I have been using Opera for a long while now. In fact I cannot imagine using any other browser (and I have tried them all) and have to say browsing comes a full circle with Opera. I have been using Opera 9.5 Beta for a while now and a couple of features I really fell in love with were the ability to synchronize Opera with Opera Link an initiative of Opera which lets you sync your Bookmarks and Speed Dial settings on the fly and in real time along with your browsing history. Even more amazing is that it will even sync the Bookmarks and Speed Dial settings on your mobile phone provided you are using Opera Min and really there is no better browser for the mobile than Opera Mini so it goes without saying that all your Bookmarks, Speed Dial settings and even browsing history are available to you everywhere you go.
Any cons you might wonder? Well there were a couple since Opera 9.5 was in Beta with its memory and CPU usage being high and also occasionally it would freeze and be unresponsive and would necessitate restarting it especially when a high number of tabs were open. I am an avid reader and hardcore browser to the core so a high number of tabs really means quite a lot if I say so myself. This issue seems to be fixed with the release of Opera 9.5 and I have been using it for the past couple of days with heavy duty browsing and also with a lot of tabs open all at once and Opera 9.5 has been coping very admirably everything I have thrown at it during the course of my rigorous testing. Memory and CPU usage continue to be the in meager/miserly ranges that Opera is so famous for. If anything Opera has once again proven and convinced me why they are the best in the business yet again with the release of Opera 9.5. The only thing that I don’t quite like or rather have not gotten used to is the new theme or black color scheme that Opera has come out with replacing the default red theme. I for one would prefer the old red theme but then remember what they say about familiarity breeding contempt!
Some of the new and improved features with Opera 9.5 are Quick Find – Opera remembers the titles, addresses and even the content of the websites you visit, Opera Link – Opera syncs your Bookmarks, Speed Dial settings and even your browsing history, New Browser Engine – Opera the fastest browser on earth is now even faster with superior support for Web Standards, it starts faster, loads faster, and as per Opera’s Website is more than 2x faster than Opera 9.2 in rendering JavaScript and HTML, faster handling of third party plug-ins, much faster start up time and superior support for Web standards. Standard features like Speed Dial, Mouse Gestures, inbuilt BitTorrent download manager, Saving All Open Tabs in a Session, Popup blocker, Fit-to-width, inbuilt email and RSS/newsfeeds, widgets, fraud protection, etc. are still an integral part of Opera. Another new feature is Opera Dragonfly, a developer tool to make web development using Opera easier than ever both for the PC and the mobile phone. I can go on and on about my favorite browser, but its time you downloaded it and checked it out for yourself. Opera continues to rock baby!!!
Rajeev,
Thanks for the review… I last used Opera way back when it was launched – liked its speed and tabbing feature then itself. However, I am in love with FF and IE now.
Hope my site is rendered well on Opera too. I am not testing it on all browsers yet.
Ajith
Hi Ajith,
I used to use FF a long time ago, but once I got introduced to Opera there has been no turning back since then. Even now I keep trying out FF from time to time, but still find its memory and CPU usage to be a tad high especially with a lot of tabs open. I do miss some of its plugins though, but still Opera's speed and ease of use more than compensates for all those plugins.