U.S. Opera DS web browser impressions

39 Comments by John Bardinelli Jun 7th 2007 10:15AM
Filed under: Nintendo DS, Portable, Online

A forum member at NeoGAF recently posted impressions of the Opera DS browser just released in the US. Some early rumors suggested this version would support both Flash and Java, features missing in the Japanese and European releases. Unfortunately the rumors turned out to be nothing more than wishful thinking and the U.S. browser is just as crippled as the others.

The browsing interface is intuitive (and snazzy if you ask us), with handwriting recognition, bookmarks, and excellent use of both screens. With image loading turned on it takes upwards of a minute to load most web pages. Not exactly our idea of a good time. The verdict: excellent for quick on-the-go info-checks, but with so many other devices offering web access these days, the DS browser doesn't offer anything revolutionary.

Tags: browser, ds, dslite, internet, nintendo, online, opera, web, webbrowsing

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

T3h Ub3r 1337 H@xorz: Jun 7th 2007; 10:22AM

1st Plus Ds is teh suxorz

Neo Geo Handheld Color FTW!!

Anam: Jun 7th 2007; 10:22AM

If the handwriting recognition is done well (better than Brain Age), this could be good. However, I worry about how much of a webpage you could fit on the DS screen(s). Seems like there would be a lot of scrolling involved...

Rob Accomando: Jun 7th 2007; 10:24AM

a little late to the party, Nintendo. And it's pretty costly for a crippled browser.

jay: Jun 7th 2007; 10:27AM

Anyroad. I like the browser. It's better than my phones browser. Only cost me 15 quid and is *perfect* for use around my university and when I'm on the road. Course it's nowhere near as good as Safari or IE. But it's the best web browser in my bag. Beats pulling out the PowerBook when I want to check messages.
A big thumbs up here. Very useful.

Brandon: Jun 7th 2007; 10:59AM

I wonder which is faster, the PSP webbrowser or DS opera. I know the PSP webbrowser supports flash, not to mention the ability to download images, video, and music through the browser. Someone needs to do a side by side comparison of common sites.

Leslie Donaldson: Jun 7th 2007; 11:01AM

trick is to use rss feeds, which i might add joystiq is MISSING.

http://rss.toolbot.com/

will change a rss feed into a html page.

KaneRobot: Jun 7th 2007; 11:02AM

Torn on this one...I know the browser is crappy, but since I don't want to pay to get web browsing on my phone, this seems like it would be nice for the quick checks on stuff mentioned above.

Je2037: Jun 7th 2007; 11:09AM

Verizon offers internet on your for 5 bucks a month, 60 bucks for the year which is pretty reasonable... its faster and you dont have to carry a ds around.

Je2037: Jun 7th 2007; 11:09AM

on your phone.

Konny: Jun 7th 2007; 11:14AM

Hey everyone, its 2007... why are you paying for a web browser? A gimped one at that.

BPM: Jun 7th 2007; 11:15AM

Meh. Pass.

If the NOA page WAS correct in that it had Flash support, I would've bought it. But now? Nah.

Dan Russell: Jun 7th 2007; 11:17AM

@Leslie Donaldson

Joystiq is absolutely NOT missing an RSS feed:

http://www.joystiq.com/rss.xml

I probably wouldn't even be reading this article were it not for the RSS feed and Google Reader (which will also turn RSS into HTML for you, and quite slickly on the Wii, even).

BPM: Jun 7th 2007; 11:18AM

Hey, Konny. It's something called "shipping and manufacturing costs."

The DS Game Card, the 10MB expansion pak, and all of the packaging aren't free to make and be shipped to retailers, you know.

I do agree, though, that the DS Browser is very lacking in features, but there's still a reason it costs what it does.

required: Jun 7th 2007; 11:21AM

Brandon, the PSP browser is usually very fast. Some bad code (ie:the weblogs network) will slow it down a lot but even complex sites such as Sun.com will load quite fast. You also have many display options such as fit to screen, low res images, etc. All in all it's a great feature that I use a lot - like when I'm stuck in a game I jump over to gamefaqs for a quick walkthrough.

Cutriss: Jun 7th 2007; 11:22AM

Hey Joystiq...did you guys test the DS browser using your own website?

'cuz...you know...it takes close to 2 minutes to load on a PSP...

