Opera Mini 8 browser update brings private mode, redesigned UI and more

Users can download the Opera Mini 8 browser on their Java-supporting feature phones and BlackBerry smartphones via Opera's official mobile site.

The Opera Mini 8 mobile browser brings three new features, namely Night mode, which dims the effects of the screen using darker colours for readability; improved savings reports, which allow users to monitor and adjust how they save data, such as setting the quality of images, and Private mode, which brings private tabs that do not save details once the open tab is closed.

Improvements in Opera Mini 8 include a better Speed Dial start page, which features redesigned tiles. The browser has also been given a minimalistic redesign throughout.

Commenting on the announcement, Christian Uribe, Product Manager for Opera Mini, Opera Software, said, "Roughly half of our 250 million Opera Mini users are on basic phones, also called feature phones, and, today, their browser got even better. Opera Mini 8 has a lot of new stuff to try out, including night mode and private mode, but, for us, it is also important that Opera Mini is a pleasure to look at. That is why we have redesigned it to have a fresh, new look that fits into the Opera mobile browser product line."

Earlier, Opera Software launched its 20th iteration of Opera browser for Android (the company calls it Opera 20 for Android), with a number of tweaks along with a major update for WebRTC, a real-time communication API definition.