Users are getting spoilt for Internet browsers these days. Apart from Internet Explorer (IE) that comes preinstalled with Windows, there is Google’s Chrome, Firefox, Apple’s Safari and Opera, and a few others like Flock. With so many players vying to be the app with which you browse the Internet, the battle is well and truly on to earn user brownie points be it in features or speed. And it is on speed that the latest version of Opera, Opera 10.50, focuses. The release we have received says that it is the “fastest Web browser thus-far produced for Windows computers.” Now, that is quite a claim, considering that the likes of Chrome and Firefox operate at a decent clip, but from what we have seen of the browser, it sure flies.
The reason for this speed surge evidently is a new JavaScript engine, Carakan, and a new graphics library, Vega, which help in websites loading a lot faster. Judging from our experiences, they sure seem to be doing the trick. Apart from this, Opera 10.5 has goodies like private browsing (in a tab as well as in a window), Opera Unite (which converts your PC into a server, allowing you to share information with your friends without worrying about uploading it to a site or mailing it), Opera Link (which synchornises bookmarks between the version of Opera on your handset and on your computer) and Opera Turbo, which speeds up browsing considering by compressing pages. What’s more, all of these features work just fine, although Turbo does butcher images sometimes. What’s more, with support for Aero Glass, as well as supporting Aero Peek and Jump Lists, this is definitely one of the best-looking browsers on Windows.
We have been using Opera for ages now, switching to Chrome and Safari only when we were in a hurry. But after this version, we don’t think we will need to do that. Yep, this is certainly one of the fastest browsers we have ever used. Our recommendation: Download it!
