Which do you prefer using?

Bit hit and miss for me, like the style and format of Opera-mini but the functionality of the blackberry browser and the fact news articles from feeds open with it make it the main one I use.

Although the BBC mobile website looks soooooooooo much better on the opera-mni browser.

I used BB browser for a long time before I just recently re-discovered and switched over to Opera. I was just discussing this topic with a few other BB users the other day. My thoughts:

1. Pages do seem to load up quicker in general with Opera. In BB browser I have the progress bar that says loading, but with Opera it's just "Connecting" and then wham all of a sudden everything on the page is more or less loaded. With the BB browser, the items on the page come in much slower. And it really slows down when it says "requesting scripts." I really noticed the speed when I pressed the escape key to go back on a page. It's nearly instant on Opera. On the BB Browser, it's quick but less instant as it has to load up again. Oh and here's another thing, on Wikipedia, BB Browser loads up the entire page, but when you want to go to a different section of the entry, it has to load up that section even though the entire page has been loaded up. With Opera, when you click the section you want to go to, it's instant. No loading up.

2. As mentioned before, page formatting is a big difference. Opera seems to stretch things out so there's more scrolling to do. BB fills up the screen nicely and there's less scrolling.

3. One of my earliest gripes about Opera was having to go to a separate window to type text. But I've recently come to see the light with this feature. A lot of times when I'm composing a reply, the box I normally type in is really small. But with Opera and its opening up a whole new window, my text fills up the entire screen. That means less scrolling to see what I typed earlier.

4. I feel it boils down to speed+less pretty looking pages (Opera) versus slower+nicer looking pages (BB). Seeing how this is a mobile device and even with nicer looking pages, its no where near a normal page screen, I might be leaning towards Opera for its speed.

5. Forums: one of the forums I'm on has a WAP version of their site. Very convenient as things are formatted for mobile screens to begin with. But for other forums that aren't that sophisticated, I don't even bother trying to go on it with my BB Browser. It's slow and even the formatting comes out all funky. Not so with Opera. Pages load up in a decent amount of time, and things are actually formatted in a way where it's not a PIA to navigate around the site.

6. For the most part, Opera handles regular websites really well -- in both formatting and loading up the page. An exception was Facebook. For some reason, Opera just couldn't format the website correctly. I was a bit bummed about this, since I usually resorted to using the BB Browser for FB. But I just discovered that if i change the URL from Facebook | Welcome to Facebook to m.facebook.com, I get the same great look on Opera as I did with the BB Browser.

7. I did a comparison test this morning where I loaded up a regular page for CNET.com. Opera did it in less than 15seconds (more like 10); whereas it took my BB Browser over 25seconds to load up the same page (I'm on wifi).

You can also use Bolt. But the BB browser is great for mobile browsing anything Opera Mini/Bolt will render better/faster.

Hope I'm not thread jacking but I'm curious about Bolt. Has anybody used it in comparison with Opera Mini?

Wirelessly posted (Its All About the U!)

Bolt has improved. You may prefer it to Opera.

I've had Opera for awhile and just downloaded Bolt over the weekend. I'm finding that Bolt is extremely slow compared to Opera. Although I will say that Bolt allows me to watch youtube videos where as Opera and my BB browser won't. I'm still running the old BB software. (Not the new 4.5v)

Bolt Browser update... 0.94

This may help.

As per some of the member's suggestions, I downloaded Bolt and gave it a try. My initial impressions (again I'm on wifi):

1. Speed wise Bolt is comparable to Opera Mini. I did some informal tests by going to Gmail, Facebook, and CNET. Load times were similar, though OM tended to be 1-3 seconds quicker sometimes. Still both OM and Bolt are much quicker than the BB browser I feel.

2. OM goes back on a page almost instantly. Bolt seems to do this as well for some of the pages but not all the time. Maybe it's a setting I overlooked.

