It was announced back in February that Opera would be coming out for the Nintendo DS. Opera and Nintendo announced a release date of July 24th for Japan (with the US and Europe to follow soon after) and a price of around $30 at a special this last weekend. But just how good is this pint sized web browser on Nintendo's hot new handheld? Check out the first hands-on review for some juicy details.
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2006-06-13
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I seriously doubt this browsing environment will even remotely approximate the desktop experience as the reviewer touts here. I have a Nokia 770 which is superior in specification in every way to the DS, and I still wouldn't class it as 'desktop-like' and I'd go as far as saying it's downright slow for some sites and routinely runs out of memory on more demanding sites. And it's running Opera just like the DS. I'm going to write this one off as some over-enthusiasm until I see it for myself. Imagine scrolling around the screen left and right a million times just to read the average online article. Gimmick.
Edited 2006-06-23 17:55
Member since:2006-03-07
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It's worth pointing out that this browser comes with a 4MB RAM cartridge that plugs into the GBA slot on the DS (and it will come in normal and Lite sizes). That, along with the memory already present on the DS, may help explain the performance.
Also, it has two viewing modes, one of which would prevent the "scrolling left and right a million times to read an article" problem you mention.
Other hands on reports are available, and so far, all of them have been fairly positive. I wouldn't write it off as a gimmick just yet.
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It's worth pointing out that this browser comes with a 4MB RAM cartridge that plugs into the GBA slot on the DS (and it will come in normal and Lite sizes). That, along with the memory already present on the DS, may help explain the performance.
Which probably means you won't be able to load it up on a Supercard. Who wants to carry 2 cartridges around just to browse the web?
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I'm sure the practically insignificant number of people who use flash carts might think about that, but I hardly expect it would bother the +99% of regular users.
But how much do you want to bet that some of the higher end flash carts will start coming with more (and compatible) onboard ram if this takes off?
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On current DS wireless games you must buy a USB dongle that connects you to the internet via a PC. I'd love to use Opera on my DS but I don't want to have a Windows PC always booted for this purpose. Are Nintendo going to allow this to connect to any wireless network or is it going to face the same restriction as the current crop of wireless games?
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>On current DS wireless games you must buy a USB dongle >that connects you to the internet via a PC. I'd love to >use Opera on my DS but I don't want to have a Windows PC >always booted for this purpose. Are Nintendo going to >allow this to connect to any wireless network or is it >going to face the same restriction as the current crop of >wireless games?
You misunderstood something, any wlan router who can do dhcp can do it, the ds basically connects itself into an existing wlan network and requests an ip address from it, transparently.
The USB dongle is nothing more than a wlan adapter/router and it is not, I repeat, not mandatory for hooking up the DS to the internet.
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...but I don't think a review from *.opera.com can be taken without a seriously large grain of salt.
If you believe everything the reviewer says then here's another website that you might find useful:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver/facts/
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Firefox is a RAM hog on desktop PCs, and AFAIK there hasn't been any version that runs on embedded devices with limited resources.
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/minimo/FAQ.html#q1.3
"Minimo is a small version of Firefox with many of the same features offered."
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/minimo/
I suppose that whether or not that qualifies for "embedded devices with limited resources," depends on what you mean by "limited resources" or "embedded devices."
Of course, in my personal opinion, Opera is a better fit for tiny devices like the DS anyway -- even if I don't enjoy using it in Windows.