The latest update for Opera Mobile was released this morning for Windows phones. With a big speed increase, and better widget management, the new version of the OS is meeting with huge approval.
What are the main updates?
Turbo – Opera Turbo is the compressor behind the new speed boost for the mobile browser. You can see the Opera video of Turbo in action here: http://www.opera.com/discover/video/mobileturbo/ – while Turbo is still a preview feature, and certain features (like downloads) won’t work while it’s active, the reaction to the speed boost has been universally positive.
Presto 2.2 – Presto has been Opera’s home-grown rendering engine for mobile for some time now. Opera announced the beta for version 2.2 ahead of CTIA this year.
Widgets – Opera has created a separate Widget manager for the new release. Previously widgets were managed by Opera Mobile, but a more comprehensive manager is now downloadable as a separate app.
More details on the new features can be found here: http://www.opera.com/mobile/features/
What we think?
This is getting interesting now. This update to the WinMo mobile browser has made Opera Mobile a serious contender for Yahoo Mobile. The browser war will continute unabated I’m sure, but this is the first time I’ve been convinced that a mobile browser can offer serious competition for Yahoo’s mobile Internet portal.
