Opera Mobile 10 Goes into Beta, Has Tabbed Browsing

The Opera Mobile browser has been making mobile browsing by phone or other mobile device fast and easy, especially compared to past attempts by other manufacturers (we’re looking at you Windows Mobile). Today, the beta version is available for Opera Mobile 10, and it’s looking like the latest version of this mobile browser is setting the bar ever higher.

While the full version of Opera Mobile 10 will obviously be available for multiple platforms, the beta version is only available for Symbian phones (basically Nokia phones). If you don’t have the right kind of phone to try the beta, check out the video below which runs through the features you can expect to see.

We love that Opera Mobile is trying to bring the mobile internet browsing experience as close to the one we experience on the computer as possible, despite the smaller screen. The zoom and panning features look responsive, and according to the video, Opera Mobile 10 is 50 percent faster than previous versions. Obviously, we’ll wait for some independent tests to confirm and improvement like that, but it’s certainly encouraging.

We’re most excited for the tabbed browsing, which reflects the needs of modern browsing habits and should be a standard in mobile browsing. We also like the “speed dial” page, which provides quick links to your favorite sites. It reminds us of the Chrome home page, which is especially useful. The slick interface and browsing speed (if the 50 percent increase is confirmed) will easily make this one of the top mobile browsers out there.

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