- PROSSleek, minimal design. Off-road mode speeds up slow connections and reduces bandwidth. Helpful start page. Fast performance and good compatibility. More Web help than other browsers. Gestures for easy navigation.
- CONSNo bookmarks bar. Fewer innovations and extras than previous Opera versions.
- BOTTOM LINEOpera now uses Chrome's fast page rendering engine, but still adds some unique tools to the browsing experience, though it's got fewer of them now.
One of the most innovative browsers of all, Opera pioneered such basics as built-in search and tabs. Unfortunately, the latest version has fewer ingenious features than its predecessors. Once powered by its home-developed, fast, and, again, innovative Presto page-layout engine, the Nordic Web software now has yielded to the company that's pretty much making the Web its very own bailiwick—Google. Opera now is largely an interface built on top of Chrome, using all of Chrome's underlying rendering-engine code. Opera still offers several goodies beyond just basic browsing. These include its Off-Road Mode, Discover, Stash, Speed Dial. And if this new version turns you off, you can still download version 12, which the company continues to maintain.
