Opera Mobile 10.1 for Nokia smartphones goes final

Opera Mobile 10.1 is now final and released for Symbian, bringing performance optimization and geolocation services to Nokia users, according to a press release by the company. Opera claims that its browser performs nine times faster on the SunSpider JavaScript test, so that by itself sounds like a pretty good reason for you to download the newest version for free to check it out.

Opera Mobile's just-in-time compilation performance is now optimized to the Carakan JavaScript engine, the same engine used in the company's desktop browser. And geolocation is a welcome addition as users can get a personalized browsing experience based on their location. Opera Mobile offers some worthy features for slow connections like its Turbo compression, which basically shrinks webpages to a fraction of their original size (also saves data traffic).

Dag Norem from the Opera Mobile blog summed up some of the downsides like the lack of Flash support and pinch-to-zoom, as well as higher memory requirements. The native browser on Nokia phones like the N8 supports Flash Lite, but many users find its performance sub-par when it comes to speed, while Opera Mobile 10.1 manages to run very smoothly.

Opera Mobile 10.1 is available for smartphones running Symbian^3, as well as Symbian S60 3rd and 5th Editions. Let us know which browser you prefer on your Nokia!

source: Opera and Opera Mobile blog