Opera has unveiled the beta version of its latest web browser, Opera 10.5, which it claims is its fastest ever.
The browser developer says Opera 10.5 features a brand-new JavaScript engine, known as Carakan, which works in conjunction with Vega, its new graphics library, to run web applications up to eight times faster than previous versions of the web browser.
Opera has also given the browser an updated version of its Opera Turbo technology that compresses the bandwidth of text and data files on websites by 80 percent, ensures pages load faster.
Users will benefit from a new minimalist interface, along with a private browsing mode that leaves no trace of the websites visited, and the ability to add search engines and websites of your choice to the search bar.
The Opera Presto 2.5 engine, which also features in the browser, offers enhanced support for HTML5, full support for CSS 2.1 and much of the latest CSS3. Opera says this displays websites "just as developers and designers intended them to look".
The new version of the browser also supports the Windows 7 Aero Peek and Jump Lists features.
"Our previous JavaScript engine, Futhark, was the fastest when it was first introduced a few years ago, and the challenge for our engineers was to once again to make Opera the fastest browser on earth," said Christen Krogh, Opera's chief development officer.
"We are proud today to show the results of the amazing work the team has done, and we are looking forward with great anticipation to the final release of Opera 10.50."
Opera 10.5 is available for Windows users. Opera says Mac and Linux versions of the browser will follow shortly. The browser can be downloaded from Opera's dedicated web page.
Comments
Tesla said: I agree with hoppy Opera is way better than IE8 or even sacreblue Firefox Anyway I think pineman has done an outrageous imitation of Sheldon Cooper
pineman said: To expand on my review for the benefit of hoppy god knows why but here goesI have tried ALL of the available browsers with Windows7 32bit 4GB RAM Timing each from initial click to fully loaded I have found Firefox to be the quickest with Opera and Chrome a close second IE was a lot slower My next test to open a new tab resulted in similar results but IE was much much slower than the othersFinally I personalised the browsers to my likings with similar screen views and all bookmarks and settings imported I found Firefox Chrome and IE very straightforward Safari fairly good BUT Opera the worst of the lot ie least intuitiveI have rerun these tests for the benefit of hoppy with and without medication and the results did not vary
hoppy said: are you taking medication pineman firefox has been brick slow buggy and unstable for god knows how longyour review is a bit lacking would you please explain why firefox is more intuitiveFirefox has piled on the weight and is full of holes chrome looks as appealing as a wet weekend in Bognor but i do agree that explorer has got much better these days but overall opera is still the best overall choice for many reasons
pineman said: It might be THEIR fastest browser but it certainly isnt THE fastest browserFirefox is much much faster and far more intuitiveI was not at all impressed with this version of Opera In fact I even prefer both Google and IE8 to it but none can hold a candle to Firefox