4 ms·
First impressions: 1. it's very responsive. Much snappier than Safari; the difference is very noticeable. 2. pages download much quicker 3. zooming in and ou
by gizmo 17y ago
First impressions:
1. it's very responsive. Much snappier than Safari; the difference is very noticeable.
2. pages download much quicker
3. zooming in and out is faster, but you only have two zoom levels. If you "pinch to zoom" it immediately zooms in all the way.
4. the home screen with 9 favorites works great
5. it's a little buggy (clicks don't always register)
6. killer feature #1: it automatically stores the entire app state, so you can open a few tabs, switch apps, go back and have everything the way you left it. This is a big deal, because Safari forgets your pages eventually, which is so frustrating when you have your travel plans in a safari tab and 3G is not exactly reliable.
7. killer feature #2: you can save pages
8. In full screen mode it makes for a pretty decent reader.
9. It doesn't suffer from "too small font" syndrome.
10. It has this "Snap to column" thing where your view automatically snaps to the column edges. This makes reading more like reading on Instapaper and less like safari.
11. It loads instantly, even when I have 3 tabs open. It's really that fast.
The only real downsides I know of so far are that it has trouble rendering more complex web pages, invades my privacy and doesn't do Javascript. Flash content simply doesn't appear (so you don't even know it should be there) and YouTube links don't link to the YouTube app. Still very impressive.
- isani 17y agoFor me, Opera seemed to forget tab contents after opening just 2-3 of them. It also displays a "please refresh" message instead of automatically reloading the contents. I've also seen a bug where all the tabs turn to grey, inactive rectangles. You have to kill the app and lose all your tabs.
- dagw 17y agoFor an app where one of the main selling points is to cut down on the number of bytes sent, not auto reloading pages should be seen as a feature. If I need the page reloaded I can do so when I need it, and if I don't then doing so is just a waste.
- jbm 17y agoI hate saying this, but I am having the opposite issue. It is not responsive at all; I tried clicking on any of the links and it just hangs. Are the intermediate servers being slashdotted or something, I wonder? I'll give it a shot again later on this week I guess.
- rscott 17y agoIt doesn't scroll to the top of the page when you tap the status bar. Hate when apps neglect to do that.
- barlo 17y agoIt looks like you can scroll to the top by tapping the red title bar.
- zzzmarcus 17y agoThe red bar is gone in full-screen mode so it's one or the other; full screen or scroll to top.
- jodrellblank 17y agoI would love it if shake-to-undo undid this. Hate when I tap it accidentally.
- mhansen 17y agoyou never shake your phone accidentally?
- metachor 17y agoShake to undo always prompts for confirmation to undo the last action. Touching the top of the screen to scroll to the top of the page does not ask for confirmation, which is a pain when you are 3/4 of the way through a very long article. Thus, being able to shake to undo the action of auto-scrolling to top of the screen would be a nice solution.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- amichail 17y agoWhat does it do with encrypted pages and logins?
- alastair 17y agoAgree with much of what you've said. I think opera have nailed the tab switching UI, its so much quicker to use then safari. Couple of things I dont like - They've implemented their own copy/paste controls. I guess this is nessesary due to the 'long click' for opening new tabs etc, but its kind of annoying. - Not really Opera's fault but because of the new useragent, alot of sites deliver the 'normal' mobile version of their site instead of the iphone version I'm used to (usually much prettier).
- mortenjorck 17y agoSo Opera Mini for rapid access to the read-only web, Safari for deep access to the read/write web. Having the right tool for the job: why "duplication of functionality" is a good thing.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- prawn 17y agoIf you double-tap in Safari on iPhone, it will snap to columns which is useful when you want to read an article on a site and avoid the sidebar ads and navigation.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- hkuo 17y agoMaybe I'm overly accustomed to the "feel" of Apple's native apps, since there's just something about the app that just doesn't "feel" good to use. The zooming-in and out is a big downside, as I often tweak in or out from what Safari gives me as a default when I double-tap. The scrolling deceleration brakes to a halt sooner than native apps. Again, maybe I'm just being fickle, but if the physics don't match the native feel, then it just doesn't feel right. Don't understand why they created their own form of copy/paste. The zoomed-out small fonts are completely illegible. I can't even make out header or subheader text, or titles of articles. Startup time, at least for me, was about 3 seconds, compared to immediately for Safari. I just have the 3G, and I'm sure it would be much faster on the 3Gs. When going from vertical to horizontal view, the page does not resize. I have to reload the page for it to fit to the full width. Despite the innovations that I was very excited for, it's the little things, the details, that will keep me from using this app. To me, good execution is in the details. Some of the things above, for me, are simply musts. An example would be a car that must feel good to sit in, have sharp steering control, easy-to-reach controls and a solid-feeling gearbox. Extra-cool features without this are non-starters. These are the things Safari gives me which Opera lacks.
- nailer 17y agoKiller feature 3: instant back button.