Opera browser for S60 3rd Edition vs. Web Browser for S60
I’ve spent a lot of time with the “Web Browser for S60″ (formerly known as OSS Browser), I demo-ed it for four days at CeBIT, so I feel I’m quite experienced with it. Opera released their browser for S60 3rd Edition today, I’ve been playing around with it this afternoon. Here’s my first impressions of how it compares with the “Web Browser for S60″ which comes with your 3rd Edition device - I used a Nokia E61 for my tests…
- Opera will display a web page in it’s native resolution (just like Web Browser for S60) but also has the option to revert back to the traditional mobile way of browsing where it formats the HTML to fit your screen…which can often look terrible, but sometimes is necessary for devices with small resolutions.
- Even in native resolution mode, some web pages that auto-detects mobile phones thought it was the old mobile browser and delivered different content. www.s60.com is a good example, when viewing this site with the Web Browser for S60, it displayed the normal pages. But with the Opera browser, it forwarded you to the mobile site.
- Full screen mode was nice on the Opera, it takes away those annoying headers and scrollbars to show you a bit more of the screen. I don’t believe Web Browser for S60 has this option.
- When moving around on a web page, the Opera browser didn’t render the page as fast as Web Browser for S60. So you’d see that “choppy” effect, Web Browser for S60 was much smoother when scrolling.
- Navigating through a page was possibly easier on the Opera browser. Web Browser for S60 provides you with a mouse-like pointer, when you’re near a link it knows to highlight that link. Opera browser just jumps from link to link, which may be easier, but I had trouble getting the page positioned exactly how I wanted it.
- Pressing the “back” button on the Web Browser for S60 brings up the “visual history”, thumbnails of all the pages you’ve previously visited in that session. It’s awesome. Opera browser just takes you to the last page you visited. However, there is an option to display a text-only list of the previous pages you’ve visited.
- Opera browser allows you to turn off all images, which is really handy for longer-loading graphic intensive pages. With all the advertisements on webpages nowadays, this is a nice feature. To my knowledge, Web Browser for S60 doesn’t offer this feature. Web Browser for S60 does indeed offer this feature as well (thanks Octave!)
- When you scroll around the page on the Web Browser for S60, a “mini-map” appears in the corner of the screen giving you an overview of the page. Think of it as the old “picture-in-picture” on television sets. This makes browsing in native resolution mode much easier. Opera browser does not have this.
- Opera browser has the option to used cached images when visiting previously viewed pages. With this feature turned on, loading a previously visited page was faster in Opera than in Web Browser for S60.
- In native resolution mode, Web Browser for S60 seemed to be more intuitive when rendering the page. For instance, blogs usually have two or three columns. Web Browser for S60 would make sure that the large main column would fit on the screen without having to scroll horizontally, Opera allowed the text to leak over.
- With the push of a shortcut key, Opera browser would jump up or down one screen length. This made reading long web pages much easier. With Web Browser for S60, you had to push the navi-key up or down quite often to scrolll up/down.
- Javascript/DHTML didn’t appear to render as nicely on Opera as with Web Browser for S60. This was appearent on those fly-out/drop-down menus.
- Zooming in and out of the page was better on Opera. You could slide a bar left and right to get the precise zoom you wanted. Web Browser for S60 had two fixed zooms, and a few fixed font sizes.
- Web Browser for S60 comes with a RSS reader that will find that RSS feeds hidden in the web page. Opera comes with no RSS reader, although you can still read them, just not subscribe to them. (thanks Chiara!)
- Filling out forms was much easier with Opera, it was very easy to jump from one field/button/menu to the next.
- Most of the components in Web Browser for S60 are open source. To my knowledge, Opera is not open source.
- Opera remembers your passwords. Web Browser for S60 does not appear to do this.
- Opera browser costs 19 euros, Web Browser for S60 is free!
- Opera has user configuratable shortcut keys (very nice!) and the shortcut key numbers appear in the menus which is very helpful. Web Browser for S60 has hard-coded shortcut keys.
- Some other nice features of Opera: You can send URLs via SMS/MMS/e-mail. The UI is more friendly with helpful messages. Privacy options allow you to delete the cache, cookies, history, and logins.
Both browsers have their definite pluses and minuses. I honestly can’t say which browser I liked “better”. Hopefully each browser will borrow some functionality from the other to bring us an even better browsing experience.
>>> Opera browser allows you to turn off all images … To my knowledge, Web Browser for S60 doesn’t offer this feature.
S60 Web Browser has a option to turn off images too. It is in Settings, third item from top (I use non English version).
