Opera Mobile 9.7 update hits Windows Mobile devices

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.