Opera Mini 5.0 Review

Opera Mini 5.0 Review

RaT Rating = 93.39%

Opera Software has made great strides to accommodate newer Blackberry models with their new Opera Mini 5

A few improvements include, browser software is faster, easier to use for touchscreen users, intuitive interface, more complete menu style, and much more.

The first thing that I noticed when downloading this beta was it size, much smaller in comparison to pervious versions. The browser connected to the Internet with no problems or extra user configuration. The initial experience of this browser has been like night and day. The user defined visual bookmarks are a nice touch, to easily get you to your most common web pages.

The ability for the program to save your logins, again makes life easier for the end user. If you turn on the Password Manager from the Privacy settings menu, you do not have to type your logins every time you open your web pages. The web pages load faster since they compress the pages 90% before they get to your phone. When the web pages load, the browser automatically checks the format of the web site, if its mobile the browser optimizes the page for mobile viewing, if not the page loads full view (if you have not selected mobile view as default in the menu settings). There is also a Download Manager to review your downloads.

Depending on the mobile phone your using the default text size can be adjusted for better viewing. The default zoom level can also be set in the settings menu from 60 to 200%. Text search within web pages makes finding what your looking for simpler. Overall, I would say that this is a giant step in the right direction for Opera Software.

The file size of the browser is really not that large 622.6 Kb, compared to other similar apps. I have not seen much of any processor sluggishness, only a bit with multiple pages open. There are average memory consumption issues but are to be expected for the graphics that are displayed. The battery usage will go down faster and to be expected, but not extremely bad. The GUI has really come a long way, however it would be nice to have a variable zoom in and zoom out without changing the zoom percentage in the options.  I did see a few bugs with the screen not resizing correctly in portrait view but if you rotate to landscape and then back it clears up. It is definitely compatible with touchscreen Blackberries and I have not experienced much memory loss while running or when closed. This app definitely does what it claims and is very easy to navigate, even though it does not make good use of the BB button. The browser is quick to load and has a good amount of options to be found in the options menu (not the BB button). All in all this browser is a very good and a much nicer surfing experience on your BB.

Bolt 2.0 Review

Bolt Browser

RaT Rating = 76.00%

Bolt Browser is a decent browser to use. It does render full pages fast and you get to watch videos in the web page instead of loading your video player on your blackberry device. Now with version 2.0 of bolt, you get the option of having more than one tab opened. However, with all these good things, there will also be some downsides that to the Bolt browser. When Bolt renders a full webpage the font is pretty small and there is no zoom feature. Another thing is the type of font that Bolt choices to use are also hard to read at times. The last downside to the Bolt browser I find is whenever you need to enter text it brings you to a completely new window and you have to enter the text there. Then press the blackberry button and press “ok” because the enter key does not respond in the new window. Everything is done through the use of the blackberry button while using Bolt.

The file size of the Bolt browser is 328kb. This is very small for the amount of memory for many things the browser can do. Most applications are double or triple the size.

The browser does not affect your processor speed that much but If your loading a mutiple tabs or a big website it could put a strain on it. For the most part the browser runs smoothly.

There is no memory leak while using the browser but if u leave it open in the background you will start to see your memory drop a little. All browsers leak memory if they are left open in the background.

The browser does not put that much strain on the battery. There isn’t much to load visually with the browser and all the websites are compressed when they are sent to your phone. This browser puts much less strain on your battery then the native browser does.

The graphic user interface(GUI) is not good at all. It has a very plain look for the amount of options that are available. If you are looking for something that looks good, this browser isn’t for you.

They are some things that are buggy with Bolt that I have found. One thing that I find very annoying is that when the browser is open, your convenience keys do not work. Another issue I found was that when you enter your password to login to some websites, the browser lags for awhile before it continues.

Bolt browser is touch screen compatible but sometimes when you goto click on a link it doesn’t register or you press another link if they are close. If you scroll too fast it doesn’t scroll smoothly and sometimes jumps around the webpage.

The application sometimes causes a small memory loss and when you do close the browser it does not recover the memory that was lost until you do a battery pull. Definitely would be a bother for the people that watch there app memory like a hawk(kind of like me).

The application does give you access to the internet faster than the native browser so its safe to say it does what it says. However, it does have some issues(listed above) that will slow you down or possibly irritate you.

When I first used Bolt browser, I did not find it easy to navigate at all. Its completely different from native browser and opera. I’m use to press enter to start searches and things like that. With Bolt everything is done pretty much through the Blackberry button as previous mentioned. This took me awhile to get used to.

The load time of Bolt is faster than the native browser and is about the same speed as Opera.

There is sufficient options but some of them are hard to find. In the 2.0 version of Bolt there is a option to download new font but they only give you one option. You can also zoom in the entire page but you can’t zoom in on a page by page basis.

Bolt browser takes full use of the blackberry button because as mentioned several times, everything is done through the Blackberry button.

Bolt browser is a browser so yes it requires data to run. However, by using the bolt browser it reduces the pages size so that when its sent to your phone its not as much data as you would be using on your computer or the native browser.

If you leave the browser running in background it does cause a memory leak and it will drain your battery. If you close it when your done using it then you should see very little to no issues.