Opera Mini: A Mini Review

Since I'm again using a PalmOS device and a PalmOS SmartPhone at that (a Treo 650... yeah baby!), I'm going to review one of the "obscure" applications ported to the platform, the Opera Mini (a.k.a. Operette).

I heard about this browser on one of the podcasts I've been listening to (probably TWiT) and it was one of the things that came to my mind when I started fiddling around with my Treo 650 (thanks again Howard!). So when I got to configure my smartphone to connect to the internet, I promptly went to http://mobile.opera.com and attempted to download the application -- I had to do this since Opera Mini is *not* downloadable through the PC. Downloading it required me to create a "My Opera" account which was not such a big deal but a bit annoying since I simply want to test drive this browser on my smartphone. Upon downloading the application, I attempted to run it but it was asking for an "IBM Websphere" thingie so I had to go the Palm support and do yet another round of downloads. Upon getting that IBM Websphere thingie (which was actually a micro edition of JAVA), I was able to run Opera Mini successfully.

WOW! This browser rendered mobile websites beautifully! The graphics are vivid and it's pretty responsive. Newbies may get a bit confused with its menu system since it does not follow the normal UI (user interface) of Palm applications but its understandable since this is *not* a normal Palm application -- it is a Java application that runs under IBM Java Virtual Machine. But a couple of pages later, the vivid and responsive graphics bit me on the backside -- it totally drained the credits of my prepaid phone account! The four (or was it five?) mobile web pages I visited had cost me around Php 100!

Despite its cost, Opera Mini is a slick little application I see myself using *if* GPRS cost is not that expensive. One downside is its dependence on the IBM Java VM but that's not too much of a hassle since once the IBM Java VM ins installed, other Java-based applications can also be installed and ran on the device.

My verdict? *** out of *****

Note: Almost a year ago, I started refusing to write reviews for Palm applications for m|ph (Mobile Philippines) because I felt that it limited my view of the tech world. Its funny to see myself going full circle with this blog entry.

technorati tags: palmos, mobile, internet