Opera 11.64 FINAL

The days when major browser updates were few and far between are over. Nowadays, it’s de rigeur for browser manufacturers to speed up development, which means opening up less stable builds to the masses in order to get them bug-checked as quickly as possible.

It may only enjoy a fraction of the market share afforded to rival web browsers, but Opera is by no means a poor relation to the likes of Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer. In many ways it’s been a pioneer – Opera was the first major browser to use tabs and provide a speed dial for its home page, and it has always been one of the quickest browsers out there thanks to a lightweight footprint, something its rivals are only now starting to embrace. Another unique feature is a built-in mail client enabling you to combine browsing and email in one application.

Opera isn’t afraid to utilise the best bits of other browsers either – version 11 saw the debut of a slimmed down user interface pioneered by Chrome and also copied by IE9 and Firefox 4. It also brought third-party extensions to the table for the first time, along with a handy bookmarks bar.

But if Opera is to maintain its image as a true web pioneer, it can’t afford to sit still.

New 11.62 features this time around include a revamped address field. This provides new search suggestions, better results when searching History and Bookmarks, and now allows you to bookmark pages instantly simply by clicking a star.

Opera's integrated mail client has seen some major changes. There's a new default two-lined message list, with emails grouped by date; important messages can be "pinned" to highlight them; icons have been redesigned, and the mail toolbars simplified. But if any of this is confusing, don't worry, a simplified Settings dialog makes it easy to restore whatever look, view and message grouping you need.

And of course there are plenty of tweaks behind the scenes. Most notable, a new HTML5-compliant parser delivers much better compatibility, while the browser as a whole now loads pages faster than ever and requires less RAM on JavaScript-heavy sites.

Opera 11.62 now looks more like Firefox, which is no bad thing and this major upgrade brings a host of important new features to keep Opera up there with the rest of the pack.