Opera Mini now on Windows Mobile. Yeah, you read that right
As if keeping the differences straight between Opera's Mobile and Mini browsers weren't tricky enough already, Opera has added another twist by releasing Opera Mini 5 beta for Windows phones, a mobile platform that has previously only run the Opera Mobile app.
Opera Mini's presence on a Windows phone signals that standalone mobile browsers aren't yet fast enough.
(Credit: Opera Software)Until now, Opera's mobile browsers boiled down to this: Opera Mini (stable|beta) is the proxy browser for Java-based phones that feeds Web content through Opera's servers. And Opera Mobile (stable|beta), is the full Web experience for Symbian and Windows phones that's written with Web code.
The "Mini" browser doesn't render Web sites as faithfully as Opera Mobile's true Web client (and it still won't for Windows phones) but it does return key content faster.
We loaded CNET.com and other graphics-heavy sites using both Opera Mobile 10 beta 2 and the brand-new Opera Mini 5 beta on an HTC Touch Diamond 2 running Windows Mobile 6.5 (got all that?). Opera Mobile took more than 15 seconds to load over Wi-Fi, but it rendered the page in desktop view and displayed CNET's Flash. Opera Mini loaded CNET's mobile-optimized site in a fraction of the time, but we missed out on the landing page.
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