Samsung Loads Opera Mini on Star 3 and Champ Deluxe Phones

Samsung appears set to prove to the world that fast Internet browsing is not something available exclusively for those who own smartphones.

Feature phone users can also benefit from increased speeds when it comes to accessing the web, especially if they own one of the Star 3, Star 3 Duos, Champ Deluxe and Champ Deluxe Duos devices from Samsung.

The South Korean mobile phone maker has partnered with Opera for that, and decided to load the Opera Mini browser on these handsets.

The browser will come pre-installed on these feature phones to provide users with faster and cost-saving web browsing.

In addition to the said four models, Samsung and Opera will load the mobile browser on new devices set to hit the market during the current year.

“These days, the difference between feature phones and smartphones has decreased. No matter the hardware specification or the user experience, feature phones are matching what the smartphone can offer,” said Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software.

“Samsung bridges the gap between smartphones and feature phones by choosing to preinstall Opera Mini on its new feature phones so that people can enjoy a fast and affordable web.”

Opera Mini is the most popular mobile browser in the world, with 160 million monthly unique users, the Norwegian software company notes.

The application was created to deliver increased browsing speeds, while also offering important savings to both users and carriers, through compressing web pages by up to 90 percent before sending them to user’s handsets.

“In January 2012, Opera Mini users generated over 1,832 million MB of data for operators worldwide. If this data were uncompressed, Opera Mini users would have viewed over 12.24 petabytes of data, which is equivalent to approximately 200 years of continuously running HD-quality video,” Opera notes.

“In addition, the browser has pioneered mobile-web browsing and delivered most of the innovations that make browsing the web on mobile phones easier and more convenient, including tabs, password manager, Opera Link and Speed Dial.”