Opera 10 beta sports a new look, 23% boosted performance

In its release announcement this morning, Opera Software claims that its first beta of version 10 is "40% faster than Opera 9.6." In Betanews tests of basic JavaScript and CSS rendering, we estimate the Opera 10 beta is a 22.6% better performer overall in Windows 7 than Opera 9.64, and 2% better than the Opera 10 Alpha public preview.

But there's been a lot of developments in the Web browser field in the last year, and although Opera 10's renderer is crisp and splendid in the early going, it does not appear that Opera's JavaScript engine will be enough to keep up with Google, Apple, and Mozilla in the new race for online efficiency. The latest Betanews performance tests, which include updated figures for daily development builds for Firefox 3.5 and 3.6, reveal a picture of a Google Chrome 3 browser that is more than twice as fast as Opera, and an Apple Safari 4 browser that (once the bugs are worked out with Windows 7) may be faster still.

Tests conducted Tuesday afternoon give the Opera 10 Beta a 5.58 index score in Windows 7 RC -- meaning, 558% the performance of Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista, a slow browser on a slow OS. On Vista, the Opera 10 Beta gets a 5.08. In speed tests alone (excluding standards compliance), the new beta shows almost exactly four times the speed of IE7 in Vista, and 185% the speed of IE8 in Vista. That makes the new beta a more capable browser than Firefox 3.0.10, Mozilla's latest stable release…but not for long.

The latest build of what could become the release candidate for Firefox 3.5 scored an 8.77 in Windows 7 RC, and a 7.44 in Vista. That represents a speed boost of 24% from the new OS, versus the average of 12% and versus 17% for Opera 10 Beta. In a bit of a resuscitation for the "Minefield" development track, the private Firefox 3.6 Alpha scored a 9.10 in Windows 7, and a 7.54 in Vista.

So Opera Software may want to consider a short beta cycle for version 10, and to keep the oven warm for a new version that will address what may inevitably be characterized as a real speed problem.