As we posted earlier this week, Opera has released Opera Mobile 10 in beta form, a full S60-native alternative web browser to the S60 Webkit version. Ewan's been trying it out on some of his favourite sites and here's his illustrated review. Comments welcome. He'll be revisiting Opera Mobile 10 when the app finally comes out of beta.
Read on in the full article.
hi there, did the acid test on my n85.....
opera 10 scored 100/100..... wow .....
the default browser was unable to perform any test!!!!!......
I have been using Opera Mobile on my N97 since monday and I have to say it is FAB, FAB, FAB!
By a huge margin I have found it the best mobile browser available for S60 5th (and I guess the other varients) and it's FREE!
You would seriously CRAZY not to install this! Love it 😊
also need t9 support!!!
T9 is available if you turn off in-line editing in advanced preferences. I have to agree that Opera Mobile is very very impressive. And with Turbo, it beats all other browsers available for symbian in terms of usability.
Constant out of memory error on my Nokia N80. Sucks that Nokia doesn't do OS updates, it might have worked better with FP1 or FP2 but still 64MB ram is quite little.
how come we all get different scores with it? I run it on i8910hd and got 99 score.
On my E71 - where the Nokia browser is so slow to load most pages as to be almost unusable - Opera Mobile 10 is a godsend. Previously I was using a combination of Opera Mini (for reading articles, e.g. via links from Gravity) and the Nokia browser (when I needed Javascript support, and for those sites I knew to be very lightweight - Hacker News, mobile sites, etc). Now I can just use Opera Mobile for everything. And it has tabbed browsing!
The memory usage is high, although I usually have several apps open and haven't got many "out of memory" errors yet, even with a couple of tabs open.
My main gripe is that it doesn't allow copy and paste in the address bar and web forms unless you disable "Inline Editing" in the settings (so that instead it pops up an ugly native S60 text box every time you want to enter a URL).
Hopefully, this will be free even the full release. May be because of added Google bar or preloaded speed dial?
I remembered that previous Opera Mobile for S60 costs a lot
T9 / Predictive Text - further info
(and @ Ewan here, for far too LITTLE mention of this, given his use of a 5800, and then a Qwerty device - winks at Ewan).
Let me say in simple terms, the biggest single thing that makes an otherwise superb browser that this is, completely useless to me, save as for a fall-back option, is indeed the text entry method issue.
Out of the box, T9 is indeed not possible.
And say what you will, when trying to send the shortest of comments to a friend's Facebook Status recently, I realised oh so very very quickly exactly why it is at least four years since I ever used multi-tap.
It took me a LIFETIME to enter it all in via multi-tap. Good lord, how bad.
So then I did a lot of research, and found that you can indeed "fudge" a way round this.
If you go into Settings, Advance Settings, and turn OFF "in-line editing", then you can sort of use T9.
Why do I say "sort of" ?
Because when you do this, from then on, when you click to fill in the dialogue, comment, or form field boxes on web pages, with textual data, you DON'T... it doesn't fill them in the box - it instead now brings up an O.S. based/styled entry box, much like the one you would see on your phone when being asked to enter your PIN number on boot-up.
And this will allow T9 entry, whereby the box itself will expand as needed.
And I have to say, this is wholly counter-productive, very confusing, and not very user friendly.
But as if that wasn't bad enough, a more real consideration here...
Whilst it gives you a kind of T9, it is NOT consist with behaviour across the rest of the O.S., as when you finish a sentence, enter a full stop and a space, and then type the first letter of the next sentence, it does NOT self-capitalise the letter, as it SHOULD do.
So as a result, you either use it at reasonable speed, and have wrong grammar, with no capital letters anywhere.
Or you MANUALLY remember to enter a new capital letter at the start of each sentence (usually by having to go back, AFTER you realise it forgot to), and as a result, end up with a typing speed that is marginally any faster than the horrible multi-tap referred to earlier.
So for those saying "you can turn on T9" - at least be realistic as to how it works, the issues, and the limitations to it.
And bearing these in mind, the end result is a Browser superb in most every other way, but that completely rules itself out as my main browser, due to this massive flaw.
@Sam Stokes:
> My main gripe is that it doesn't allow copy and paste in the address bar and web forms
> unless you disable "Inline Editing" in the settings (so that instead it pops up an ugly
> native S60 text box every time you want to enter a URL).
At least on N97 cut and paste is triggered by a long press on the url
In some other thread somebody mentioned that on non-touch phones a long press on shift will trigger cut & paste for url cant remember wich device that refered to, so please try longpressing your various shift/ctrl/sym keys and report if it works!
The touchscreen on the 5800 gives Opera a chance to use their non-standard on-screen keyboard rather than the one built into the device. This is a missed opportunity because people will feel that the Opera solution is just 'wrong' rather than different. I suspect the reason is that Opera can keep the same code base over multiple platforms, but not using the built-in input options is one area where I think Opera have made a mistake..
Could not disagree more on this statement. No, they'll go "wow" why the hell didn't Nokia, Samnsung [insert S60 manufacturer here] do this in the first place.
The default keyboards on touch-only S60 5th are diabolical and really shows what a kludge S60 is for touchscreen. I hate the way you're taken out of application just to show a keyboard so you lose any visual reference to the whatever application you're running. This shows how far behind S60 is with other platforms in my opinion.
