Opera Software has announced the availability of Mini 5.1, an update to its Mini 5 phone browser.
Ever received an out-of-memory notification? Then this update may be for you. It’s said to improve the overall browsing experience on mobile phones with limited memory, optimizing the browser skin so that more pages can be viewed at the same time and pages can be scrolled through more quickly.
Prime candidates for the update, Opera said July 8, are Nokia S40 feature phones with limited memory, such as the Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, the Nokia 6300 and the Nokia 2700. Phones with smallish screens, such as the Sony Ericsson K550i and Sony Ericsson W810i, will also benefit from the hop to 5.1.
Already rockin’ the Opera browser? That means, said Opera CEO Lars Boilesen, that you’re using the most popular mobile phone browser in the world.
“The goal with Opera Mini is to make the Web available to anyone, anywhere, regardless of where they come from or the handset they have,” Boilesen said in a statement. “More than 61 million people on over 3,000 devices have chosen to surf the Web with Opera Mini for fast and easy Internet access at a considerably lower cost.”
The Opera Mini browser compresses data by up to 90 percent, enabling phones to process pages more quickly-making it a good fit for low-memory phones. The Opera compression technology also reduces the data load on the phone, thereby lowering fees for those browsing on pay-per-megabyte data plans.
Opera Mobile isn’t, however, exclusive to feature phones. Opera Mini 5, which Opera introduced March 16, is compatible with Java, BlackBerry, Android and Windows Mobile phones. On the same day it also introduced Opera Mobile 10 for Windows Mobile and Symbian S60-based phones.
And on April 13, Opera launched a version for the iPhone-which by May 28 more than 2.6 million iPhone owners had put to use.
Opera Mini 5.1 can be downloaded by visiting m.opera.com with the phone’s default browser. From there, Opera will automatically select the version that’s best for your phone.