3. Though I've gotten used to OM's weird way of scrolling up/down different from left/right, I do like the more intuitive way of moving from link to link in a webpage with Bolt's mouse cursor. I think it's also nice that the mouse snaps to the nearest link.

4. Both Bolt and Opera require a separate window to enter text. This used to irk me, but I'm liking it more and more since when you type a lot of text it's much better than looking at the small text box you usually type into with BB Browser.

5. Bolt definitely does a much better job keeping the links on a page in an organized manner (close to a desktop browser's view), but I'm not sure how I feel about having to scroll sideways to read text.

I think like many others here, all three browsers in question have their good points, but the real question is which has more? At this point, I still prefer Opera Mini, though Bolt is a close contender and can easily overtake OM once it improves itself further. I guess it's too much to ask for a perfect browser huh? Haha.

give me the bb browser

Wirelessly posted

For most forms and regular forums, I prefer Opera Mini. Sites look the way they are supposed to and forms behave right. BB Browser is really built for WAP sites (like this forum right now), and so it wins for ease of use for WAP sites.

My biggest gripes with Opera Mini (and Bolt, and several other non-RIM apps):
* Not being able to app switch, not even with my soft-key set to app switch. So if I need to look something up in another app on my BB or even just want to check my email, I have to shut down OM and lose where I was. With BB Browser, I push a button and switch back and forth.
* No Paste in the URL field. What's with that?

Opera Mini is great with secure sites, too. BB Browser often hangs on secure forms for me because the pages don't load right.

I am getting used to Opera's interface. I'm just so used to desktop Firefox, any BB browser poses a learning curve for me.

Why not just hit ALT+escape key? You can go to your home screen and that doesn't close Opera.

Wirelessly posted

:-/ Still learning, but getting spoiled rotten by one-button solutions. Soft keys don't work AT ALL in Opera Mini, not even for the camera. Why not? Is it a RIM-only thing to allow your app to respond to the soft-keys? No, because I have others that respond to them. I just would like to see them implemented in Opera Mini, so I can continue to be as spoiled as ever. (Yes, I have emailed the Opera team to let them know this.)

That's very tedious we have convienence keys for a reason

I think if you are in the typing windows you can use the app switch using the convienence key.. you can use it in OM jsut not everywhere.

No. OM feels like a half-hearted port. They've improved it but it's not quite there IMO. I prefer the BB browser but as with all preferences, YMMV.

Trimix, some outstanding forumming going on in this thread, keep up the good work *tips hat*

By "soft-key" I assume you mean the convenience keys. I don't know if this is entirely the fault of the app, the OS, or both. In OS 4.5 (8130), I cannot use a convenience key while in Opera Mini. In OS 4.2 (8830), the convenience key works fine when in Opera Mini. I wouldn't necessarily look to Opera to solve that one--I'd look to RIM.

Opera Mini is under the control of the Java environment on the device, be it a BB OS, WinMo or a dumb phone. That's the beauty of Opera Mini--it works on so many dumb and smart phones.

I've used Opera Mini under Windows Mobile, and now, since switching from the Dark Side to a BlackBerry, I've used it on this format as well. Much as with WinMo, I seem to prefer the default browser, in this case the BlackBerry Browser. OM is nice, I like the way that it renders pages pretty much as they would appear in a PC desktop browser like Firefox, but I hate having to zoom in and out all the time. For that reason, my vote goes to the BlackBerry Browser.

Wirelessly posted (T-Mobile BB 8320 OS 4.5.0.124)

Ironically, if you try to load regular BlackBerryForums.com on your BB browser, it starts hourglassing and requires a reset. Just too much information to load.

Wirelessly posted (BB Curve XRR0)

Thank goodness BB Forums has a WAP interface so I don't have to face the hourglass even in the BB browser. But on other non-WAP forum sites, Opera Mini is my fave.

I prefer the BB browser for WAP sites, and I mostly visit WAP sites on the BB. If it's a non-WAP site, I'll use Opera-mini, or there's an auto-enthusiast site I visit that I use Opera for so that I can view the pictures included in posts.