Opera Mini for iPhone approved

Opera Mini for iPhone available now
Opera Mini for iPhone available now

It's a great month for Opera, with the company having recently hit the magic 100 million users worldwide mark, followed by the latest news that Opera's speedy mobile browser for iPhone has finally been approved by Apple and is available for iPhone users to download from the App Store for free right now.

For many, it is quite a surprise that Apple even approved the browser – with it being faster than Apple's own Safari browser on the iPhone.

5 times faster than Safari

Opera has claimed that its browser is 5 times faster than Apple's Safari on iPhone. The browser was submitted to Apple late last month, with many expecting Apple's iPhone app approval team to knock it back. Thankfully, they didn't.

You can grab it now and try it out for yourself to put that claim to the test – as the Opera browser for iPhone is on the App Store available to download now.

Opera for iPhone features data compression of up to 90 per cent before the website loads on the iPhone.

The browser caches previously visited pages so there is also no need to reload webpages when hitting the back button, which means a faster browsing experience all around.

There are downsides, of course. Apple's Safari will remain the default browser when you hit links in emails, text messages and from RSS feeds and the like.

We've already downloaded the Opera Mini for iPhone browser so stay tuned for our detailed first impressions.

Adam Hartley