David Fredh : Blog and Pictures

It’s time again for new versions of our web browsers. Last time the focus was on speed.. . This time the focus is on speed as well as better compatibility to web-standards (for example the ACID3-test).

I have been reading a lot of comparisons between the new web-browsers but most of them have forgotten one player, Opera.

Tested: Chrome vs IE8 vs Firefox 3.1 vs Safari 4

Which Is The Best Browser: IE8, Chrome, Safari Or Firefox 3.1

Opera released its alpha for the upcoming version 10 a while ago and it had a few interesting features. Higher speed of course but also 100% score of the ACID3 test. Recently Opera also announced another interesting feature, the Turbo mode:

Demo of Opera 10 with Turbo mode

Basically opera turbo is a kind of compressed tunnel between your browser and an opera-server that makes the browsing much quicker, especially on a netbook with 3g modem or connections with lower bandwidth. Opera themselves recommend users below 100kbit/s to use turbo mode, but I can clearly feel the performance enhancement on my 3g connection that is around 200-400kbit/s. When I tested, my speed benefits with turbo are usually around 2-4x. Opera is one step ahead again.

As always with opera, all features you need are just there without installing a lot of memory consuming plugins: Ad blocking, mouse gestures, Bittorent, Full screen mode, Notes, Bookmark, Multiple browser synchronization and so on. All comes with a fast engine, low memory usage and some Opera-unique features such as Turbo and “Fit to width”.

So before you choose your favorite, try Opera.

/David