Hello, I’m Stefan Stjernelund, Team Director for the Mobile UX team situated in our office in Linköping, Sweden. I wanted to brief you about what the Opera Mini team in Sweden and Poland has built for Opera Mini 17, which we are proud to release today.

First of all, we decided it was finally time to give Opera Mini a little dash of color and a fresher look. But, we also know that not everyone likes the same scheme, so, while we were at it, we also introduced basic theme support. Maybe you’re one of those long time users who has always preferred the classic black color theme? Now you can pick your favorite flavor of Opera Mini!

Data savings is a key feature in the Opera Mini browser, and we have reworked the data savings view to give it a nicer look and updated features. We understand it can be difficult to wrap your head around all those settings, so we’ve now made it easier for new users by automatically setting sensible defaults, depending on device type and regional characteristics.

For those of you with a higher-capacity device and/or a better network (typically running with extreme-savings mode off), we have made site compatibility improvements to ensure the best possible browsing experience. But, if you run with extreme-savings mode activated, you won’t be left behind. You can enjoy additional data savings when browsing through sites, thanks to our latest technology improvements to the extreme-savings mode.

Another feature you’ll find in the data-savings view is an ad blocker. With this enabled, you gain access to truly optimal data savings, with our server-side ad blocking. The ads are gone before the page even reaches your phone! If your favorite site doesn’t like to have its ads blocked, don’t worry – switching this feature on and off is quick and easy, directly from the “O” menu. We have also added a nifty visual indicator, so you can see how this brand-new feature performs in real time.

Are you a video lover? Then, we have some good news for you. You can now download and watch videos more conveniently with our new, built-in video player. We’ve also upgraded our unique video optimization technology for better support on popular video sites.

On larger devices, we bring you 5 columns of Speed Dial entries, for faster, easier access to more of your favorite sites.

That’s some of the highlights for this release, but we are already working on a lot of exciting features that we cannot wait to show you. So, keep an eye out for what we have in store for you throughout the rest of 2016.

Happy surfing!

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