The biggest difference between Opera and Opera Mini is how the web pages are compressed.īeing a cloud-based browser, Opera Mini requires minimal storage on a device as all browsing moves through the Opera servers. The Opera browser app is more popular in countries with high data availability, such as the USA and Japan, whereas the Opera Mini browser is widely-used in places with more inferior network infrastructures like India. The Opera Mini app consumes less resources at a lower rate, which is less than a quarter of data compared to the Opera browser when actively in use. The Opera browser app has been available on the Google Play Store since 2012, and in 2014, Opera launched the Opera Mini app geared towards low-powered devices available to most phone manufacturers.Īnalyzed by M2 Mobile Insights, Opera Mini’s background resource consumption and impact on performance on low-powered devices, measured significantly less than the Opera browser on Android. Opera is a web browser that runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac desktops, and as a mobile app for Android, whereas the Opera Mini browser is only a mobile app compatible with most phones, such as Windows, Android, and iOS.

Opera mini downloads for mobile