Opera Mini 5 brings 'real' Web to Smart subscribers

MANILA, Philippines - Subscribers of Smart Communications Inc. now have access to a better mobile Internet experience.

Smart announced that Opera Mini 5, Opera’s popular mobile browser, specially designed to provide Smart subscribers with an easy, quick and more practical way of navigating the Web, may now be downloaded for free from http://m.smart.com.ph.

Opera Mini is the world’s most popular mobile browser, offering users a full Internet-browsing experience, designed for various screen sizes and functionalities of mobile phones.

Danilo Mojica, head of Smart’s Wireless Consumer Division, said, “Websites these days have become increasingly hefty, with more and more people uploading a great amount of rich media such as photos and videos. Even more advanced handsets need to work harder to deliver these content-rich sites in a form suited to the mobile phone.”

“The Smart-Opera Mini browser on a mobile phone will enable our subscribers — even those using mid-range handsets — to access websites and load web pages more quickly, saving them surfing time and cost,” he added.

The Smart-Opera Mini browser works on more than 200 handset types. Once installed and used to access the Internet, the application compresses web pages by up to 90 percent, allowing web pages to be downloaded and displayed on a cellphone more quickly, reducing the time and cost of browsing.

The Smart-Opera Mini browser has also been optimized with one-click access to various Smart services such as Sandbox and Customer Care Web.

The application also allows users to save “bookmarks,” zoom in and out, scroll along pages, and save pages for later, the way one would when accessing the Internet using a desktop or a laptop.

It can even create a “virtual mouse” for the mobile phone, allowing users to navigate the Web gracefully and efficiently on both touch-screen and keypad devices.

“In a nutshell, the Smart-Opera Mini browser allows the Internet to ‘fit’ perfectly and comfortably into any cellphone,” said Mojica.

Downloading and installing the Smart-Opera Mini browser is free, and subscribers just need to have access to the Internet, whether via Wi-Fi or by connecting to the nationwide, high-speed cellular and broadband network of Smart.

Smart offers various flat-fee data packages at http://m.smart.com.ph/surf.

“By taking the vast amount of information and content available in the Web and making it suitable to the features of a cellphone, we are creating more and more ways to enable Filipinos to benefit from the Internet,” said Mojica.