Samsung’s smart watch gets a full-web browser

Opera Mini has become the first web browser on Samsung’s Gear S, the Tizen-based wearable device platform. Users of this new smart watch will be able to enjoy web browsing from their wrists, Opera Software has confirmed.

With more than 250 million monthly users around the world, Opera Mini is known for its compression technology that shrinks the size of webpages to as little as 10%. The result is a faster and more energy-efficient browsing experience. It helps to load image-heavy pages in a snap.

Finger-friendly features for small-screen web browsing

In addition, the Opera Mini browser includes many finger-friendly features. The Smart Page gives users all their social updates and the latest news on one screen. Opera Mini’s Speed Dial features website shortcuts as large buttons, enabling Gear S users to reach their favorite sites in a single tap. Private browsing removes any trace of the web pages visited on the wrist-gazer’s device.

A full-web browsing experience on a wearable device

"As a lightweight but powerful browser maker, Opera has been a pioneer of making the web accessible across a huge variety of connected devices, such as the internet keyboard, the dual-screen handheld game console, VOIP phones and, now, wearable device," says Lars Boilesen, CEO of Opera Software. "We are thrilled that Opera Mini will be the first browser for Samsung Gear S users to download. This is an exciting, new experience for smart-gear users."

Samsung Gear S owners will be able to download Opera Mini from Samsung Gear Apps for free.