Opera Mini Web Browser

  An excellent web browsing option that is only lot down by iffy zoom controls 

Over a million down loaders can't be wrong - this great browser speeds up the internet on your phone.

Free It's hard not to sing this app's praises

 The Opera Mini Web Browser has already had over 1 million downloads (it is in the 1 million to 5 million download category) and there is good reason for this. While Opera is a small fish in a big pond when it comes to web browsers for computers, it is a giant in the smartphone world.

This is because its web browser speeds up looking at the internet on your phone. This isn't done by witchcraft or magic but some nifty pre-compression technology that is unique to Opera.

It's so quick and slick, the speed of the thing has to be seen to be believed. In fact, in our tests, the only thing holding it back was a shoddy 3G signal. Whack it on while you are using Wi-Fi and the results are electric.

The user interface for Opera Mini Web Browser is plain but easy to use, which makes sense considering the download is a mere 892k.

It comes with default bookmarks, which we never like given that bookmarks are all about personal preferences, but these are easily swapped for your own favourites. All you have to do is hold your thumb down on a bookmark and follow the onscreen instructions.

Once you are into a page, to navigate, you zoom to any part by touching your thumb onto it. This is great when you need to input passwords and the like.

But, and this is a pretty big but, there is no pinch-and-zoom. Instead you get a weird substitute, which is essentially a staggered two-step zoom. It is irksome if you are used to the smoothness that Android's

It's so quick and slick, the speed of the thing has to be seen to be believed 

default browser brings when you want to view things in close-up.

Opera did well offering its web browser on the Android platform. Originally it came out in beta format, but since this release it has been significantly tweaked to give it a fuller browsing flavour. If this isn't enough for you, then there is a full non-mini version of the web browser available but this will take up a significant chunk of your phone's storage space - a cool 6.6MB. We prefer the Mini version but the choice is there.

A night at the Opera? Even if you had to pay for it (and you don't) we wouldn't hesitate to take out a life-time subscription.