That competition often dangles unique features to tempt users into switching, but Opera long ago caught my attention with the sheer number of goodies stuffed into its browser. In fact, I abandoned Chrome for years because of Opera. Flexibility, efficiency, privacy—the creators seemed to know exactly what I wanted.
Even though I’ve since started using Chrome again, Opera still holds a powerful place in my heart. I still use it daily as part of my multi-browser habits, both on desktop and mobile. Why? Here are the top 10 reasons—and I still left a few off the list to keep this article from spiraling out of control. (For other alternatives, check out our guides to killer Firefox, Edge, and Vivaldi features that might lure you away from Chrome.)
Mouse gestures
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If you are literal about following directions like me, be aware those that say to move one direction and then the other do not actually require a U-shape movement.
I actually squeaked in excitement when I first read about Opera’s mouse gestures. Like keyboard shortcuts, these enable faster navigation while browsing, but they’re even more seamless. You don’t have to take your hand off your mouse.
With just a click on the right mouse button and one or two small mouse movements, you can zip through the basics: go back or forward one page, open a new tab, reload the page, close the current tab, open a link in a background tab, or open a link in a new window.
After I turned on the feature, it took only a short time to learn the gestures. If you have wrist issues or trouble getting the gestures down, you can also enable Opera’s rocker gestures, too. These let you navigate back or forward one page by holding one mouse button, then clicking the other. (Right then left button for back, left then right button for forward.) That’s even faster to learn, and doesn’t require any wrist movement. Having so many options for navigation is a dream as someone with cranky hands and elbows—I usually mix rocker and mouse gestures with keyboard shortcut use.
Opera battery saver
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On a laptop, Opera can help prolong the amount of time you get out of a charge. Flip this mode on and the browser will adjust its behavior—reduced activity in background tabs, changes to video playback settings, different scheduling of JavaScript timers, the pausing of plug-ins and animations. Basically, Opera quietly reduces the resources it uses so it won’t gobble as much energy.
The result of using battery saver mode? Opera claims up to 35 percent more battery life. Your mileage will vary in actual use, since most people’s browsing habits aren’t exactly the same each day, but it does help.
Opera sidebar (WhatsApp)
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Constantly messaging in Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, or Telegram? Or perhaps you often peek in on Instagram or Twitter? You can get quick access to these popular services via Opera’s sidebar. When active, a row of icons will appear on the left side of an Opera window. Click one to open a site in a window overlay.
In addition to staying up-to-date with your messages and social media feeds, you can also switch between workspaces (see below), peruse your personal news, hit up your most frequently visited sites, and scope out Opera settings. The list of options is preset, but you can tweak what appears. Overlay windows can also be resized to taste.
For me, being able to communicate over WhatsApp via a keyboard is the most useful part of the sidebar—messages are still run through encryption on a linked device, aka my phone. I’m also old enough to also appreciate the news feed, which is an RSS reader baked right into Opera. (RIP, Google Reader.)
Upgraded tab hover cards
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Opera’s tab hover cards have a leg up on Chrome’s.
Ever hover your cursor over a tab in Chrome? You’ll see what’s called a tab hover card: It lists the full title of the tab, along with the URL of the site.
Opera has this feature too, as you might expect from a fellow Chromium browser. But it does Chrome one better—underneath the tab title and URL is a list of all other open tabs related to that same website. You can then click on items in that list to jump to that tab.
This addition to tab hover cards is extremely helpful whenever I, a person confident she’s clicking on the correct tab among her many squished options in the window, is absolutely wrong. (Turns out that was not my /r/aww tab, but /r/hardware.) Instead of having to click around until I find the tab I wanted, or bringing up the tab search feature, I can hop directly to my desired tab. It’s just one more way that Opera pours on extra navigation options to reduce life’s little hassles that much more. I’m a big fan.