Opera Mobile, Mini and Nokia Browser Compared

With the questions about the new Opera Mobile browser, I decided to run some non-scientific tests on sites I use regularly. First off, let me say that I’m a huge fan of Opera. I’ve run Opera Mini on various phones back to the original V3 RAZR since it came out. I’ve run Opera Desktop since it was shareware, for over 12 years I’m pretty certain. So I was hoping Opera Mobile would win.

Spoiler: It didn’t.

I’ve performed a simple experiment - I’ve loaded the same pages in three browsers.

My security camera page - several regularly-refreshed images with links.
Microsoft Outlook Web Access
Real Clear Politics, for formatting testing.

The Security Cam page has large images and the ability to use a Java client to point the cameras. The camera and Outlook pages use very different log-in processes. RealClearPolitics is a content-heavy graphics-light page requiring a lot of navigation.

Opera Mini:

Speed: Best in general, can be long latency.
Passwords: Best memory, but no manager
Security Cams: Excellent.
Outlook: Easiest but no “Private Computer” login.
Real Clear Politics: Excellent
Foibles:
- Must reload to change from Wide to Mobile view and back.
- Cannot zoom images in Mobile view
- Content folding is nice.

Opera Mini has multiple view modes available and differs from the others in sending a smaller amount of data post-proxy down. So speed should be better, and it definitely is, even on 3.5G… but latency can be a bit annoying. In other words, the total load time is fast, but it can take a bit to get any signs of loading. Some common pages have very low latency, others I’m guessing get hit by a latency to the Opera servers themselves in addition to the middle hop. Privacy concerns could also be an issue.

The initial connection to the security camera page took longer than the Nokia browser, but the view is the best of the three. In regular (non-Mobile) view mode, the initial screen is of a fit-to-page with a zoom-rectangle. Move and select, and I can read the digital clock. In Mobile View mode, all three camera images (which are different in size) are scaled for width to the same size. No ability to zoom and read the clock.

Outlook Web Access: As with past versions of Opera Mini, I was unable to log in using the “Private Computer” mode. Which means more logging in.

Reading emails and such is very easy in Mobile View, because everything fits on page. In regular view, it looks very much like on a desktop or in the Nokia browser. Complete with Mini-Map just like the Nokia browser. Switching between Mobile and regular view requires reloading the page, a minor annoyance.

Opera Mini does not support the use of predictive text or cut-and-paste in the URL box. Very annoying. It does sync to your desktop Opera bookmarks, which is nice for me but probably less so for anyone else. Plus you can always simply put an HTML list of links online somewhere for the same effect; it’s not that big a savings.

In Mobile View mode, RealClearPolitics and the linked articles are VERY easy to read-and-use. In regular view they’re like the other browsers basically.

Opera Mini remembers cookies well enough that I don’t miss Wand (the password memorizer), which is not in the version I most recently played with.

Opera Mini doesn’t pretend to support Java or multiple windows. And it doesn’t. It couldn’t handle the native Java client for the webcams at all.

Opera Mini is the only browser of the three to offer content folding. That basically collapses lists to a single item plus a plus-mark for expansion. This can be disabled but is very addictive once you start using it, because you can skip over the typical left-rail menus quickly.

Opera Mobile:

Speed: Seems slightly quicker than Nokia’s browser, but that could be line variation.
Passwords: Best. Good manager.
Security Cams: Failed in “Fit to Page” mode.
Outlook: The best by a narrow margin.
Real Clear Politics: Worst.
Foibles:
- Nice changes between Fit-To-Page and wide view.
- No idea why some elements never appear.
- Best support for predictive text, but no icons telling you what mode you’re in on-screen!
- Annoying choice between 2-key shortcuts or inadvertent frequent navigation from input boxes.

The start-screen URL box supports predictive text but not cut-and-paste. And if the login or “Go” button is to the right of the URL box, you must first go down or otherwise exit it. Rather annoying for their main page!

