App Review: Opera Mini on the iPhone

Add your favorite sites and load it quick!

Opera did perform some countdown when will Apple approve its Opera Mini app on the App Store. Lots of speculation stated that Apple would never approve it because it replicates Safari web browser, given with the strict restrictions that other third-party browsers must use Safari's rendering engine (called WebKit).

Unfortunately, Opera Mini have been approved on the App Store and tops a no. 1 free app on many countries since its launched. Here's the proof! Why? Opera Mini followed Apple's guidelines very carefully but they didn't use Safari's WebKit engine, instead, they use their own server to compress the web pages and sends it back to iPhone. The results? Web pages loads lightning quick!

Unity Bond Mobile on Opera Mini.

I did tried the app on my iPod touch once its approved an hour later, and I'm pretty much impressed on how it performs (not sure for iPhone users though, but you can try with cellular turned off).

The interface is clean, bottom-tabs, Speed Dials, and tap to zoom with tremendous fluidity. Sites load instantly. I have tried to open Twitter, Unity Bond Mobile, Gizmodo and several other sites. Not forgetting our regular Unity Bond blog itself (which it looks insanely ugly but at least readable when zoomed-in)

And yes, since this is my first time to review an app for the App Store, I have skimmed through all the good features of Opera Mini app alongside its bad underneath it:

1. Fast, free, save caches
2. Can set image quality
3. Full screen browsing
4. Beautiful pages in tabs
5. Home page with 9 favourite sites
6. Find words in the site



Fonts are too small? Tap to zoom!

7. Remembers where you left off

Since Opera Mini is still in beta, it does have its cons:

1. When Wi-Fi is slow, it takes forever to load, and Safari is quicker
2. Safari displays everything nicely, Opera forced me to zoom
3. It crashed many times, pages doesn't reload or won't open
4. Non-responsive tabs, unadjustable zoom kinda annoying
5. Can't store more than 5 pages sometimes, or in low memory
6. Pinch-to-zoom not supported, Safari does

Well, the pros may outweigh the cons with the comparisons. Watch the video below as it compares Opera Mini with Safari side by side. For curious testers, you might wanna try the demo.



Before I missed out, below is remaining screenshots of Opera Mini app on my iPod touch. Get the app here!