017 - Safari and Opera Mini on iPhone/iPad

This blog will show how a table intensic page (my home page at http://www.teigfam.net/oyvind/) is rendered on the iPhone by Safari and Opera Mini. Naturally, for 10 years the page has been my private browser "acid" test. Since there are billions of other pages to compare with, I'll stick to this.

Observe that iPhone (original, 3G, 3GS, 4) has a 3/2 screen (480/320) or (960/640) while iPad (1,2) has a 4/3 screen (1024/768). My index file uses table layout to percentage of screen, not pixel counts. Except for icons, which have to be pixel-defined. H, T, P and F are also graphics. Opera tries to use some heuristics for the small screens, which are basically not successful. Safari does what it's told and does not attempt to be smart, which is super.

1 - Initial version of Opera Mini

• Safari on iPhone 3G 3.1.3 (7E18)
• Opera Mini Web browser, v5.0 
• 13 April 2010

Verdict: Presently I will use Opera if I need to search for text in a page, need to read it off-line, or have to download a large page with per-MB cost over my phone connection (good speed and also optionally no pictures). This means that I'll mostly stick to Safari, since it's also an iPhone Application, not a port. One "star" for this version.

1.1 - Safari has always been super


1.2 - Opera Mini on iPhone was bad

2 - iOS 4 with Opera didn't help as Opera was the same

• Safari on iPhone 3G 4.0.1 (8A306)
• Opera Mini Web browser, v5.0 (5.0.0119802 2010-05-06)
• 26 July 2010

Safari is new, but the layout is 100% equal.
Also no change in Opera Mini's layout. It's the same version so that's hardly no surprise.

3 - Opera Mini 6 on iPhone is getting better

• iPhone 3G, iOS 4.2.1
• Opera Mini 6.0.0.13548
• 22 June 2011 (the file has modified contents, of no importance)

4 - Opera Mini 6 on iPhone 4 oops! and getting better

• iPhone 4, iOS 4.3.3
• Opera Mini 6.0.0.13548
• 24 June 2011
• Showing two standing pictures here. Same iOne
• Left screen cut reported to http://mini.bugs.opera.com/

5 - Opera Mini 6 on iPad is super

• iPad2, iOS 4.3.3
• Opera Mini 6.0.0.13548
• 23 June 2011
• The pixel real estate available is about the same as on the iPhone 4, yet layout here is super. Do Opera Software use another algorithm, on board iPad or on their layout server?