You can read newsfeeds with Opera as well.
See the option under shortcuts to detect them and access a page with newsfeeds.
You cannot subscribe but you can bookmark and read them
Price is a key point here. Looks like Opera & S60’s own browser are very good in their own way. I could use either one of them & fulfill my browsing needs - so why would I pay 19 EUR when I can get S60’s own browser for free..
Opera can be upgraded independently from the firmware while the built-in web browser cannot (unless this has changed with the new browser & devices). This is a big thing since OS upgrades are a real hassle if your operator supports them at all. The new browser is also rev 1 so I wouldn’t be suprised if there are the odd bug which I’d get stuch with
Just wanted to stress that the browser referred as ‘Web browser for S60′ is still not the default browser in S60 3rd Edition, but more like an optional add-on. Fortunately, most if not all devices have chosen to include it. In S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 1 it will the one and only browser that will really integrate into the OS. Things like sending URLs, proper recognising of the browser and WAP browsing will be all fixed, as well as new features added.
Tom, good point about upgrading. If you haven’t noticed, OSS browser can be installed as a SIS package already today (see Nokia 3250 support pages) so maybe it’s possible some day? Also upgrading of the phone firmware might become more user-friendly once OTA upgrading is available (in 3rd Ed, FP1).
Full screen mode is supported in S60 browser. it removes the soft-key. Atleast I found it in preferences under Full Screen.
I tried Opera 8.60 and prefer “Web browser for S60″. The only one thing I do not appreciate is that Nokia eliminated the possibility to rotate screen from N80. I think web browsing is really better in landscape and can’t understand why they eliminated the app which rotated the screen.
Hey guys, thanks so much for these comments! I’ve made a few changes and updated the post.
Opera is perfect browser, but the only missing thing is option to save pages for later ofline reading, (or maybe I didnt find it till now
similar like built in browser in s60v2 and like NetFront. I dont know what situation is with ‘Web browser for S60′
Which device is this tested on?
Opera is perfect browser, but the only missing thing is option to save pages for later ofline reading, (or maybe I didnt find it till now
similar like built in browser in s60v2 and like NetFront.
The new 3rd Edition browser is NOTHING like the old 2nd Edition browser, muuuuuch much better.
Which device is this tested on?
Nokia E61
Opera for N80 has been withdrawn from the Opera site at the moment, not a problem as I really like the new web browser on the N80.
However is it possible to get rid of the ‘Connection to server needed. Connect ?’ message that pops up, I have my default setting as my WLAN network, its not a huge problem but it is annoying
One feature I particularly like in S60 “old” browser is its ability to save images on a web page. No such functions on the OSS browser. That is a shame.
One feature I particularly like in S60 “old” browser is its ability to save images on a web page. No such functions on the OSS browser. That is a shame.
This can be done with the new OSS browser, it saves it to your gallery.
Is this starting another browser battle as with PC web browsers?
on PCs, there’s IE, FF, Flock, Opera.
on Mobiles, there’s OSS, Opera, NetFront, Minimo?
interesting…
// chall3ng3r //
One really important point:
Opera does NOT crash all the time.
Minimap on S60 3rd ed does.
I’ve complained about this to Nokia and they say it’s “normal”.
They even have a FAQ abou this.
They recommend booting the phone every week and manually emptying your browser cache, NEITHER of which really helps, btw.
Really disappointed in minimap.
An application that crashes unexpectedly, losing all user input, is not worth using.
Shame on you, Nokia
A debilitating bug in S60 browser is that it doesnt seem to be able to download files from web sites properly. I encountered this while attempting to dl apps. Try and install the Xevious freeware game. I also picked it up trying to dl pdf files from our in house fax to pdf website app. The pdf downloads, Adobe opens, but all I get is a blank. opera had no problems. The ‘back’ mini screens in S60 is sweet, but the back pages take long to render. With Opera its instant. Even on the E61 I find myself using the small screen rendering of Opera. S60 browser is a great V1, but Opera just feels more mature.
What i don’t like in my N93 built-in browser that i can’t save images to the phone. And what i dream of is the option to transfer text from web pages to a text processor (quickword for exmpl)
Hi,
Quick Q thats some what related. Do either/any of these browsers support proxy servers anymore? I have a nokia e90 communicator and cant find proxy settings anywhere except in the SIP settings.
Not a problem at home or in the office where the W/Lans have direct internet connections but I work in schools a lot all of which use proxys.
Any help would be great.
Matt
what i don’t like at opera is that i can’t use copy/paste function. Is very useful.