As you may already know, the Opera Mini Mobile web browser for iPhone is now available on the App Store and its already the top free iPhone app on the App Store.
The web browsing app had received a lot of rave reviews prior to its launch thanks to claims that the application would offer a lightening fast web browsing experience compared to the iPhone's native Mobile Safari web brower.
With the application now in the hands of iPhone users, it will be interesting to see how Opera Mini for iPhone compares against Mobile Safari. Folks at LifeHacker have published a study that compares the two web browsing apps on several aspects. Here are some observations from the study.
Browser Load Time:
The time taken to load the applications were observed under two circumstances - a cold start (where the app is loaded after rebooting the iPhone) and a warm start (where the app is closed and relaunched). It was observed that Opera Mini took marginally lesser time than Mobile Safari to load in a cold start mode. However, when the applications were closed and relaunched, Mobile Safari loaded much quicker. This is because the iPhone holds the Mobile Safari app in the system memory even after the app is closed thereby helping in quicker relaunches. Mobile Safari thus holds an edge over Opera Mini for iPhone in this regard.
Page Loading Time:
This is clearly the unique selling proposition for Opera Mini. The application worked as advertised and loaded web pages much faster than Mobile Safari.
JavaScript, DOM, CSS Loading Time
LifeHacker notes that their study to test the speed of JavaScript, DOM and CSS over the two browser apps did not offer conclusive results since Opera Mini for iPhone failed to run with the Dramaeo browser performance testing tool.
The study concludes that iPhone's Mobile Safari app is marginally better than Opera Mini app for iPhone despite the latter's impressive page loading time. Though a major reason for this is because of Mobile Safari's position as the system default, the study also notes that Opera Mini does not render fonts and zooming as seamlessly as the Mobile Safari does. However, Opera Mini comes with other advantages like the ability to open multiple tabs and a single-tap speed dial option to open favorite websites.
What do you think about these test results? Does it match what you've observed? Which of the two web browsers would you prefer for browsing the internet on your iPhone? Let us know your views in the comments.
[via LifeHacker]
safari is way better, the quality and controls are easier to use!
It's a lot slower even booting iclarified.com website opera is 5 seconds slower thsn safari
Try loading iphonehacks on a tmobile iPhone with edge. Time is 1.5-2 MINTUES. opera mini under 30 seconds. The one thing apple will never understand : CHOICES
So far I've found Opera to be seriously quicker to load over 3G compared to Safari
On WiFi, Opera loads quicker than safari but not a huge difference.
What Im not keen on is data entry and a Non user set zoom rate in Opera
I really do like the customizable shortcut 'tabs' on Opera's home page
Then again, it's still only version 1, hopefully the company will listen to the gripes & provide updates frequently
the only serious advantage i see is tht y9ou can search for text on a page. This is a VERY nice addition. But otherwise, safari seems better to me.
Its faster but everything else about it sucks. I don't want some crappy GSM converted website, I want the whole thing or the iphone version!!
I agree with you. In Edge (or even in slow 3G services, like mine) Opera really makes a big difference browsing the web. I think nobody cares about load time
Opera mini is a little faster loading iphonehacks(2 seconds) than Safari on 3G but not enough for me to worry about. I like the tabs on Opera but with Safari you can see the entire page on the screen (sideways) and still read the articles(like an actual computer). On Opera you have to zoom to read anything(argh!). Pinch and zoom also makes safari 100x better than opera. But for Edge Opera is the way to go. Still, Opera has allot of improvement till it is anywhere near as good as Safari.
Safari is definitely more crisp and iPhone friendly, but it's the default web browser that has been out for a much longer period of time on the iPhone and other iDevices. For it's first version on the iPhone, Opera Mini isn't bad. Opera Mini definitely has speed. It just needs a few updates to be a little more refined to be smooth like Safari. Agree?
I really like the speed on Opera especially when I'm not getting a good signal however I still prefer the look and feel of Safari. Here is a list of things I would change on Opera:
Title Bar – Get rid of it or hide it! All it does is take up space at the top.
Zoom & Scroll – Pinching, double tapping, and scrolling through a page feels like a driver with a heavy foot; it speeds then breaks hard. Safari does the same thing but in a smoother motion.
Speed Dial – Take a look at the Facebook app from the App Store. That's exactly how Speed Dial should look and feel like. I always tend to want to swipe to another page but end up accidentally hitting a Speed Dial. I'd also get rid of the "Recommend to a friend" at the top of the page. Again, it takes up space and if I really want to recommend to a friend, I can find a way to do so without your help thank you.
It doesn't support Ajax! Try going to hotukdeals.co.uk mobile version and you can't expand the posts to get more information. Most likely you can't bolt more content into their file format once it's been rendered.
Epic fail!
If it had pinch zoom like safari that would seal the deal for me, but early days, it's certainly got the potential.
I've found since rolling back to 3.1.2 that Safari actually is smoother and closes pages quicker than it does in 3.1.3, anyone else noticed that?
Think I'll stay on 3.1.2 for now, it just feels 'right'
are opera faster than safari ?????please can anyone tell me are opera faster than safari ??
not sure if i have a different version, but my version has pinch zoom in/out, its not as smooth but it gets the job done.
no one has mentioned this so i will point it out, unlike the safari browser ive noticed that opera mini actually caches the pages visited, so going back 3 or 4 pages is instant unlike safari which was to reload the page every time.
another sweet feature is u dont have to double tap in order to zoom in, just hold down ur finger for more than a second and let go, and it zooms in.
if the first version is this good i cant wait to see it a few versions down the road.
What kind of metrics do you use when you consider a slightly faster load-up time to be better than a consistently faster browsing experience? I think your review has a fair amount of bias.
Sigh… Opera has a lot of things to like in terms of speed and functionality. Still screws up some pages and zoom is just two level instead of a nice analog.
I'll use Opera for a while to take advantage of the features but I end up going back to Safari because of a few impossible to ignore annoyances. Best thing about Opera is that it gives some competition to Apple and should, in theory, motivate Apple to do better with Safari.
I may be an iconoclast but I think Safari is at best a mediocre browser and iphone users deserve much better. And that goes for the email and calendar apps as well.
It makes me wonder what development and management constraints are on the Apple dev teams. Er… I have started using Apple products recently after a LONG time with Unix-type os's, RTOSs and Windows. So far, I have been thoroughly underwhelmed.
Nice machines; sometimes great/intriguing UIs; crappy applications*. Poor configurability. Poor utility if your need is not within Apple's locus of approved ways of problem solving. Third party apps for Macs are excellent but Apple is bad. Thoroughly arrogant company (comes from the top?).