[ADFXPro777]

Since I bought my Blackberry earlier this year, I have been using the Blackberry and Bolt browser. At first, the Bolt ran circles around the Blackberry browser, but after a month or so, I noticed the Blackberry became much faster (especially with the accumulated push content) and has proven to be far more reliable. Up until now and for most cases, the Blackberry has been my main browser of choice.

I have been curious about the Opera, as I heard it was even faster than both the Blackberry and Bolt browser. Just recently, I downloaded the Opera browser and it blew me away! The Blackberry browser was already fast for me, taking around 6-7 seconds for most of the sites I typically go to. The Opera Browser cuts that to 3-4 seconds (even desktop sites with full encryption!)

I am extremely impressed with the performance of Opera browser but for Opera users, how reliable has the Opera browser proven to be over the long haul?

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[Gucci33]

Opera is the only browser I use. It is so fast!

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[Danf]

I have been using Opera mini for nearly a year now and am very pleased with it. I find it renders web pages much better than Bolt does.

[JNM]

I always did prefer using the Opera Mini browser on my Blackberry. It is much smoother and loads pages faster than the stock browser. It is not good at everything though, and there were always sites on which it did not work as well as the stock browser, but it was my go-to choice for web access.

Is there now a full Opera Mobile version for the BlackBerry? I would choose that if possible.

[ransonju]

Opera is best. If it's not a mobile optimized site the BlackBerry browser is worthless.

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[jonathon.94]

I use Opera all the time. The BB browser is pretty much just a download manager in my books

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[bmacc]

I like the interface of the BB browser and its fluidity. At least on my 9810 it didn't seem like there was too much of a speed gap between the two. Opera was faster for full sites like has been said, though.

[ADFXPro777]

Great responses and feedback from everyone!

Izzachar mentioned that he has been using Opera with no problems for a year, and if that's the case, I suspect we can use Opera problem-free in the long-term. In my experience, the Blackberry browser has been very reliable and if many users have been using Opera with little to no issues for some time, it's reliability may be the same (or even better) than the Blackberry browser. As for Bolt, it's fast out of the box, but over time, it slows down and begins to even halt page downloads. It became very annoying to use, so hence, I took it out of my phone.

Along the lines of bmacc's post, user interface (UI) with the browsers can take some "warming up" to do. I love the UI of the Blackberry browser and when I began using Opera, I noticed some differences. For instance, when I am browsing the web and see that I have some new emails and messages, I can press the Blackberry menu key and quickly view the message. With Opera, I noticed that to do this, you need to first click on the address bar on the top before switching applications. It's definitely different, but over time, we can all get used to it.

While the Opera will now be my main browser, I would not necessarily call the Blackberry browser slow and bad. It's actually a good tool, especially once you have accumulated some push content. On mobile and moderately-sized desktop sites, its fairly swift, coming at around 6-7 seconds. The problem comes when you go to big, data-intensive desktop sites with full encryption (which I need to go to several times during the week). It takes around 25 seconds just to load and that is just too much time. With Opera, the same websites load in just a mere few seconds - fantastic!

[diegonei]

Funny, Opera never appealed to me. It is sluggish and the cursor is a PITA.

Bolt works a lot better, but the fonts are trully tiny. When I had a 8520 (stuck on EDGE) I would always keep Bolt ready for things the defaul browser failed to do.

On the 9780 I don't really need 3rd party browsers.

[olblueyez]

They all have advantages, keep all three installed if you have room.

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[BigBadWulf]

For me it's always been Native>Bolt>Opera

I use full sites as much as possible, and native for my taste works best. May not always be the fastest at rendering a page, but when accessing bookmarks, filling forms, sharing links, downloading or uploading, it can't be beat.

Bolt is great for flash sites inaccessible from native. It will get you places you supposedly can't go on a BlackBerry. It does have it's limitations, not all flash works, but it's a great crutch. I haven't noticed a depreciation of speed, but I don't use it much.

OM6 is the first Opera I've kept. It's certainly nice, but just as limited as native is. It's better at forms than Bolt in speed, but Bolt's text box feature rocks when there's a lot you want to type.

It all comes down to taste more than anything. I know people who swear by each, and like different platforms, what suits your style best is what you should stick with, and everyone else should respect your choice.

