Opera Mobile 9.5 is SLICK!

I’ve been playing with the new Beta version of Opera Mobile 9.5 for a few days now, and I must say, it is just plain COOL!

For all you iPhone geeks out there, this one’s not for you, thank goodness. At least us Windows Mobile (and other mobile OS owners other than the iPhone) have something you don’t.

So, what do I like about the new version of Opera Mobile?

Cool Opera Mobile 9.5 features

• It’s REALLY quick and extremely responsive
• It looks good. Remember, “pretty” is a feature for me
• It’s REALLY easy to use and move around in
• It seems to render web pages as well as a desktop browser in most instances. (The Google AdSense site is a problem that only Opera Mini seems capable of overcoming and logging into)
• Can use AJAX in most cases
• Browser URL auto complete
• The uploading and downloading of files works extremely well.

Here’s a video I created so that you get a (VERY rough) idea of what Opera Mobile 9.5 looks like.

Please excuse the quality. The video capture software I used for my HTC TYTN II (MyMobile) seems to speed things up quite drastically. And Windows Movie Maker widened the video, so it’s not in the correct proportions.

Anyway, enough excuses, watch this and let me know what you think

Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta Video

What don’t I like about Opera Mobile 9.5

The main thing I don’t like about how this new version of Opera Mobile works is the scrolling of pages. I think it’s something that Opera Mobile has always done, and something that Internet Explorer Mobile finally changed in WM 6.1.

When you scroll down a page, it only scrolls down half a page. This REALLY bugs me, especially when reading a page with a lot of text, because after scrolling down half a page, my eyes have to hunt for the line where I left off before scrolling down.

I’m not sure if it’s a “feature” I’m supposed to get used, but proper scrolling was one of the best (and for me, most noticeable) features in Opera Mini.

Final Thoughts about this browser

Overall though, I REALLY like this browser, and recommend it to everybody. I can’t wait for the final version as I’m sure it will be even better than the beta.