JodyAnthony: Jun 7th 2007; 11:24AM

i love the psp browser. I mean I love my ds and all but I dont think I'll be picking this up.

required: Jun 7th 2007; 11:24AM

I should add that the mobile variants of the weblogs sites are a good alternative, see: http://m.joystiq.com

required: Jun 7th 2007; 11:27AM

also http://m.pspfanboy.com is a great alternative to www.pspfanboy.com (moreso than m.joystiq) - they even save out hires video files that you can download inline and offer rss of their audiocast, game demos and so on. *****

Erik Novak: Jun 7th 2007; 11:34AM

Yeah...trying this after the PSP browser was pretty painful...I want my money back. :(

Cutriss: Jun 7th 2007; 11:45AM

required - thanks. I'll have to try using that instead. I looked all over for a link to a mobile-sized version of the site, but couldn't ever find one. Perhaps they should be auto-redirecting PSP browsers to the mobile page if they find the PSP UserAgent string in the request. It would make things much easier.

deaftly: Jun 7th 2007; 11:51AM

psp already has the best browser, no need for this crap

ShortFuse: Jun 7th 2007; 12:15PM

"Verizon offers internet on your phone for 5 bucks a month, 60 bucks for the year which is pretty reasonable... its faster and you dont have to carry a ds around."

but it uses up your airtime

Evan: Jun 7th 2007; 12:19PM

Flash would never run on a system so slow.

Why would I want it anyway? No annoying banner adds to download.

Atrix: Jun 7th 2007; 12:32PM

I love my PSP browser, I use it to lurk on forums while lying (laying?) on the couch.

G1ZM0: Jun 7th 2007; 12:34PM

Also your out of luck if you have an older DS. The browser for sale in US stores only works with the Lite because of the memory card.

required: Jun 7th 2007; 12:34PM

Cutriss, I agree, it would be great if it automatically switched.

here is another url to add to your PSP bookmarks: http://www.psponme.com/

wolliam: Jun 7th 2007; 1:17PM

where is firefox?

http://clubvaio.blogspot.com/

Alex O: Jun 7th 2007; 1:27PM

I just wish that dlnet.delta.com and the employee link would work.... its javascript, and i always get session closed by remote server...

Brychanus: Jun 7th 2007; 2:16PM

@25

The DS Lite version is the only one available in retail locations, but Nintendo will happily sell you the "Phat" version from their online store (http://store.nintendo.com). You'll find it under "Parts and Accessories" for the original DS.

Kylara: Jun 7th 2007; 4:16PM

Honestly, I'm a college student WITHOUT a laptop (I think I may be the only one), so I just want this to check my e-mail on campus.

And to read ebooks (in html format). If it can do that, I will be thrilled with my forty-dollar purchase. (Cali, sales tax.)

t_m: Jun 8th 2007; 7:23AM

The DS can't run flash or PDFs, its not powerfull enough.

However if you use RSS feeds, or the mobile versions of sites, or compress pages with something like Skweezer then its pretty cool.

they should have made it like opera Mini, and had a proxy that compressed the pages and the images before you download them.

glucoseboy: Jun 8th 2007; 1:22PM

I picked it up and it works fine. The viability is quite good and you can set it to where there is no horizontal scrolling.

Gmail works just fine!

Downside. Slow as molasses on a cold winter's day.

the goat: Jun 8th 2007; 3:11PM

im using the ds browser to write this. it doesnt do video,flash,or intant messaging, but for stuff like joystiq or autoblog or wikipedia work great. no its not as fast as psp or a pc but it's definatly not broken. pictures do take around 45 secs to load the whole page. quite funcional.

Coyotecom: Jun 11th 2007; 4:16AM

I'm on a 56k modem,and having a web page load in less than five minutes would be heaven. ;p

Duzie: Jun 11th 2007; 7:04AM

Wait, PSP browser better than this? Uh, no. Not even close. It's JUST as slow to move and typing on it sucks more than text messaging on a phone. And at least the DS doesn't whine it ran out of memory every two minutes. I have both and the one I'm typing this message on is WAY superior.

CountChocula: Jun 12th 2007; 1:50AM

You guys are missing the most important question when it comes to a web browser:

Can I look at naughty pictures with it?

Don Campbell: Jun 16th 2007; 8:44PM

I really wish they would have included Flash support. They really could have made this a great thing. Without Flash it's only a pricey way to view web basic pages.
Our review is here:
http://kidconfidence.com/blogs/2007/06/11/browse-the-internet-with-your-nintendo-ds/

bo: Jul 4th 2007; 6:44PM

i just got my DS lite and pick up the "NINTENDO DS BROWSER" and it asked me for my WEP how can i find my WEP???

zechs: Jul 12th 2007; 8:07PM

OK who said the psp browser is faster. cause its not, I tested it. My brother and I had a Browser race PSP VS DS the loading speed was around the same speed somtimes the psp was faster and somtimes the DS was faster but what made the DS actually faster was it touch screen capabilities the fact that i could typ efaster and surf the page easier with the stylus made the internet on the DS better. sure PSP can play flash and video, but its crap the flash videos run very poorly and videos dont load well... why have those features if they dont work properly or even slow down the psp its self plus the whole phone style typing thing is retarted. dont get me wrong i love my psp but somtimes Convenience beats flashy features.

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