Opera Mobile 9.5: Faster, zoomier, more interactive

Today Opera unveiled its latest mobile browser, the catchily named Opera Mobile 9.5. It brings together desktop and mobile browser technology, potentially offering one of the best browsing experiences on a Windows Mobile or Symbian phone so far.

We haven't tested it out for ourselves yet, which is why we're saying it's potentially the best mobile browser so far, but Opera has put up a video showing off all of 9.5's functionality and from what we can see, we're terribly impressed.

Opera Mobile 9.5 offers faster browsing speeds than Internet Explorer Mobile, tabbed browsing, Flash Lite 3, intuitive zoom and a new user interface that fades away when you don't need it, letting you see the Web page using the whole screen.

But what really impressed us was the ability to call numbers from Web pages and send images from the Internet via MMS or email. Users will also be able to add Widgets to their phone's start page, giving them one-click access to Web content.

We've yet to see a solid release date, but we're certain that next week we'll find out at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where Opera will give us a full demo. Keep visiting Crave from 11 to 14 February for all our MWC coverage. -Andrew Lim