Opera Software has according to an earlier announcement switched from its rendering engine, Presto, to the open-source Chromium rendering engine, WebKit, to which Apple also subscribe. The company released the first beta version of its WebKit-based browser for Android as a completely redesigned mobile browser, with native experience for Android devices.The new Opera beta for Android employs native UI capabilities while still retaining Opera signature-features like Speed Dial and at the same time sporting completely new features. Below are the new features that came bundled into the beta version of Opera for Android.
The redesigned Opera browser beta introduced a unique new feature known as Off-road Mode, which enables proxy-browsing especially beneficial for slow network connections.
Other notable new features include: Discovery Tool and Download Manager. Discovery tool serves as a tab for tailored-content according to user's interests, while the later enhance the download of media files, making it possible to stop and resume any file download process.
Private browsing mode for individual tabs is also available as an option along with tabbed browsing, you can also save pages for later reading offline. However, full-screen mode appears to be missing in this beta version, also synchronization of bookmarks.
The Opera beta release for Android is the first step in the overhaul processes, with iOS and Opera web browser to follow.
