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Opera Mini Brings the Mobile Browser War to Android

By Scott Gilbertson November 25, 2008 Categories: Mobile, Software & Tools

operamini 4.2Opera has released an update for Opera Mini, the company’s lightweight mobile browser that will work with Google’s Android mobile operating system. Opera Mini 4.2 is the first alternative browser available for Android.

The latest version of Opera Mini, now at 4.2, should be much faster than its predecessor which is good news for users with underpowered mobile devices. Opera Mini doesn’t serve up raw web pages, rather it proxies them through Opera’s servers, slimming them down before sending them on to the browser.

Part of the speed boost in the latest release comes from Opera’s new U.S.-based server park, which means much faster load times for users in the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region.

Opera Mini 4.2 also improves video streaming and offers customizable skins to make Mini fit with your phone’s design.

The newest version of Opera Mini is available for the same set of Java-based phones as previous versions, but this release also adds experimental support for Google’s Android OS on T-Mobile’s G1 phone.

Opera Mini’s use of a proxy server to compress web pages makes it the perfect browsing tool for those stuck on older phones. Opera Mobile, the next step up, is a much more robust browser and offers an experience closer to desktop counterparts or the iPhone’s Mobile Safari browser. In the case of Android, the beefier Opera Mobile browser seems like a better option.

We have no doubt that Opera is working on a version of Mobile for Android, but for the time being, Opera fans will have to make do with Mini on their Android phones.

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