[Danf]

Izzachar mentioned that he has been using Opera with no problems for a year, and if that's the case

After thinking about it, I have to correct my first statement. I have been using Opera 6 for several months with no issues, before that Opera 5 was absolutely horrible, glitchy and unreliable. 6 solved all those issues.

Anyone who experienced Opera 5 I can understand the reluctance to try out 6. But it is well worth the effort.

I have no problems with the native OS 6 browser and think it is very good, but Opera mini6 is my go to browser to check on my nextflix and gamefly accounts as well as other bill paying sites. Mainly because Opera gives me a nice compact well rendered site where I can see what I want at a glance while the native browser usually requires me to enlarge and then scroll around to find what I want.

[joeyyowee]

It depends on what phone you have. With my Curve 3g Bolt worked a lot better, but blackberry browser on my torch blows that away.

[Rootbrian]

BB stock browser supports full javascript, while opera mini partially supports it and bolt doesn't at all.

But regardless, bolt and opera mini are neck and neck when it comes to page loading speed.

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[ichat]

Opera renders stuff fast man! Funny that I'm browsing topics with this at around 2 seconds per page load

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[csickgrind]

I'm gonna try bolt out

Sent from my BlackBerry 8530 using Tapatalk

[SRR500]

I used Bolt all the time with my 8530. On my 9650 running OS6 for some reason it doesn't work as well. For example, I will click a link and it will load up the link next to the one I clicked. After that started happening it wasn't long before it was deleted.

I have Opera installed but don't use it much. I mainly view mobile sited with my phone so the native browser works well for me.

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[ADFXPro777]

I am continually doing tests on the Opera browser and I recently found a weakness: videos. When you go to youtube.com and click on a video to watch, it automatically opens the Blackberry browser. You cannot view videos at all via Opera.

It's been interesting using all three of these browsers. From my experience, Bolt has been like a sprinter, fast off the line, but slow and unreliable after some time. The Blackberry browser is a solid, all-rounder. Great, easy-to-use interface and fairly quick with mobile-moderately-sized desktop sites, especially once an adequate amount of push content has been accumulated. However, just be sure to sway from massive, desktop sites with encryption. Last, but not least, Opera seems to be almost a combination of the Blackberry and Bolt browsers. Speed is similar (actually faster) than Bolt, but unlike Bolt, it's does it again and again, reliably like the Blackberry browser. However, if you love watching videos, again, Opera will not allow you to do it.

BigBadWulf pretty much summarizes it,"It all comes down to taste more than anything." Or more specifically, it comes down to what your needs are in a browser.

[elphie28]

I didn't like Opera Mini the last time I tried to use it, but I thought I'd try it again. OM6 is a lifesaver for me on my new 9930! Wrap text isn't so great for me on the 9930, especially on websites where the font size is very small (such as crackberry.com!). I set my font size to medium and it's big enough for me to see the print easily. No worries about double taps or magnifying glasses etc. It simply works. Now my almost-perfect phone is my perfect phone!

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[nickdalzell1]

Hotspot works fine for most sites (Google, etc) but slows down to lock-up state if you load a site full of Jscript or tons of images. damnyouautucorrect.com won't load right in Hotspot. Opera works fine with that. but Opera Mini has no ability (at least no on a BlackBerry--my Moto Theory had no trouble with this) to view the desktop sites of Facebook and a few others. even typing in the link to the full site manually still redirects to the mobile site. no links show anymore to go to full site, and i found no setting to fix it. anyone experience this? i am using a Curve 8530

[Rootbrian]

Opera mini doesn't have full javascript support, neither does Bolt. Disabling javascript and only using when needed is recommended, it loads pages much faster.

Hotspot works fine for most sites (Google, etc) but slows down to lock-up state if you load a site full of Jscript or tons of images. damnyouautucorrect.com won't load right in Hotspot. Opera works fine with that. but Opera Mini has no ability (at least no on a BlackBerry--my Moto Theory had no trouble with this) to view the desktop sites of Facebook and a few others. even typing in the link to the full site manually still redirects to the mobile site. no links show anymore to go to full site, and i found no setting to fix it. anyone experience this? i am using a Curve 8530

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[nickdalzell1]

That does not help my issue (being stuck with dumbed down mobile sites)

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[joeyyowee]

I started using opera and I liked it at first, but pages eventually stopped loading from time to time. I think I'm just going to stick with the blackberry browser for now.

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