Opera Claims Performance Gains Over Firefox Quantum

Opera Claims Performance Gains Over Firefox Quantum

Less than three months after the initial release of Firefox Quantum, Opera is claiming that its latest browser is even faster.

“In Opera 51, you will see performance gains on benchmark tests such as the new Speedometer 2.0,” Opera’s Krystian Kolondra claims. “We challenged Opera 51 to a speed test against the latest Mozilla Firefox 58. The result: Opera is 38 percent [faster] than Firefox.”

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As you may recall, Mozilla spent much of 2017 working on Firefox Quantum, a new generation of its flagship web browser that is designed to be faster and less resource-intensive as Chrome, the market leader. Mozilla shipped the first version of Firefox Quantum in November, and I liked it so much that I switched from Chrome a few weeks later. (And then switched back to Chrome again a few months later only because I needed to keep using Google’s browser for various reasons, and running two different browsers got tedious.)

Opera 51 could be interesting for many of the same reasons as Firefox Quantum—the performance, of course, but also other advantages that it has over Chrome. But the big thing here for me is that Opera uses the same rendering engine as Chrome (Chromium 64). So if that was an issue for anyone who tried Firefox previously, it may be worth looking at Opera. Which is sort of like Chrome with none of the Google tie-ins.

That said, I’m not necessarily a fan of some of the features that make Opera unique, like its integrated social networking functionality and the weird sidebar UI that it displays by default. Your needs and wants will, of course, be different.

You can try Opera 51 for yourself for free: It’s available now on Windows,Mac, Linux (deb), and Linux (RPM).

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Conversation 10 comments

  • jeffrye

    07 February, 2018 - 11:31 am

    <p>I've liked Opera ever since the early 2000s when it was the only browser I could find that could open IE "optimized" web sites on Linux. I really liked it but, after getting my work to pay for it, I really couldn't get myself to pay for it at home. After all, I used Windows at home so I didn't have those IE issues. </p><p><br></p><p>Since then I've used Mozilla, Firebird -&gt; Firefox, Opera again (when they made it free), IE, and I even tried out Brave for a little while. Now I'm back to Opera. I like their built in gestures, ad blocker, and VPN and running the chromium engine has fixed compatibility issues.</p><p><br></p><p>It may not be for everybody – but it's great for me!</p>

  • david.thunderbird

    07 February, 2018 - 11:38 am

    <p>I tried this a while back for the fake VPN then deleted when I heard it was bought by a Chinese company.</p>

  • Omen_20

    07 February, 2018 - 11:53 am

    <p>I gave Opera a try for a while and liked the fact that it has the popout video player from their experimental Neon browser. The sidebar isn't custom but static in options, so it's not as good as Vivaldi.</p><p><br></p><p>For me I still use Vivaldi as my default on desktop. It has the Blink rendering engine, but with way better settings and options, plus the sidebar for webapps like TickTick, Workflowy, Google Calendar agenda view, YouTube, Twitter, and Messenger.</p><p><br></p><p>My secondary is Cliqz which integrated the speed improvements from Quantum. I like Cliqz built in tracker and ad block, as well as their unique search. Ecosia is always set as my default search in all browsers though. In Cliqz it acts as a backup I guess.</p><p><br></p><p>Firefox is pretty slick with its Pocket integration, but beyond that, nothing much to cheer about. Love Mozilla as a company though. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Firefox on Android looks really good with the white notification area and Pocket suggestions. I wish Mozilla and Cliqz could integrate more considering they own them, by combining the search and Pocket.</span></p><p><br></p><p>On Android I'm still using Brave as my default. It would be nice if they'd unSafari their Windows version.</p>

  • Bats

    07 February, 2018 - 3:21 pm

    <p>Opera has always claimed to be the fastest browser for years. This is not really anything new for them.</p>

  • madthinus

    Premium Member
    07 February, 2018 - 5:12 pm

    <p>Just hide the sidebar.</p>

  • bluvg

    07 February, 2018 - 7:28 pm

    <p>I'm trying Firefox, but man, it eats up RAM. For an all-around choice, Chrome still seems to be the best option at the moment.</p>

  • hrlngrv

    Premium Member
    07 February, 2018 - 9:58 pm

    <p>I've been using mostly Opera under Linux at home for the last 6 months, and it's been pretty good. It's pretty fast. OTOH, every other update seems to fubar something. I just got another update today, and this is thankfully the one which fixes things. The previous version (50?) wouldn't play most embedded videos for the last week, and this sort of thing has happened at least twice before. Opera is a bit of a roller coaster.</p><p><br></p>

  • Martin Pelletier

    Premium Member
    08 February, 2018 - 11:22 pm

    <p>It's funny to see the Microsoft Edge batterie test topic on top when you do a search for opera browser from inside Edge. :)</p><p><br></p><p>Does Opera a lot more performant on the battery test?</p>

  • DocPaul

    09 February, 2018 - 2:34 pm

    <p>Opera has long been my primary browser. Have enjoyed the performance improvement on Firefox so I'll be excited to see how this update goes.</p>

  • MrOak

    31 May, 2018 - 1:39 pm

    <p>Really surprised at why so many people still prefer Chrome. OK, so the rendering engine is up there with the best, but for a long time and more so since Firefox Quantum, the Moz offering is comfortingly not all up in my business. It even now has json and GPO management features.</p><p><br></p><p>There has always been that "I'm not the product" feeling in using Mozilla's offering. I'd still love to know what unique features chrome / chromium has that swings it for so many people. I've always found that the Firefox experience is THE 'it just works' browser.</p><p><br></p><p>PS. Yes, I use Opera with the Play Store add-in if I really need a chrome -only tool… all works perfectly and Google don't get to fire-hose my activity. Edge… love it hate it and yes i use it about 25% of the time.</p>

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