Opera Mini 7 (for iPad)

An unspoken rule at Apple is that it doesn't allow apps competing directly with native iOS apps; as a result, iPad owners won't find any real alternatives to the Safari browser. While other Safari alternatives such as Dolphin (3.5 stars) and Mercury (4 stars) simply overlay their own interface on top of the built-in Safari's web-rendering engine, Opera Mini actually circumvents this unspoken rule. Opera Mini 7 (free) is one of the cleverest of this batch of pseudo-alternative browsers for the iPad, and its benefit is palpable?faster browsing and less data use.

Despite its appearances, Opera Mini 7 isn't a real browser. In fact, it doesn't load Web pages at all. It's a proxy browser, which means pages are loaded and compressed at Opera's servers, and a lighter, lower-quality static version is sent to your device. Opera says Mini can reduce your data consumption by up to 90 percent.

But a downside of this approach is that Opera Mini doesn't support all JavaScript content, nor does it integrate seamlessly with other native radio utilities, like geolocation. Opera Mini 7 complements Safari?it has to, since like all Safari stand-ins, it can't be set as your default browser?and does deserve a place in your app drawer.

Opera Smokes Safari in Speed
I went surfing on a weak AT&T 3G connection and found that Opera Mini absolutely trounces Safari in speed. NYTimes.com took 30 seconds to load in Safari and 6 seconds in Opera Mini. Retrieving search results for "New York weather" took 10 seconds in Safari and 5 in Opera Mini.

On a strong AT&T connection, Opera Mini moved twice as fast in real-world testing. Radioshack.com averaged 18.3 seconds to load the mobile version in Safari, for example, and 9.9 seconds in Opera Mini.

Beyond Speed
Opera Mini has some other appealing features beyond speed. Opera Mini 7 starts up with a Speed Dial screen showing a grid of nine customizable graphical icons that serve as bookmarks. It's a multi-window browser like Safari, but you don't have to leave the page you're browsing to flick through other windows; they appear in a bar at the bottom of the screen.

Settings let you tinker with your font sizes and synchronize your bookmarks with Opera on the desktop. You can also tweak your Privacy settings to save passwords and cookies.

Version 7 improves the pinch-zoom feature, which is now as smooth as Safari's. When you select text within a page, you also get an option to search the highlighted term in Google, Amazon, eBay, or Wikipedia?something you won't find in Safari.

Limitations
Opera is for basic Web browsing. It doesn't support video, audio, or Flash (though no iOS browser does this last one). Fonts seem to be hammered down to a very limited set. Opera can't handle interactive Web apps the way Safari can. Because it's transferring compressed data, Opera Mini displays pages that are basically static. If you click on a button or pop up a calendar, it often reloads the whole page. It has very weak JavaScript support, so you'll miss out on some webpage trimmings. For example, at the bottom of a Google results page you won't see numbers to click through results.

Furthermore, it is poorly integrated with other iOS features and as per Apple's Terms and Conditions, you can't make Opera your default browser. AAs a result, any URL you click from within a text message or email is automatically opened in Safari. The browser doesn't support geolocation features either.?

Opera Mini for iPhone can't replace Safari for all your browsing needs, but it's a speed demon for basic Web surfing, loading static pages in about half the time, even when your network connection is weak. It also adds some browsing helpers you don't get in Safari, but not as many as you'll find in our Editors' Choice for alternative iPad browsers, Mercury for iPad.

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