On the heals of their latest browser for the PC, Opera 10, the folks of Opera Software have released the latest beta of their browser for mobile phones called Opera Mini 5. Opera Mini boasts improved speed over other mobile browsers and less bandwidth over cellular networks since data sent to mobile phones can be compressed up to 90 percent. As Opera puts it users, “can get more Web out of each megabyte”.

Opera Mini 5 is an appropriate name since the company boasts five feautres with the latest version of the mobile browser. The first feature is a new, sleek interface while mobile phone users will also like the fact that the browser adapts to your phone for browsing whether you have a touchscreen or a keypad. Other features include Speed Dial, which allows you to choose from a table of contents of favorite sites, and a built-in password manager. The fifth and coolest feature has got to be the addition of tabbed browsing. Yes, tabbed browing has finally made its way to mobile.

Opera Mini 5 beta is available from the Opera Mini website and can be downloaded for free from your phone’s existing web browser. Though phone support may vary while the browser is in beta, a special version of the browser is available for the BlackBerry which allows for seemless opening of links and copy-and-paste funtions.

Read more at the Opera press release.

Brian’s Opinion

First, let me say that I’m a long time fan of the Opera Mini browser. I downloaded it for use on my BlackBerry and tend to use it over the built-in BlackBerry browser. I will admit the BlackBerry browser has improved over time, but Opera Mini is still light years ahead of it.

The secret of Opera Mini’s success is the technology that allows Opera to cache websites and compress what is sent back to a mobile phone when requesting a website. Not only is this attractive to users because of performance improvements, but to carriers as well since it means less bandwidth use on their networks. I haven’t even begun to talk about some of the great enhancements to the browser such as the introduction of tabbed browsing or Speed Dial.

Personally, I haven’t found many mobile browsers which come close to Opera Mini’s capabilities. Okay, I admit that the mobile version of Safari is still way out there, but you need to have an iPhone if you want to use it. Opera Mini is compatible with a number of platforms which allows it to have a greater footprint. That’s another incentive for carriers to support the use of Opera Mini.