Opera Mini launches on Windows Phone

A week ago, Norwegian browser maker Opera revealed that it will bring the popular Opera Mini to Windows Phone. Not long after, the app was made available as a private beta to a few lucky testers. Now though, everyone with a Windows Phone can check out Opera Mini.

Opera Mini is the first well-known third-party browser to be available on Windows Phone. This gives it the opportunity to quickly attract the attention of those looking for an alternative to Internet Explorer, which comes on board the tiled operating system. The latter, at least so far, has proved to be a reliable and, more recently, powerful option. So does Opera Mini have what it takes to steal users away from its Microsoft-made rival?

Straight off the bat you should know that Opera Mini is currently labeled as a beta and, as its name implies, is not a full-blown mobile browser. It lacks some of the features that its Opera Mobile brother offers.

The former is aimed at those seeking to minimize mobile traffic, rather than those looking for a desktop browser experience on a smartphone, which is where Opera Mobile would fit right in. But, if you move past this downside, you will find that Opera Mini is quite pleasant to use.

Opera Mini looks similar to its counterparts on rival platforms, which in Windows Phone's case means that it does not look quite like a typical app designed for the tiled OS. The traditional Windows Phone menu bar is not present, as Opera has decided to go with a design that feels more familiar to its existing users. It's different than what you'd expect, but I see no problems in that after a short stint with the app.

Even though it's called Opera Mini, it does not feel like it's missing basic features. The displayed content is optimized to give fast loading times, the navigation buttons are there, the settings menu is easy to understand, it's got Speed Dial as well as an option to save web pages, just to name its core features.

Opera fans should be pleased to hear that Opera Mini launches on Windows Phone with Opera Link in tow. This allows users to sync browser data across all Opera instances that support it. So far, so good.

Opera Mini is available to download from Windows Phone Store. It's listed as compatible with Windows Phone 8 and Windows Phone 8.1.