Want another type of browser for your Android phone? No? Oh. Well, anyway, Opera has announced its plans to bring Opera Mobile to Android very soon indeed, within the month, in fact.
The two headline features it’s boasting about for the Android version are “pinch to zoom” support and “hardware acceleration” – the latter of which claims to make page navigation “faster than ever”. Here’s Opera’s explanation of how this hardware acceleration thing works:
Hardware Acceleration allows Opera Mobile to run at lightning speed. Navigating a page will be faster than ever, and the improvements to the UI will be momentous. All this is made possible by taking full advantage of the power available on your phone. Hardware Acceleration allows us to do amazing things like full pinch to zoom for all sites. It also allows us to have a more fluid interaction with the phone, improving your browser experience!
Hmm. The vast range of Android phones with their myriad different processors and powers makes us rather suspect of this. But we’ll see. Here’s someone from opera testing it out on an HTC Wildfire:
Read all about it over on Opera’s blog.
Motorola’s latest flagship dual-core Android monster is a massive, original powerhouse, that’s a big improvement on previous MOTOBLUR mobiles – but still isn’t a total winner.
A slim and glamorous phone from Sony Ericsson, with the sharpest display around. It’s no powerhouse and the screen’s not the biggest out there, but we don’t mind. Because it’s cute.
LG’s first glasses-free 3D phone is a heavy, fat monster, with a clever 3D effect that works rather well. As a smartphone, though, it’s heavy and underwhelming.
A very shiny thing from Sony Ericsson, with a 3.7″ screen and Android 2.3.3 inside. But is it exciting enough to win fans in today’s spec-obsessed market? Can man live on one core alone?
INQ’s Android phone is an interesting “boutique” piece of hardware, packed with unique interface customisations that go far beyond the headline Facebook integration. We like it a lot.
MarkG
/ October 14, 2010Excellent, the best platform just got the best browser. You might not understand the signifcance of this but a lot of us do.
Chris
/ October 14, 2010YES! was hoping this would happen. Dolphin isn’t bad, but the king is back :D