Opera Mobile 10 Beta For Nokia And Other Symbian/S60 Smartphones Released

It’s been about two months since Opera introduced the non-beta version of its Opera 10 desktop browser, and today the Norwegian software developer is following up on that release with that of the latest beta build of Opera Mobile, a custom browser specifically built to give Symbian and Windows Mobile equipped handset users a (much) more pleasant Web browsing experience.

The company’s latest ‘State of the Mobile Web’ report, which was based on usage data from their other mobile browser product, the popular Opera Mini, suggests that mobile web usage is still increasing at a rapid pace. With that in mind, Opera has given its free Opera Mobile browser a decent makeover and added several new features that many a Nokia owner – and despite popular belief, there are still a heck of a lot of phones from the beleaguered Finnish handset manufacturer out there – will definitely enjoy.

The new Opera Mobile 10 beta features a fresh look that was first introduced with the recent release of Opera Mini 5 beta. The new design also comes with a set of new features like the Speed Dial, bookmarking and tabbed browsing elements Opera desktop browser users have long grown accustomed to as well as a handy password manager. Opera Mobile 10 beta can be downloaded here and is optimized for both touchscreen and keypad-style navigation on Nokia devices and select Sony Ericsson and Samsung smartphones running Symbian/S60.

Opera Software claims the latest build of the smartphone browser product is notably faster than the previous beta release (9.7) and is even twice as speedy when downloading or zooming in on pages. Apart from the performance upgrade, Opera Mobile 10 also sports full integration of Opera Turbo, the company’s server-side compression technology that makes loading Web pages from mobile devices faster and cheaper.

Since I do not have any Nokia devices lying around anymore, I haven’t been able to actually test the performance of Opera Mobile 10 hands-on, but if my experience with the company’s desktop browser and Opera Mini are anything to go by, the company doesn’t ever appear to compromise on speed. As for the design, you can judge for yourself based on the screenshots below – or your own experience of course.