Opera Mobile 9.7 beta is finally out for Windows Mobile. The new version offers a big speed boost and better page rendering.
Opera Mobile is the full version of Opera’s mobile web browser. Unlike the java-based (and free) Opera Mini, Opera Mobile runs natively on the phone’s OS and has a feature set much closer to the full desktop browser.
After several months of development, Opera Mobile 9.7 is out as a beta release and Opera has gone all out to boost the app’s speed and ability to render web pages. Opera Mobile 9.7 boasts a new rendering engine – Presto 2.2 – that offers greater standards compatibility and (Opera claims) can render HTML up to 25% faster than previous versions.
The browser also makes use of Opera Turbo – a system of proxy servers that handle page requests for you then compress the results before firing them off to your phone – again, giving a potential boost in speed which will vary according to how popular a site is.
Opera Mobile 9.7 beta is only available for Windows Mobile at the moment – Symbian, Blackberry and hopefully Android versions to follow shortly. The beta is free and no pricing info has been released for the final version, although we expect it will be around the 16 quid mark like its version 8.x predecessors.
Available now | £free | Opera
