Beta of Opera 10 for Windows Mobile available now

Today, Opera Software has released the beta version of Opera Mobile 10 for Windows Phones, with support for touchscreen- and keypad-driven Windows Mobile 5 (PPC), 6.0, 6.1, and 6.5 devices.

The keywords with this release are: speed, simplicity, and compatibility.

Speed: With the current generation of Opera products, speed has been one of the central talking points. Though we at Betanews have found that Opera's claims of speed boosts tend to be a little hyperbolical in the desktop versions, the company's mobile products tend to be a different story. Using Opera Turbo compression, the company claims this version will be 50% faster than the previous version of Opera Mobile.

Simplicity: Though navigation in each may vary, all of Opera's current browsers share some essential design elements: the "Speed Dial" home screen, browser tabs, and the multi-search engine bar. The navigation buttons in Opera Mobile 10 have gotten a bit simpler than they were in 9.7 and now simply represent Back, Forward, Reload, Tabs, and Tools. Tabs have been turned into easily scrollable thumbnails, and the Tools menu accesses in-page search, bookmarks, browsing history, saved pages, and settings as large, easy-to-identify icons.

Compatibility: "Opera Mobile is the most standards-compliant mobile browser available," the company says. And while all browsers have at least some degree of compatibility trouble, mobile browsers are still extremely limited in the content they can display. Opera Mobile 10, however, uses the same Presto browser engine that desktop Opera 10 uses, so rich applications are more likely to be compatible with your phone. Furthermore, Opera Mobile 10 offers "Mobile View" mode, where Web pages are reformatted into a single column for easier consumption.