Opera Mini Browser for iPhone: It's Here! But Do You Want It?

After weeks of speculation over whether Apple would actually approve it, the Opera Mini browser is now available for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

What's the big deal? Why would you want to use Mini over Safari?

In a nutshell, Mini promises faster page-loading, "tabbed" browsing, and Opera's signature "speed dial" feature (which provides thumbnails of your favorite sites for easier access).

Take a look at the promo video, then read on for my thoughts on whether you should make the switch.

Opera Mini is available from the App Store free of charge, so you have nothing to lose by taking it for a test-drive.

That said, be prepared for some disappointment. In my informal tests, some sites failed to render properly: Text didn't fill the width of the screen, instead staying in narrow columns and leaving unnecessary white space. Also, at least one selector box didn't work right: It just refreshed the page instead of giving me a choice of options.

That said, Mini definitely feels faster than Safari -- not only when loading sites, but also when zooming in and scrolling around. And Mini's "tabs" are nice enough, though I'm not convinced they're a better solution than Safari's "card view."

I was particularly disappointed to discover that Mini lacks an option to import Safari's bookmarks, meaning you'll have to recreate them from scratch. I suspect many users won't bother moving to Mini for that very reason.

Personally, I'm sticking with Safari, at least for now. While it's great to see some browser competition in the App Store, Mini's hassles aren't worth its advantages.