Opera announced today that Opera Mobile 9.7 beta is now available.
Speed is at the heart of this beta release due to the addition of Opera’s recently launched technology for faster surfing, Opera Turbo. Opera has also included its newly upgraded browser engine, called Opera Presto 2.2, for faster page loads and better overall performance. With the added bonus of Opera Widgets, Opera Mobile 9.7 gets you the Web content you want in fewer clicks and less time.
Opera Turbo uses servers to do most of the rendering (faster than a mobile device can) and compresses the data prior to sending it to a mobile device. This frees up the device’s resources and improves download rates and overall performance. Opera Presto 2.2, Opera’s rendering engine (also used in the desktop version of the browser), is also up to 25 percent faster than earlier versions.
Aside from the new widget support itself, Opera has bundled a number of widgets with Opera Mobile 9.7. Among these are Twitter, Bubbles, MyStatus, and Google Translate.
Opera Mobile 9.7 beta is now available for free for Windows Mobile-based phones with touchscreens.