Opera 10 Review – Opera’s Turn To Catch Up!
Less innovation than we’re used to but increased customisation options, a mail client and new turbo mode show Opera hasn’t run out of ideas yet
A number of small improvements introduced in Opera 10 include the ability to allow users to easily resize the search field in the browser by dragging its edge with the mouse. Opera 10 also now has an inline spellchecker for use when filling out forms and fields in Web pages.
The integrated developer tool, Dragonfly, also boasts some new capabilities for viewing information on site codes and script, including increased DOM inspection options. In addition, users can now choose to have Opera update automatically when new updates become available, rather than requiring a download and install of an update, as previous versions of the browser did.
Good standards support as usual
As usual, Opera does well when it comes to support for Web standards. During my tests using the Web Standards Project’s Acid3 test, Opera produced a perfect score.
In the past, Opera Software also has bragged on Opera’s speed. Version 10 is hardly slow, running much faster than Internet Explorer 8 and comparable to Firefox 3.5, but in most of my tests, Opera was outrun by Safari and Chrome.
Opera is one of the last of the major Web browsers to include a built-in mail client. I’ve generally found this client to be pretty good, and the new version includes small upgrades such as improved rich text options. The mail client also now takes advantage of the browser’s new integrated spellchecker.
Opera runs on most major operating systems, including Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. To download and check out Opera 10, go to www.opera.com.
Jim Rapoza is chief technology analyst at eWeek
