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Opera Mini and S60 Browser – both not quite there yet

On my N82: spent some time with Opera Mini after a while – had been using Nokia’s built-in S60 Browser exclusively over  the past few months.

Here’s a list of peeves and loves about each browser.

 

Opera Mini Good

  • Faster page load times
  • Snappier controls
  • Smoother scrolling
  • Slightly better font rendering (all of above relative to S60 Browser)
  • Address TLD auto-complete: (type www.opera. and  a drop-down list appears with opera.com, opera.org , opera.net)
  • Speed Dial-like shortcuts for bookmarks

Opera Mini Bad

  • No support for multiple tabs
  • “Small” font too small, “Medium” too big
  • Screen does not occupy entire width when phone tilted (in portrait mode). I don’t think the browser is accelerometer-aware
  • Not possible to copy URL

S60 Browser Good

  • Does not ask for permission to connect; allows selection of default access point. This is because, unlike Opera Mini, which is a Java app, the S60 browser is a native S60 app.
  • Page overview – a shrunk view of the current page which you can quickly scroll around on.
  • Attractive Back/Forward implementation. Page previews flip forward and back, like moving your mouse across the OS X dock.

S60 Browser Bad

  • Supports multiple tabs but cannot open new one!
  • No “top”, “bottom”, “pgup”, “pgdn” keypad shortcuts
  • Tedious process to copy URL. Bookmark current page, navigate to Edit bookmarks, copy URL, delete bookmark.

Conclusion

Opera Mini’s a better browser, the S60 Browser is a better application.  Goes to show that you can’t get the best of both worlds. If only Opera and Nokia would learn from one another. Finally, now that Nokia is shipping phones with reasonably high resolution screens, it really, really needs to improve font rendering. Mobile Safari kicks ass and sets the standard.

What else

Haven’t had a chance to check out Skyfire yet; the founders have decided, in a sadly common blinkered move, to limit launch to the US. A mobile browser from Mozilla’s been “just around the corner” for a while now (and won’t show up on S60 first). Google’s promised a mobile version of Chrome, but my guess is that Android will get it before S60 does. I don’t see mobile Safari on S60 ever. And it hurts to even speak of mobile IE.


October 17, 2008 ·  Post to Twitter ·  Email this ·  Android, Apple, Chrome, Firefox, IE, Insights, Mobile, Nokia, Opera, Safari, iPhone ·  4 Comments


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4 Comments


  1. Venkat on October 17th, 2008 7:44 pm

    I have only surfed the web via mobile using the iPhone. The safari on it is just amazing. For all the things I do on the web like email, news, sports scores, facebook or orkut it worked like a charm.

  2. Rahul Gaitonde on October 20th, 2008 9:18 am

    Venkat – fully agree. Apart from the non-availability of Flash, Mobile Safari has set the bar for mobile browsers.

    It also helps that given the hype around iPhone/iPod Touch, several web-based applications have come up with iPhone-optimized versions, making mobile Safari look even better.

  3. Venkat on October 20th, 2008 4:10 pm

    Why do you think that you do not have Flash on the iPhone or on the T-Mobile G1?

  4. Rahul Gaitonde on October 20th, 2008 4:45 pm

    Venkat,

    The most talked-about explanation is that since rendering Flash
    animation is CPU-intensive, it might slow own iPhones/iPods Touch,
    especially video-sharing websites like YouTube.

    For the more probable reason – business shenanigans – read this
    article by John Gruber – “Flash on iPhone Political Calculus” at
    http://daringfireball.net/2008/02/flash_iphone_...

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