Opera touts performance boost in Mobile 10.1 for Symbian

Nine times quicker than version 10.0, says firm

Opera has released the finished version of its mobile browser for Symbian/Series 60 handsets, promising improved JavaScript performance and a much faster browsing experience.

Opera Mobile 10.1 uses just-in-time compilation performance tweaks in the Carakan engine, which is the same JavaScript engine used in the desktop version.

The new software is much faster than its predecessors, according to Opera, and ran nine times quicker than version 10.0 on the SunSpider JavaScript test.

"Powerful smartphones deserve an equally powerful browser," said Lars Boilesen, chief executive at Opera Software. "Opera Mobile 10.1 brings the best mobile browsing experience to the world's most popular smartphone platform."

Another new addition is support for geo-location, which should make mapping and travel applications more useful and relevant for Symbian users, the firm said.

Other improvements include tabbed browsing, Speed Dial, Opera Link and password manager. Opera for Symbian also includes the company's Turbo feature which compresses web pages, making them smaller and saving on mobile browsing costs.

Opera Mobile 10.1 is available for devices based on Symbian^3, and S60 3rd and 5th editions.

In an interview with V3.co.uk this week, Opera co-founder Jon von Tetzchner indicated that the feature phone market, rather than the smartphone market, was a key battleground for the company.