In “Go To” mode, it’s a bit more orthodox, but the auto-completion doesn’t offer .html. Not that the others do, but it would be a nice addition.

The password memorizer (Wand) works well. Pity Nokia can’t get a clue and fix whatever is preventing their version from working on my phone.

Annoyingly, the shortcuts (for example, for reload or zoom) are different than in Opera Mini. But at least these are configurable and the pencil+joystick jumps more quickly. I switched to “one-key” and was less annoyed quickly… except that they’re very aggressive in that mode at interpreting keys as navigation even when an entry box is highlighted.

The Security Camera page - the static one - simply doesn’t fully load in Opera Mobile in “Fit To Screen” mode. The largest (third) image/link never shows. But in the non-Fit-To-Screen mode, the clock is readable. It could connect to the Java client login page but never logged in, so may not support Java at all either.

Outlook Web Access: The login page is the easiest to use of the three browsers. And the password manager works well. Switching between normal view and “Fit To Screen” is much faster than in Opera Mini; it must be done purely locally. And it works well too, making reading the emails much easier. Unlike Mini, latest setting for “Fit To Screen” is used for all “backs” also.

Opera Mobile may have the worst possible presentation of Real Clear Politics in Fit-To-Screen mode, even though it landed on RCP Mobile. It fits it horizontally, but expands the alpha-index of “Latest Polls” to make scrolling past it a very tedious process. In regular mode it still isn’t as nice as the other two, since the canvas is a bit too wide.

Nokia Browser:

Speed: Lowest, but not by a lot.
Passwords: Well… hasn’t worked on my phone in months, at all. No support.
Security Cams: Fine. But needs a “Mobile” or “Fit To Screen” mode.
Outlook: Works but hard to read.
Real Clear Politics: Good.
Foibles:
- No “Mobile” or “Fit To Screen” mode, so many pages are hard to use due to horizontal scrolling.
- Best Zoom mode. (But needs it; see above.)
- Best Java support.
- Best support for predictive text, but no icons telling you what mode you’re in on-screen!
- Annoying choice between 2-key shortcuts or inadvertent frequent navigation from input boxes.

The default view of the security cameras is full size. I can read the clocks in the images. Refresh is automatic and unfortunate. If there’s a way to get a phone-friendly preview, I’m not aware of it.
The Nokia browser claims to support Java, and it largely does, but not sufficiently to fully run the Java application of the web cams. (Fortunately I have a non-Java page set up also.) It can control the camera, but it can’t view the stream. Ironically, this is the opposite of what I would have guessed.

The ability to have multiple windows “open” is nice, but not as easy to use as I’d like.

Outlook Web Access in the Nokia browser is frustrating for me because while it looks fine, it’s hard to use for the width of the screen. And while I appear to be the only person on HoFo with this problem, my N95-4 simply will not learn (remember) web site passwords since the firmware upgrade. It’s not a settings problem, and I reformatted everything, so I’ve got no idea what happened.

The Real Clear Politics main page actually fits into the virtual canvas size okay, breaking the three columns to two that, scrolled to, work fine. But linked articles don’t fit nicely sometimes. Mostly they work fine.

Menu and short-cut layout: I don’t like the pre-built bookmarks in Nokia’s browser, and the menu is inconvenient. Easy enough to learn, but too many key presses for simple things like bookmarks, zoom change, etc.

Can’t use predictive text in the URL box, but can cut-and-paste.

Load times are very slow.

Summary
Each browser works better at different things. The Nokia browser has fewer features - no mobile-optimized display and, in my case, no working password manager - but it worked with more pages. Opera Mini is the fastest and has better views of most data. But Opera Mobile does much what Opera Mini does, with the ability to switch views without reloading and with better password management… except that it didn’t load all elements of the security cam page.

So none of the three is perfect, but overall I don’t see much need for Opera Mobile until the missing elements are fixed, especially if I can ever get the nokia password manager working again

Big thanks to TechnoCat for the guest review