Quick Review - Opera mini for iPhone & iPod Touch

The iPhone OS version of Opera mini has launched on the iTunes App store. The release finalizes a long development cycle for the Norwegian company who submitted their App last month for Apple certification.

Many tech news columnists and bloggers surmised the App would be rejected by Apple for replicating functionality already present within the iPhone OS. As this has been the impetus for Apple rejecting several other high profile Apps released since the online App store's launch.

I've spent an hour or so with the App and here are my first impressions.

What's Hot:

- It's very FAST.
- Real time tab previews while switching
- More tabs open at once, up to 23.
- Fullscreen mode
- Settings menu easily accessible in App
- Wide array of settings and functions available to improve browsing experience such as image quality and font size.
- "Find in page" function
- URL Bar, Google search fields, slide in and out as needed. A nice visual touch.

What's not:

- Multitouch navigation such as pinch to zoom is a bit finicky.
- Many websites do not render correctly.
- Not very intuitive, the interface tries a variety of new ways to interact but misses more than hits.
- Opera's server side page loading method does not pass through the corporate firewall at work.
- A loss of Wi-Fi or mobile connection seems to crash the App

While not quite ready to unseat Safari as the king of iPhone OS web browsing, this is a fantastic product created by Opera. iPhone users, especially those with iPhone 2G hardware will really benefit from the high speeds and customization available in this browser.

Get Opera Mini for iPhone OS