It’s built on Chrome, so it has all the familiar trappings, including the huge library of extensions. We highly doubt the Chinese government is forcing Opera to hand over your Amazon shopping history, but at the same time being uncertain about your online data and how it is being used can be a legitimate concern.Īs a browser though, Opera ticks all the boxes. The answer to this question largely comes down to how worried you are about your privacy. Middle of the pack isn’t bad though, and if you like the look of Opera’s unique features, then the good performance could be enough to swing you away from Chrome. This is good, but it lags behind other browsers like Firefox and Edge which both use considerably less RAM than Chrome does. In our testing we found Opera to be a fast and efficient web browser, generally using about 80% of the system resources that Chrome used with the same number of tabs open. Chinese companies can be forced to hand over user data to their government (but then again, so can US companies). Of course, there is no telling how anonymous you are to Opera itself, which is one of the security concerns that people have with the browser now it is under Chinese ownership. This means you can activate the VPN when browsing to keep your online activities anonymous. There is also a screenshot button on the browser window, which is handy for anyone who doesn’t know how to take a screenshot with the keyboard (it’s the print screen button), but otherwise this seems like a superfluous feature.Īs we mentioned in the introduction, Opera comes with a built-in VPN, so you don’t have to go looking for one of the best VPN services, many of which cost a monthly subscription to use. It’s basically just a cloud storage space like you’d get with a Google account, but more restrictive both in terms of usability and security. It’s easy to use, with a button on the web browser that lets you instantly send links over, and easy options to link in files and images. This means you can save links, YouTube videos or files on your desktop and then access them on your mobile device. There is also a strange feature called My Flow, which is an encrypted cloud storage space where you can access files, images, links etc. What’s more, Opera comes with a built-in ad blocker and tracking blocker, so you won’t even need to go out to find them. Likewise, you can mute tabs so that they don’t make any noise, which is handy if you have Facebook open but don’t want to be distracted by new message noises etc.Īs it's built on the Chromium architecture, Opera is compatible with all Chrome extensions, so you’ll have no trouble finding the plug-ins you need to personalize your experience.

You can also pin tabs by right clicking on them and selecting the pin tab option, which means you can’t accidentally close the tab. You can open a new tab by clicking on the plus symbol at the end of the tabs list. You can have multiple web pages open simultaneously with the tabs system, with each web page occupying a separate tab which runs along the top of the page above the address bar. You can also use the address bar as a search engine to find websites via Google. You can access websites using the address bar by typing in the website address if you know it. Opera does everything you’d expect a browser to do, and also offers some extra functionality to set itself apart from rivals like Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Overall we like Opera’s style and the integration of the sidebar, which gives extra functionality but doesn’t feel like it intrudes on your page. We love this addition and it certainly feels more modern and forward thinking than other browsers, putting the most popular social media tools directly into the browser. Here you can find shortcuts to your bookmarks and search history, along with built-in versions of Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. One major difference between Opera and other browsers is the sidebar which hugs the left hand side of the screen.

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