In my book other applications should follow suit and employ their own keyboards until S60 catches up.
What's the difference between Opera Mobile beta 10 and Opera Mini beta 5?
I mean in term of feature and other.
There's one issue for me - Opera Mini 5 beta is better. Ok, startup and shut down is slightly slower in Opera Mini, I guess because it's Java and not S60 optimised (non-techy speaking here by the way) but the UI and rendering are just the same and *crucially* the browsing experience is considerably faster in Opera Mini. Even with Turbo enabled, Opera Mobile downloads more data and therefore takes longer to build a page than Opera Mini. Maybe this is something Opera will fix, for example by allowing the user to choose a lower image resolution as with Opera Mini, but after getting all excited about the Mobile beta I've now reverted to Mini 5 beta.
Anyone have any ideas? I'm using an E71 by the way.
@RushArt
Opera Mini is still the only mobile browser with working history (even lacking on the iPhone), ie if your on a heave index page, go to read a link and then go back, the index page is displayed imeditally!
This is actually the one and only reason I basically do all my mobile surfing with omini, before this feature mob browsing was a joke only done as a last resort, now with omini I find that I often use it even being in the same room as my computer, quicker to grab the phone from my pocket than to walk 3 meters 😉
some java/ajax pages are not supported for those omob seems to be a good alternative
On my 5800 it looks incredible, but it keeps crashing with "memory full errors", even when running it on it's own, which is disappointing. The previous Beta Version 5 didn't give me as many "out of memory" errors.
As anyone else experienced these errors?
when will it have a update of supporting chinese?
Interesting - If I use Opera Mobile 10 in turbo mode to access the BBC mobile news web page it goes to a "/i" (International?) home page where there are no options to personalise the home page (The options are there without turbo).
Jejoma,
That is because in turbo mode, the content will go through Opera's server in Norway to be compressed (like in Opera Mini). BBC's servers will see the data request originating from Norway, therefore serve the international version of BBC. This also happens in Opera Mini.
BTW, I got a score of 100/100 in Acid3 on my E55.
I also got an ACID3 score of 100/100 on my N97. The render was as good as identical to the reference when executed in landscape - the reason why the boxes are incorrecly positioned is screen width I believe.
N.B. This isn't a pass - the animation has to be smooth to pass.
If you're hoping to have some background music playing on your phone while you browse with Opera, then think again. Opera Mobile is a return to the day of one app running per phone.
- Opera Mobile (with Arstechnica, Gizmodo and BBC open)
- Maps
- Youtube (playing - actually it stops if I put the app on the background, but it resumes nicely if I bring it back up)
- Gmail
- ProfiMail
- NGage client (not playing)
- Music player (playing)
- Wireless Keyboard app (connected to an SU 8W)
- Messaging app
- S60 Browser (with Dabr)
- Connection mannager app
No low memorry messages, at all (heh, I should have tried the Ovi Store client too). Everything seems reasonably snappy actually.
Nico
I download Opera 10 on to my laptop an its brilliant an never slow ,an its the one thing to download if you broadbands slow
I try to run Opera Mobile 10 into my Nokia E90..it success instaling...but when im trying to browse from inner screen it can't show text....it turns to square....all of words...its weird,does anyone had same problem with me...???
N82, N95 8gb users wont have memory issues. Can have Opera 10 and a few other apps running on my N79 but Ram falls well below 15mbs. No memory errors yet on the N79 though.
Just a note on Acid test, the test itself is not immune from bugs, and it's very existence may, (and has) lead to browser manufacturers performing 'hacks' to make their browser 'more compliant'. That's the great thing about standards, there are so many to choose from..
If you get low memory warnings with Opera Mobile 10 beta, check out the tips here: http://www.nokia-tips.com/2009/11/05/how-to-customize-and-tweak-opera-mobile-for-optimum-use-on-the-nokia-n97-plus-more/. I've tried it, seems to improve things a bit.
N82 user who commented previously: N82 has much more memory than 5800 and N97.
Michiel.
Great app but gets really hard on RAM... On my E90 uses about 50MB of it.
In addition in open mode space bar works as "1" and "0" as space.... bizzare
The touchscreen on the 5800 gives Opera a chance to use their non-standard on-screen keyboard rather than the one built into the device. This is a missed opportunity because people will feel that the Opera solution is just 'wrong' rather than different. I suspect the reason is that Opera can keep the same code base over multiple platforms, but not using the built-in input options is one area where I think Opera have made a mistake.
- This is wrong. Settings-Advanced-Inline editing-Off. And you can use standart keyboard.
To my mind "out of memory" - this is mistake greedy Nokia, but not the Opera. In my Samsung i8910 with 256 mb memory i have not this problem. This is the best browser for my device!
also got 100 out of 100 on my n97 in the acid test. I have got a few out of memory errors today when I had opera and gravity running which we know are both memory hogs however even though I got the message, it did not cause anything to shut down and the programs I was opening, opened anyways despite the messages. Personally I can not fault opera 10 as it has me using my n97 again where prior I had gone and bought and used iphone for all my browser needs because of the poor s60 browser.
MichielE wrote:N82 user who commented previously: N82 has much more memory than 5800 and N97.
That's kinda the point. A two year old handset performs better than the latest flagship. I don't think Opera is the one to blame.
-Nico