Unlike Opera Next launched for desktops, Opera launches its new browser "Opera for Android"!! What is Opera for Android? Shouldn't it be Opera for Mobiles in general? Well not exactly, Opera has launched its latest Opera mobile browser for Android platform (as of now), while still keeping its older Opera Mini browser active on other platforms.

So What Does New Browser Do?
Well, Opera claims it to be faster and more compatible when loading web pages with a new design/UI built from ground up, and new features such as Discover mode. We gave it a little spin on our Android phone.

Spanking New Engine
For the most part, users will never notice the Brand New Chromium Engine under the hood and that is a good thing, as Opera has quite seamlessly changed from the old engine to the new. Opera has dumped its older engine, which was a basically a wrapper created to translate Java ME API calls to Android API calls; instead opting for the new Chromium engine (yes, the one Google Chrome uses) that allows Opera to run natively on the Android Platform, which translates to even better website compatibility.

Discover – The New Feature
We really liked the Discover feature, it's basically a news aggregator that loads news stories into one seamless application minus the RSS feel to it. Also, unlike RSS feeds, you cannot select your own feeds (other than the category), but consume whatever is the current news thrown up by Opera's 'preselected' items. This may sound like a drawback at first but it's not, and quite frankly refreshing to stay up to date with current news in a layout that is easier, quicker, and nicer to consume unlike Newspapers.

We couldn't agree more with what Rikard Gillemyr, EVP of Consumer Products at Opera Software had to say, "Most people just see a fraction of what the web has to offer. We check out the same sites every day, and you can get through with the latest news after just a short bus ride. We wanted to give people a relaxed way of discovering interesting articles and checking them out without any extra effort."

Updated Looks
A new browser with a new tweaked up look, Opera (much like the previous Opera mini) has gone for a minimalistic design, with all the essentials in place as you'd need them without looking overbearing or confusing. This time the search and the address bar have been merged into one to make a nice unified interface. Again, this is nothing new that we have been accustomed to with browsers in general, but a welcome change nonetheless especially for mobiles where screen real estate is at a premium.

(Old) Opera Mini to the left VS (New) Opera for Android

Opera's swapping between apps is much nicer, even though it does seem quite inspired by Apple's iTunes photo album view. Whatever the inspiration may be, we liked Opera's implementation way better, as it not only looks good visually, but is also a great way to swap between tabs without it becoming a pixel-hunting game.

Updated Speed Dial
Opera's signature feature Speed Dial has got a face lift with cute curved icons (very iPhone like), and an ability to group multiple websites into one folder (much like how Android groups icons). The Speed Dial feature, in addition to locating your favourite sites real fast, also doubles up as a bookmark manager. This makes it not only easier to manage only one list for most looked up sites, but is also more intuitive to the mobile browsing experience than the long drop down of bookmarks to scroll through, as on a desktop browser.

Rewriting History
The browsers' History has a much better placement, right next to Speed Dial. A single swipe to the right reveals site you had visited last. This makes more sense than digging in settings tab, as this is one of the most used functions when browsing online on the mobile phone.

Off Road Mode
Off Road mode is the same as Turbo Mode, now branded differently and pretty much does the same thing. For those not in the know, when your connections are real slow (2G users, we are looking at you) Off-Road mode auto-magically provides a faster browsing experience than the regular internet connection. It does this by compressing websites on its own proxy servers, to provide speeds that are in effect faster. So after you return to a fast connection, Opera will automatically disable Off-Road mode.

Err...Which Browser Do I Download?
Currently Opera offers a total of four browsers to download from Google Play store, that’s right FOUR! And the names of the browsers don't help one bit in figuring out which is the right one to download, so here we have...

Opera browser – The latest most stable browser for Android and the one we are talking about here. "Opera for Android" replaces "Opera Mobile" on Android platforms.
Opera Mini web browser – The core browser engine is located on a server to compress and transcode web pages so that they can be viewed much faster, even on a low bandwidth connection.
Opera Mobile Classic – The older browser, still in Play Store due to popular demand.
Opera browser beta – The beta version of Opera browser, still in Play Store due to popular demand.

Not to worry, since TechTree.com is such a technology friendly place, we have included the link just for you. Download Opera browser here.

Let us know your experience with Opera's latest right here below in the comments.

Tags : Opera, Mobile Phones, Apps, Tablets, Android