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Comparison of Mobile Browser Rendering (with screenshots)

Published December 16th, 2005 12:18 AM EST By Daniel Goldman

With the recent speculation of an Opera acquisition by Google, many have speculated as to why Google would be interested in Opera.

One of the key points for Opera is their strength in the mobile browser industry. Over the last year more than 14 million mobile phones were sold with the Opera browser, in addition to being available for download on many other mobile phones and devices.

Mark Wilton-Jones, over at ‘How to Create‘, did some research and analysis on how the popular mobile browsers stack up against each other with regards to how they handle and display various webpages. The browsers tested include Pocket Internet Explorer, NetFront, Minimo, Series 60 Browser, Konqueror Embedded, Opera, and Opera Mini.

It does not take too much effort to realize that only two browsers successfully coped with all the pages, and they share a common name. Both the Opera mobile browser and Opera Mini seem to cope with difficult pages far better than the other device browsers. “Its low resource usage, and small footprint are also very important benefits. All in all, Opera manages to outshine the other device browsers.”

See for yourself the results, with lots of screenshots.

(Mark, perhaps next time you can use Opera Watch as your test site ;-) )

For those of you keeping score, Mark is also the author of the popular ‘Browser Speed Comparison‘ analysis.

–
Via Lawmune

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2 Comments

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  1. 1 Anonymous Dec 16th, 2005 at 5:38 am

    Nice article by Mark. I wish I could use at least one of those browsers, preferably Opera’s of course. :-)
    Daniel, OperaWatch looks fine when I press Shift+F11 in Opera 8.51 for Desktop. ;-)

  2. 2 FataL Dec 16th, 2005 at 9:58 am

    I tried NetFront, Minimo and pocket Internet Explorer on my HP iPaq hw6515 and all of them just bad on rendering (horizontal scroll bars, unreadable fonts sizes, huge images).
    And rendering not the only problem. Minimo is huge slow monster at this time, for example.
    So, I’m waiting for Opera Mobile (for Windows Mobile 2003 SE) that suppose to be released in January 2006.

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Opera Watch, an Opera browser blog, is run by Daniel Goldman, who used to work for Opera Software as a Technical Evangelist.

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About Opera


Q: What is Opera?
A: Opera is one of the most powerful Web browsers around. A Web browser is the program that allows you to view Web pages. Opera is well known for innovation for PC browsers and bringing the full web to mobile phones and devices.

Q: Is Opera free?
A: Absolutely free.

Q: Why should I download a browser? Doesn't my computer already come with one for free?
A: It's about getting more out of the time you spend on the internet. Opera is designed to be much faster than these browsers and gives you powerful features that the default browser lacks. Default browsers like Internet Explorer are also more likely to be subjected to dangerous software such as viruses and spyware.

Q: Will Opera keep me safe from fraudulent websites and malicious hackers?
A: According to Secunia, a respected firm that tracks security in browsers, Opera has the best reputation and track record when it comes to browser security. Keeping our users safe from security vulnerabilities, fraudulent websites, and malicious hackers is a top priority for Opera. Opera is maintained by hundreds of engineers, developers and security experts who are constantly looking to make the browser even safer.

Q: Doesn't Opera copy all of their features from other browsers?
A: Absolutely not. In fact, many of the features that are popular in other browsers today were invented and pioneered by Opera a long time ago. Opera invented the precursor to tabs (in 1994), Page Zoom (1994), was the first browser to block pop-up ads (2000), first to add a Search field in the browser toolbar (2000), Sessions (1996), deleting private data (2000), Mouse Gestures (2000), User JavaScript (2005), BitTorrent support (2005), Widgets (2006), Speed Dial (2007), and much more.

Q: Does Opera support extensions, such as those found in Firefox?
A: Much of the functionality provided through Firefox extensions is already built directly into Opera, so you don't have to download additional extensions in Opera. In addition, Opera is highly customizable and supports all standard plug-ins.

Q: Can I also use Opera on my mobile phone?
A: Yes. And your Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS or almost any connected device and mobile phones. Opera Mobile oftens comes preinstalled from the manufacturers, but if it doesn't you can install Opera Mini which runs on nearly all phones.

Q: This all sounds great, so how do I download Opera?
A: -- Opera on your computer
-- Opera Mini on your phone
-- Opera Mobile on your phone
-- or learn more about Opera at www.opera.com