So far the company offered only Opera Mini for Android, a scaled-down version of its browser, designed for less capable phones. Instead of translating and compressing pages through a server before reaching the user, Opera says Opera Mobile for Android will be a full-fledged browser, on the par with Android’s built-in browser or Safari on iOS.
Opera claims hardware acceleration will give a major speed boost to Opera Mobile for Android, alongside some user interface improvements. One feature leveraged by hardware acceleration will be pinch-to-zoom, so that you can adjust the zoom level to your liking, instead of relying on the two preset levels of zoom on Opera Mini.
Opera Mobile for Android won’t be the only third-party browser on the platform. Mozilla previewed earlier this year the Android version of Firefox called Fennec, which is still in its early stages. If you’re not happy with the built-in browser on your Android phone, you can wait for Opera Mobile or Fennec, or you can take the Dolphin Browser, a cool browser with pinch-to-zoom and gesture commands, for a spin.