Opera Mobile 10 browser for Windows Mobile launched

Opera Mobile 10 for mobile phones running Windows Mobile was launched today, the latest edition of the popular mobile browser. Barely two weeks back, Opera had launched Opera Mobile 10 for Symbian phones. Mostly, Nokia phones run the Symbian operating system.

Opera Mobile 10 look and feel

Opera Mobile 10 demo video

Opera Mobile 10 for Windows Mobile looks and feels the same as Opera Mobile 10 for Symbian. In fact, Opera Mobile 10 for Windows Mobile even takes a lot of features from the desktop Opera browser, and replicates them for the mobile interface. Opera said on its website that Opera Mobile 10 for Windows Mobile has the same Presto rendering engine as the desktop Opera browser. Opera claims that the latest version – Opera 10 for WinMo – downloads pages 50% faster than the earlier version.

Opera Mobile 10 for Windows Mobile is designed for ease of use, whether you are using a conventional phone with a keypad, or a high-end touchscreen phone. On a touchscreen phone, you can navigate easily with finger movements, pan and move up and down the webpage with a quick flick of the finger. In keypad phones, you can navigate between tabs, where each tab will be highlighted when you move over it. The zoom levels can be set from 60% of actual screen size to 200% on Opera Mobile 10 for Windows Mobile. Opera Mobile 10 also allows for saving webpages and images for offline viewing later.

Opera Mobile 10 for Windows Mobile can selectively allow and disallow pop-ups. You can prefer to allow pop-up windows or block them in settings. Mobile view is an intelligent feature of Opera Mobile 10 for Windows Mobile. Here, the webpage is compressed to fit the mobile screen, so it retains the exact look on a desktop browser, though in a smaller size. Alternately, you can see the webpage in actual size, or zoom in on it. You can view webpages in portrait on landscape format. Besides, if your smartphone has an Auto Rotate function, the view automatically flips from portrait to landscape and vice-versa when you change the phone’s orientation.

Opera Mobile zoom functionality

Opera has introduced adaptive zoom on the Opera Mobile 10 for Windows Mobile which allows you to pan and zoom easily into your desired content in just a few clicks. Adaptive zoom will automatically zoom your content to the width of your phone, greatly reducing the amount of horizontal panning and zooming.

Opera Mobile 10 browser screenshots

Several search engines can be easily accessed on Opera Mobile 10 for Windows Mobile. Navigate to the search box – which resembles the desktop browser – type the search query and press Go. If you want to select a different search engine, you can select from the drop-down menu.

In this context, let’s remind you: There are two main variants of Opera browsers for mobile phones – The Opera Mobile. series is for the high-end smartphones, while the Opera Mini is for the basic phone. If your phone doesn’t have the hardware and software to support high-end software, go for the safe choice – which is, Opera Mini.

Opera Mobile 10 Multiple Tabs

Multiple tabs, introduced in Opera Mobile 9.7 for Windows Mobile continues in Opera Mobile 10, but fares better. You can open multiple tabs like in a desktop browser, and flip through them. Its better if you have a touchscreen phone, where you can see visual tabs and move between them. On a touchscreen phone, the tabs are on the bottom part of the screen, while on a keypad phone, the tabs will be at the bottom. In Opera Mobile version 10 for Windows phones, it’s a breeze to navigate around zoomed-in pages with what it called kinetic scrolling, claimed Opera.

Opera Mobile 10 Turbo

Speed Dial, which made its debut in Opera desktop browsers, improved further by Apple as Top Sites in Safari and later made its way to mobile browsers, continues in Opera Mobile 10 for Windows Mobile. Nine most-visited pages are stored as thumbnails, which welcome you when you start Opera Mobile 10 for Windows Mobile. Just press/select any of the Speed Dial icons, and the page opens up. If you want to add a new page to the Speed Dial screen, just click on an empty tab and Opera will ask you which page you’d like to add, and offer a set of suggestions from your browsing history. If you want to edit or remove any of the Speed Dial suggestions, just long-click on the Speed Dial icon and a context menu pops up.

Opera Turbo, which made its debut in earlier versions, is present in Opera Mobile 10 for Windows Mobile as well. Opera Turbo enables faster page loads by compressing webpage data up to 70% before sending it to the mobile phone. If you want to surf secure websites (a padlock icon appears next to the address bar) you can turn off Opera Turbo compression temporarily. With Opera Turbo, pages load faster, and you save on your data consumption.

If several password-protected websites are part of your daily surfing diet, Opera Mobile’s password manager will be of help. The log-in credentials can be saved on the phone itself, so that you do not have to remember multiple passwords.

Opera Mobile 10: Other features

Some other features on Opera Mobile 10 for Windows Mobile include Find function, history and bookmarks, Auto-completion of text, In-line editing, Google Calendar, shortcuts and compliance with web standards. For developers, Opera Mobile also offers the Opera Dragonfly, a cross-device, cross-platform debugging tool built directly into Opera Mobile 10 for Windows Mobile.

Where to download Opera Mobile 10

You can download the latest Opera Mobile 10 for Windows Mobile from the Opera website here.