UC Mini vs Opera Mini: Which Is The Best Browser? – Guide
Mini browsers are great because they are fast. These browsers are best suited for phones with less memory, storage space and low power chipsets. By eliminating the fantasy and resource-intensive features, the mini versions of mobile browsers like Opera Mini and UC Mini also work on slower networks. UC Mini is a popular browser because it saves bandwidth, uses less space and memory, supports many languages, and includes an ad blocker. UC Browser has been removed from the Play Store after several Reddit users accused the Alibaba-owned app of stealing data and violating privacy policy. Later, UC Browser sent an official statement and the app reappeared on the Play Store. Opera Mini includes ad blockers, faster page loading with less space and storage, and lower bandwidth usage. There is only one thing worse than not having internet – bad internet. We’ve all been through this. (Im)patiently waiting for the web pages to load, looking at the buffer wheel and thinking – is there a way out to enjoy faster speed in India? Let’s look at the results of speed and data tests run on a Nexus 6. Three major browsers were tested – Opera Mini, Chrome and UC Browser. Each browser’s caches and histories were cleared before each test.
UC Mini vs Opera Mini: Which is the best browser?
Application size and permissions
The Opera Mini listing on the Play Store doesn’t mention the file size, but it takes up 35 MB on my Redmi Note 5 Pro. UC Mini takes up 85 MB, which is still small, but more than twice the size of Opera Mini. The UC Mini content rating on the Play Store says it is suitable for children aged 12 and over and provides unrestricted internet access. The UC Mini navigator is not ideal for children. For whatever reason, both Opera Mini and UC Mini want to access and control phone call log. UC Mini refuses to work unless you allow access to phone Call features. Surprisingly, a pop-upup window mentions that your phone is protected by the Customer Privacy Policy. What if I don’t want to call numbers directly from the app but want to keep my data private? I think this should be optional. Ideally, mobile web browsers do not need these permissions to function. While UC Mini and Opera Mini both display ads, the latter comes with a default prompt when the app is first opened. Both apps insist on unnecessary permissions, which makes me unhappy. Fortunately, Google has announced that it will remove apps that require call logs and SMS permissions. Let’s see how this plays out in the future.
User interface and design
Opera Mini is a confusing layout with too many links and options in the home screen. Just below the Google address bar, you’ll see a set of default bookmarks. Below are stories and news added by Opera. I couldn’t find a way to disable them. Unfortunately, you can only choose your preferred language and default news categories. At the bottom is the well-known Opera logo, and by touching it you will have access to settings, bookmarks, ad blocker, offline pages and downloads. The option to save data is at the top of the menu. Even the UC Mini has an equally confusing user interface with news and videos scrolling through various categories and language options. As mentioned above, UC Mini displays adult content by default on the Recommend tab. Additional options such as videos, bookmarks and guides can be accessed at the bottom of the screen. if you touch the home button in the lower right corner, the address bar will appear with some default bookmarks.
ad blocker
Opera Mini and UC Mini browsers come with built-in ad blockers. However, only one of them does a better job of blocking the ads. Alexander Zverev recently broke his racket during the Australian Open. Let’s see what you have to say about it. As you can see, Opera offers a seamless experience where there are no gaps between the content after ad blocking. On the other hand, while the UC Mini effectively blocks ads, it still shows a significant gap between content. In phones with a smaller screen, the same item may appear to have reached the end of the item.
data saving
Both apps are very good at saving valuable bandwidth and loading pages quickly. I’ve been using both apps for the past few days and the difference has been negligible. My usage is mainly based on opening some websites and reading some articles. Here are the results from Opera Mini. Clicking on the Opera icon reveals that I saved 1.5MB of data and blocked two ads. I browsed using the default settings, which meant including high quality images. If you click on the stats, you can see a breakdown per day with image quality and data storage settings. Adjusting these settings can help save even more data. Here are the results for UC Mini. The UC Mini didn’t save a single KB of data! This was surprising as I’ve heard that it’s very good at saving bandwidth. To make sure I’m using the app well, I went into Google and opened a page again. Still no luck. Then I realized my mistake and switched from Wi-Fi to mobile Dice. That worked. Therefore, UC Mini only saves data when you use mobile data about your phone. And if I’m using a mobile access point? That’s Wi-Fi, but still mobile Dice. I have two mobiles and I often use the other as an access point to get things done. I’m sure there are others like me. To test my suspicion, I connected my phone for one mobile hotspot and found it to be true. The UC Mini will not save any data if you use the Wi-Fi network, even through a hotspot, to access the Internet on your phone.
From others features
Both UC and Opera offer some additional features features. You can use both mobile browsers in the popular dark mode. However, Opera Mini simply lowered the brightness setting by activating dark mode. This is silly! Fortunately, the UC Mini gets it right and displays web pages with a dark background. Although red is Opera’s default theme, you can change it to other colors under Themes under Settings. UC Mini has a preloaded wallpaper that you can download for free. You can check different categories to search for the wallpaper you want. Also, you can use your phone photos as wallpaper in UC Mini. UC Mini provides some useful tools like Screenshot for saving web pages as images, Clipboard for copying and saving URLs and a QR code scanner. You can find these options under the Tools menu.
Final note
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