navigation. Touchscreen users can also use it if they want to. Basically, you use your numpad/DPAD to move the mouse pointer around the screen. 2 scrolls up while 8 down. 4 to the left and 6 to the right. Press 5 to zoom in or out.

Virtual Mouse

Unlike scrolling with your fingers, when you scroll with this virtual mouse, you will get a box that shows you the region it zooms into. While I had no problem getting the region I want with my fingers, those looking for accuracy will find the box a much better option. Just bring it over the region and zoom in.

Search

Opera Mini also has a built-in search option from the start page and what’s cool is that you can choose any search engine as the default, even if it’s not listed. All you have to do is go to the search engine’s page, tap on the search bar (that’s where you enter the query). On the next screen that comes up for you to enter, tap Menu and choose Create Search. It will then appear in your list of search engines and to make it default, just do a search with it. It will then appear the next time you go to your start page.

Find

How many times have you searched for something on the web but then are returned with a very long page. Finding the information on a mobile browser was hard work and almost impossible but with Opera Mini, it’s a thing of the past.

From the page where you think the information is loaded, go to Menu > Tools > Find In Page. Then type what you are looking for and you will be presented with the results. If that is not the result you are looking for, just hit the next button (which is now your left softkey). If you have found what you are looking for, hit the stop button (right softkey). Snazzy ain’t it?

Downloads and Uploads

Now this is one feature of Opera Mini that I love and also a new one in 4.1 beta. With previous versions, when it came to downloading and uploading files, you would have to rely on an external browser such as Pocket Internet Explorer. Now that Opera Mini 4.1 beta does this natively, it provides for a much better browsing experience.

This is also another reason why you want get a signed version over the non-signed version. With the signed version, you will only receive the questions about whether or not you want to allow reading/writing of your directories (similar to the connection ones you received earlier) once. That is if you answer, Yes, always. Don’t ask me again.

Once you it’s all set up, you can navigate to any folder on your device, be it on the main memory or storage card and save it there. No longer will you have to rely on Pocket Internet Explorer to do it because it’s all done by Opera Mini 4.1 beta.

Save For Later

For those of you who do not have an unlimited data plan, or even a data plan for that matter, will find this new feature a life-saver. That’s because Opera Mini 4.1 beta now allows you to save the pages so that you can come back to them later. From the page, go to Menu > Tools > Save Page and a pop up menu lie the one you see will ask you where to save the page. You can create a special folder for such pages or just save it in root if you want to. Once saved, you will see the Page saved box like the one to the right.

To view your saved pages, all you need to do is to launch Opera Mini 4.1 beta, go to Menu > Tools Saved Pages and you will be presented with all the pages that you have saved. In this case, I have only saved 1 page so there is only 1 option for me. Select it and it will be loaded, just the way you saved it before. No data connection nor transfers necessary.

An interesting find I made was that even though you could see the saved pages using a file explorer of your choice, selecting it from that file explorer will bring an error up. That is it would not open in Opera Mini 4.1 beta automatically. I guess it’s because there is no file association to it. So maybe if you could associate the file extension to Opera Mini 4.1 beta, it could open automatically in the future.

Bookmark Sync

Opera has taken a step forward and introduced Bookmark Sync with Opera Mini 4 onwards. What this means is that your bookmarks on your desktop are automatically sync with those on your device. That is if you are using Opera browser on both the desktop and device.

For me, I am more of a desktop Firefox user so this option is not for me. However, if you are an all-round Opera user, then be sure to check it out. No longer do you have to worry about adding your bookmarks to your mobile browser because sync option does it for you. Also, if you saved a page on your mobile browser, it will also show up on your desktop version which is great for those occasions when you find a website while out and about and want to view it later when you are back home.

What I Like About It

• Finger friendly.
• Fast.
• Minimizes data transfer through the use of a remote server.
• Does uploads & downloads.
• Can save pages for later viewing.
• Sync bookmarks between Opera on various platforms.

What Could Be Improved

• Requires a JAVA manager to use.
• Does not handle AJAX pages well/at all.
• Not Flash pages support (so no YouTube).
• Because it relies on a remote server, there are times when it can be rather slow to surf with Opera Mini.
• Unable to import/export bookmarks.

Conclusion

Opera Mini has done it again and 4.1 beta is really impressive. Don’t be fooled by the beta version, it’s pretty stable when I tested it out. Is it still the best browser our there? For now, I would say yes. But that’s because Skyfire is not released to the general public, Firefox Mobile (or what it would be called) has yet to see the light of day and Opera 9.5 has yet to make it’s debut. This could change in the coming months as other software are made available. But for the time being, it does reign supreme in my eyes. If you have not done so, head over here (with your mobile browser preferably so you can choose the various versions) and download your copy of Opera Mini 4.1 beta now.

Have you tried Opera Mini 4.1 beta? What has your experience been like?

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