Opera for Android gets a major redesign

The VPN-ready Opera browser for Android is receiving an update that should make the user experience a whole lot more modern and fresh, not to mention in line with Google’s Material Design. As the Norwegian company put it, it’s a “serious lick of paint.”

Changes in the design of Opera’s start page abound: the familiar Speed Dial has a new home on the leftmost screen of the carousel. Swiping to the right will take you through a news feed that you can customize to include information you care about. Adding and removing topics can be done by tapping the “+” icon on the right. You can also access “reader mode” from here.

The bottom navigation bar has been redesigned. To the right of the bar, you’ll find a “person” icon that gives you access to offline pages, bookmarks, history and downloads. If you decide to sign in, you’ll be able to synchronize your Speed Dial, bookmarks, tabs and history across multiple devices.

The three-dots menu located in the top-right corner of the browser allows you to add the site that you’re currently visiting to your Speed Dial and the Android home screen. You can also access browser settings or toggle data savings from the same place.

The data savings feature bundles an ad blocker and video compression technology to make your browsing experience faster and less demanding on your data plan.

In the pipeline are some cool features like the ability to switch between tablet and normal layouts, change the language of your feed selection, and to select the download folder.

The rollout of the new Opera browser for Android will happen in stages, so be patient as you wait for it to appear on your smartphone or tablet. It does look as though Opera for Android will continue to remain in our list of top 10 Android browsers for the year.