Opera for iPhone doesn’t quite fit
I, like many others, have given Opera on the iPhone a run out over the past few days. My initial feelings are of dissapointment. I expected more. Maybe it was Opera’s clever pre-acceptance hype, or a longing for a suitable alternative to Safari… I’m not quite sure.
There’s no denying it’s quick, the secret lies behind the compressed pages pushed through Opera servers; this said server-side compression being the key reason it was so readily accepted by Apple.
My biggest gripe is that it just feels out of place, like so many apps being released of late. I can’t put my finger on what it is, but the overall experience of using Opera is nowhere near as nice or ‘comfortable’ as Safari.
It’s not an issue with conventions, the UI is intuitive, the tab ‘bar’ is a very nice inclusion and solution, and something I wouldn’t mind seeing in Safari… I won’t hold my breath on that one though.
It just doesn’t have a fully ‘native’ feel, it’s seems a little like a quick port. I’m sure it isn’t, but I just get that initial impression.
By no means is Opera for iPhone a bad browser, it’s just not up there with Safari yet. A solid second browser, perfect for if you’ve limited or slow connections, but doesn’t knock Apple’s offering off it’s perch.