I don't think it's fair to do a full review of a product that is only in its beta phase, but I do want to update pdaBuzzers on how Opera's Pocket PC web browser is looking. This free public beta has been available for a couple of weeks now and I've been giving it a test drive. Here is a brief list of features available in the beta and my impressions after using it for the two weeks it's been out.
Opera 8.5 for Pocket PC includes browsing in multiple windows, support for landscape and VGA screens, full screen mode, and all kinds of optimizations for the small screen.
Actual experiences from folks on the web seem to vary. I've been testing on my Dell Axim x51v and I feel like pages load much faster than PIE and they look amazing on the small screen. However, it seems like Opera does render pages quite a bit better on VGA screens than on QVGA ones. And I have had a few hiccups with scroll bars when switching between portrait and landscape modes while Opera is open. The browser also seemed to lose a cookie or two as I navigated between my usual favorite sites. However, it ran scripts on the pages I visited without any problems. That's unlike the many issues I've had with PIE in this area. With a bit more polishing, this browser will make comfortably surfing the web a reality for Pocket PC users.
The beta release of Opera 8.5 for Windows Mobile Pocket PC can be found at http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/products/winmobileppc/ and is good for a 45 day trial period. It runs on Windows Mobile 5 and Windows Mobile 2003. As soon as a release version is available you'll see the news here. And I'll hopefully have a full review of the release shortly after that time.
Here's how pdaBuzz.com looks in Opera versus Pocket Internet Explorer:
pdaBuzz Home in Opera 8.5
pdaBuzz Home in Pocket Internet Explorer. (At least we can see the date.)
