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Opera claims new beta is fastest browser


DKT27

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Opera moves its latest browser build out of alpha development and into beta and claims that Opera 10.50 beta is the fastest browser currently available. It's not clear at the moment whether it's faster than Google Chrome's development builds, or merely as fast as, but there's no doubt that this new beta should draw a lot of attention for its performance.

dxy7te.png

Opera 10.50 makes dramatic changes to the browser's engine and look, including moving menus behind a minimalist drop-down.

December 2009 and January 2010, Opera 10.50 has been fully optimized for Windows 7, sporting a new interface, full Windows taskbar integration, and, most notably, a new Javascript engine that Opera claims makes it faster than Google Chrome.

For users who didn't take a look at the pre-alpha builds released in

The new Carakan Javascript engine is the most important improvement, and the reason behind the browser's faster performance. In empirical tests performed last month on an HP desktop running an Intel Core 2 Q6600 at 2.66GHz with 4GB of RAM and Windows 7 32-bit, the Opera 10.50 pre-alpha scored 435.6 milliseconds in the SunSpider Javascript benchmark. By contrast, Google Chrome 4.0.266.0, the most recent development build at the time, notched 510.4 ms. Opera 10.10, the current stable build, was more than 7.5 times slower, at 3284.4 ms.

Opera's new interface has been optimized for Windows 7 or Vista. The tabs are now on top, the menu bar has been minimized behind a drop-down on the left nav, and the integration with Windows 7 is robust. Jump lists have Opera Speed Dial support and can start a private browsing tab, while the taskbar gets Aero Peek tab preview windows. These have been so well integrated at this point that the fact that Chrome doesn't have all of them and that Firefox doesn't have them turned on by default at this point stands out.

Several features that weren't in the pre-alpha have now shown up in the beta. One of these is a smart recycle bin icon near the minimize and close window buttons in the upper right of the program window. Click it and you get a list of closed tabs, and a list of blocked pop-ups. The CTRL+Tab hot key look has changed, too. Instead of displaying all the open tabs, pressing the combo will open a preview of the tab on the right, with the Web site's meta-tag name on the left.

Other changes include introducing the same style of predictive smart searching in the address bar that Firefox and Chrome have, keeping track of search history in both the address bar and the search bar, and deleting specific items from those histories. Opera 10.50 also includes improvements to the Presto layout engine, a new graphics library called Vega, and support for HTML 5 and CSS 3.

Throughout several hours of use on a Windows 7 computer, the beta didn't crash, nor display any obvious signs of bugginess. In general, Opera 10.50 beta is surprisingly stable and innovative. Mac and Linux users will have to console themselves with the Opera 10.50 pre-alpha for now, although Opera says an update is imminent.

Source - CNET

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Opera has for a while been just faster, just slower that FF or Safari, but matter of fact is- load depends on how much cache do have @ any given time @ use, also what/how many plug inns/features u use. In summary , I think it would be fair to compare with Mobile (cellular) phones in the past- some where good- some bad- not anymore!- they all are better that any IE and safer and what remains of consideration is your preferences/requirements/habits and "loyalties"...

PS I Use Opera as for main browser, also SW Iron, FF, Green Browser...

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Yeah truthfully.. if you strip them all down to just the browser ( which I don't think anyone does anymore.. ) and leveled the playing field by making sure all numbers of connections in every area were the same.. Then I would say that.. you would probably have to put the WebKit ( Chromium ) Browsers on top... really.. then I would go from that point with the other tests.. If I tried to compare them .. with all that I have done to make them like they are .. the assessment would not probably be as objective..

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Opera is indeed really fast.

Yea test all of them. Start firefox in safe mode and see. Clear all data in Chrome and see. Same in Opera. Testing IE is just optional. ;)

@Waka Waka: Thanx for the link. :)

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I've been using this new Beta for a short while now, and it does seem really fast.

The Windows 7 integration is excellent.

Hmmm, I like how it highlights searches. All matches of what you're searching for are highlighted in yellow with the current search result highlighted in green.

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Someone at CNET has tested this new Opera 10.5 with the newest Firefox 3.7a, and Google Chrome 5.0.317.2. System: Dual-core Lenovo T61 with 3GB of memory running Windows XP SP3. Different machines will produce different results. Basically, the results are mixed. Chrome is the fastest at both: JavaScript and Page load times. Opera 10.50 is much faster than Firefox at JavaScript but much slower at Page load times!

There two main tests: 1. JavaScript 2. Page load times

Results:

JavaScript test:

browser_sunspider_1.pngbrowser_v8.png

Page load times:

browser_dromaeo_2.png

Source: Opera 10.5 lags

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Yes I knowing about the article, but I was a bit busy to post it. Thanx for posting it.

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Been Using Opera 10.5 for sometime Now... I have always been an Opera.. :)

I love the new version. Its fast as Hell, I love the interface too..

I have tried all the other browsers but always come back to Opera.

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