Opera Mini 5 beta unveiled

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Opera today unveiled the beta for its Mini 5 browser, its first major upgrade since 4.2 was released last year.

Mini is designed for use with feature phones, so the browser can be used on mid-range handsets that are a bit too slow or lack the power to run other full-featured browsers. That said, there are actually two versions of Opera Mini 5, one for feature phones and another for higher-end touchscreens with a slightly different user interface.

In fact, Opera spokesman Tor Odland told IT PRO that the nearly 90 per cent compression - and in turn, cost reduction - offered by Opera Mini 4.2 wasn't the primary reason users chose Opera, or what they wanted in the next version. Instead, they were looking for a better user experience and greater speed.

With that in mind, many of the changes in Opera Mini 5 are to do with user experience.

While 4.2's navigation started with a list, Opera Mini 5 features a "speed dial" of nine images from a user's most visited sites. Clicking an icon, or tapping it using a touchscreen, opens the website in full desktop format.

The entire view of the page is shown, not a downgraded mobile version. "It's a PC experience optimised for mobile phones," mobile product manager Igor Netto told IT PRO.

Of course, even on a decent screen, the page will be far too small to read any text. Opera Mini 5 lets you scroll across the page and zoom in, automatically reflowing text so that it fits onto the screen in a way that's easy to read without having to flip from left to right.

Holding down while clicking on text pulls up a menu, letting a user save an image or select text to send via SMS or look up over the web.

Another key change is the introduction of tabbed browsing. As with a desktop browser, Mini allows multiple tabs to be opened in the browser.

While Opera Mini 5 is faster than 4.2, that has more to do with changes to the servers and process in the back-end, according to Netto. "It's improved continually, you don't have to wait for a new version," he said.

The Opera Mini 5 beta can be downloaded today, with the full version expected within a few months.

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