Opera Mini 5: A Must Have Cellphone Application

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Opera Mini 5 is a java based mobile web browser developed and published by Opera Software. It is a scaled down, or lite version of the full feature packed Opera Mobile 10 for smart phones. Although it don't have some features that Opera Mobile 10 has, Opera Mini 5 can still bring a smooth, fast and fun web browsing experience from your mobile devices.

For me, Opera Mini 5 is better than Opera Mobile 10. Both of them can display full desktop view web pages. But Opera Mini 5 can load pages faster than Opera Mobile 10 can. Opera Mini 5 has an online server which compresses web pages and converts it to OBML (Opera Binary Markup Language) files. These OBML files are much smaller in terms of file size than the original web pages. Since smaller in file size, OBML pages are loaded faster than the original page. That's why Opera Mini 5 can load web pages faster than Opera Mobile 10. Aside from faster loading time, converting pages into OBML makes web pages to be more suitable on phone's small screen. The only setback of OBML pages on Opera Mini 5 is that it doesn’t display animated images. It only displays a random frame of an animated picture.

Another advantage of Opera Mini 5 is its java based platform. Most of the phones used by the mobile users today are java supported. Meaning, more people can use the services and features offered by Opera Mini 5. On the other hand, Opera Mobile 10 is specifically made for smart phones, like symbian, windows mobile, maemo, android, and iphone. According to a report by Nielsen, smart phones only occupy 18% of the phone market today. And there are smart phones that also support java based applications, like Nokia symbian phones. So somehow, we can say that Opera Mini 5 is the universal mobile web browser.

Opera Mini 5 is a compact application. It is very easy to download and install. It's just about 275kB in file size. And don't eat up a lot of memory (RAM) in your phone while running the application. For low end phones with low memory capacity, Opera Mini 5 is not the perfect browser for them. Since Opera Mini 5 is the latest version of the Opera Mini series and has rich features for a java based browser, it is more compatible for mid-range to high end java supported phones. It is advisable for low end phones to use the previous version of Opera Mini, the Opera Mini 4.2.

Other Features of Opera Mini 5:

1. Stand alone download

- this version of Opera Mini can download files directly without the need to open the native or default web browser of your phone. But there are certain file formats, like .jar, that Opera Mini 5 can not download. The size of the file that you want to download is also limited. I am not able to download files that are more than 30MB in size.

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2. Copy text contents

- this is the first official version (there are modded versions of older Opera Minis that can also copy text contents) of the Opera Mini series who can copy text contents of a web page. The browser can paste the copied text to a text box in a web page.

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3. Richer GUI (Graphical User Interface)

- Opera Mini 5 is the first version of Opera Mini who resembles the GUI of the official Opera Browser for PC. It feels like you are really surfing the net using a desktop computer.

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4. Touch supported

- this is the first Opera Mini browser that is touch supported. Meaning, it can be used by touch screen phone users without hassle. The menu for touch screen phones was modified so that its options and other features can easily be accessed with just one touch of your finger. You can also easily scroll pages with a few swipes of your finger. This feature is really important today. Since there is an ongoing "touch screen war" in the market today.

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If you don't have Opera Mini 5 yet, you can download it in the official website of Opera Mini. It's absolutely free!

Enjoy browsing!