It has most of what I like in other browsers, while the few features it lacks are things I can live without. Overall though, I can live with minor imperfections. It tends to give the fans on my laptop a little kickstart from time-to-time, but never manages to go into a full-blown launch sequence like Chrome. On macOS, the only problem I ran into was a similar one to Chrome, although not as bad. It’d also be nice to see something like Safari’s reader mode where it strips away everything but text for an uninterrupted view of the content. A few rotations gets it back to where it needs to be more often than not, but it’s not ideal. On iOS Opera is a bit crash prone, and at times it offers a frustrating viewing experience after rotating your phone into landscape mode and then back to portrait. So, if I’m looking up a lasagna recipe on my iMac, I can quickly pick that up on my iPad downstairs once it’s time to actually cook it. It requires you to create an account and log in on both devices (much like Chrome), but seamlessly syncs information in the background once you do. I switch back and forth between mobile and laptop/desktop a lot, so the ability to share links between the two without having to rely on AirDrop - 60-percent of the time, it works every time - was a big plus. It’s a great option for those looking to up their privacy game without a lot of effort, and when paired with HTTPS, it should keep you relatively private.Īnd then there’s the Handoff-like feature that kept me using Safari. The built-in VPN is stellar, although it’s free and I certainly wouldn’t trust it completely. I’m willing to bend some, but I can’t overlook either in favor of the other.Īnd really, what good is a 27-inch 5k screen with degraded images?Īside from aesthetics, there are some really cool features under-the-hood. But it’s noticeable, and I freak out over these things. For me, it’s a delicate balance of performance and aesthetics. On desktop, it’d probably drive me nuts, not that the degradation is all that awful. On my laptop and mobile devices, battery life is key. It’s fast, and although it might not be as fast as some other browsers (depending on your benchmark test of choice), it certainly feels faster, and that’s really all that matters in the end, right?įor those I’ve alienated by talking about reduced-quality in images, fear not it’s easily disabled. It’s not just great on the battery, either, limiting this sort of activity makes browsing incredibly efficient. By compressing images, blocking ads, and limiting activity in background tabs, Opera keeps everything running silky smooth. There’s a lot to love about Opera on both iOS and macOS. It’s also clean, lightweight, and fast - depending on your benchmark provider of choice (it certainly feels fast, anyway). It has no shortage of great native extensions, but after installing a compatibility extension, you can use your favorites from Chrome, too. Opera is the best of both of those things. With Safari, it’s lightweight, fast, and remarkably clean-looking. I could literally give or take the rest of the experience. For Chrome, it’s all about the extensions. It’s fast, feature-rich, and reminds me of why I used both browsers in the first place. It’s not as quirky as it once was, but its charm is undeniable. What I can say, however, is that it feels like a better fit for me than either of them. I can confidently say that Opera isn’t a better browser than Chrome or Safari on either iOS or macOS. But what if I could switch to just one browser, use it on all of my devices, and forego the perpetual flip-flopping that’s become a fixture of my tech-centric life? So I tried it Between Chrome and Safari I had everything I needed. Others, well, I sort of hated: *cough* Firefox.Īfter switching back and forth between Chrome and Opera (mostly for the Handoff-like features of each), I settled on Opera, which offers a superb mobile browsing experience.īut it got me thinking: am I missing out on the desktop too? Some were good: Dolphin, Penguin, Opera, Chrome. Was there a better option I was overlooking? I immediately started trying every iOS browser I could get my hands on. The question was simple: “You’re still using Safari on the iPhone?” After sort of relegating myself to Safari on my MacBook and the iPhone (gotta love Handoff), our Editor-in-Chief Ale asked me a question in Austin during SXSW that got me thinking.
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