- Efficient: Opera 10 runs fast, doesn't freeze often and doesn't have many bugs in the software.
- Innovative New Features: Opera Link and Opera Turbo make it easier to browse the web fast and without complication.
- Well Designed: Opera 10 has a new designed theme which fits well with the usual Opera look.
- Useless Plug-Ins: Most of the widgets and plug-ins are mini-games like Sudoku and Crosswords rather than widgets that enhance your browser.
Features and Design
The first main section of my review for the first time in ages, its a good start. Opera 10 definitely isn't lacking in the aesthetics (thats appearance for all you idiots out there) department with a supposedly new-designed layout. This puzzles me, because it still has Opera stamped all over it in flashing neon capital letters. Nevertheless, there are some notable changes. I usually have the address bar, the main bar (with all the things like File, Edit, View etc) and the tab bar displayed all of which in the general Opera theme which, to those of you who don't know, basically is a light grey-blue colour with some gradient and buttons which light up when you hover over them (so exciting!) Joking aside, there is one new design feature; tabs that can be stretched down to show the screen of that tab in a smaller version. This is quite good and is combined with the feature that allows you to hover over the tab and do the same, not that that's very useful of course. If you don't like the theme, you can always download skins off the Opera website and the same applies to widgets for small add-ons and plug-ins to enhance your "browsing experience". As usual with Opera, it has a feature which allows you to display things like history, downloads, widgets and bookmarks at the side of your screen, which is good, if you live sideways (not really, it displays the information the right way up). Now, the two new features of Opera; Opera Link and Opera Turbo. Opera Link allows you to synchronize your other Opera browsers, allowing you to gain bookmarks, skins and widgets from your other Opera browsers by logging in to your Opera Link account. Opera Turbo allows you to load websites quickly when you have a slow connection.
Opera doesn't tend to lack in this area either. It runs fast, doesn't freeze often and doesn't have many bugs which is a large leap from Opera 8 as Opera 8 did the opposite of all of those things. Nevertheless, the new features and existing features like Speed Dial (which is on a lot of browsers now) definitely help avoid major obstacles. To be honest there aren't many flaws in Opera's efficiency as I've already said and Opera 10 makes a very good blend of downloadable content and simplicity unlike two of its rivals; Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.
