Appearance:
At first impressions I like the look of this browser. The logo is genuinely appealing and the main interface is very nice to look at. Just like most browsers these days, Opera gives you the option to create new tabs to save you from opening new windows every time you want to view something different. For anyone who has ever used Mozilla Firefox before (review on its way), Opera is pretty much a reflection as it also includes the little drop down box in the top left corner of the screen. As presumed, the only difference is the logo and text on the little bar.
Again, just like most web browsers, Opera features a set of arrows on the top left of the screen, one pointing left, one pointing right. It goes without saying that these arrows are used to navigate onto the previous page, or the forward page that you have viewed. Next to these arrows we see the refresh button. What can we say? Its round and has an arrow on the end.
Moving slightly to the right now, we can see the URL bar. I do like the font here, it differs from any other web browsers and it gives the whole thing a more modern vibe to it.
Finally, we see that Opera features a small customizable search bar. This looks very nice and does again give a modern effect.
Main Features:
I have mainly covered most of the features above as I was explaining how they looked, yet I still need to explain things on the lower end of the screen. This is what caught my eye the most. Opera has thought slightly out of the box here and has included another tool bar at the bottom of the screen. On the left we have a few features that I am not too sure of at the moment. We see some sort of media option, a cloud (possibly a weather item), some kind of spiral and a speed clock. I imagine this speed dial has something to do with the browsers performance.
Shooting straight over to the right, on the same tool bar, we see a movable slider. This I have used. It is to alter the zoom on the page you are viewing. This is very helpful if you own a netbook as some Facebook and YouTube pages are sometimes hard to view when zoomed right in. This saves you having to press Ctrl + + or - or right clicking then selecting zoom. It deffinatley saves time. Thats about it for the main features! Moving swiftly onwards!
Performance:
Okay, here I have a bit of dull news for you readers. This is where the browser "drops a few grades". Despite all the nice shiny features on this browser, its performance speeds are considerably poor and it becomes unresponsive quite a lot.
For example, as I was writing that last sentance, Opera became unresponsive for a minute or so. Weep weep.
From my previous experiences, being unresponsive is not rare in all web browsers, good or bad. However it definatley happens a lot more on Opera.
Customer Support:
For anyone looking for a nice, easy change of browser or simply just a browser for derping around on, Opera is a good thing to try out.
I, however, would not recommend this browser for anyone using the internet for bussiness or school work, its simply too slow.
Personally, I do not think Opera has an extensive future ahead of it. Unless the company drastically increase the performance speeds on this browser and fix the little bugs, it will die out in a year or so. It is simply too unreliable for it to carry on as other browsers, most likley Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome will overtake it.
So, this has been my review on the web browser, Opera.
I will be bringing out more reviews on some other browsers quite soon!
Orbit.
Download Opera here!
http://www.opera.com/
