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The flip phone web: browsing with the original Opera Mini

Friday May 30, 2025. 07:53 PM , from OS News
Opera Mini was first released in 2005 as a web browser for mobile phones, with the ability to load full websites by sending most of the work to an external server. It was a massive hit, but it started to fade out of relevance once smartphones entered mainstream use.

Opera Mini still exists today as a web browser for iPhone and Android—it’s now just a tweaked version of the regular Opera mobile browser, and you shouldn’t use Opera browsers. However, the original Java ME-based version is still functional, and you can even use it on modern computers.
↫ Corbin Davenport

I remember using Opera Mini back in the day on my PocketPC and Palm devices. It wasn’t my main browser on those devices, but if some site I really needed was acting up, Opera Mini could be a lifesaver, but as we all remember, the mobile web before the arrival of the iPhone was a trashfire. Interestingly enough, we circled back to the mobile web being a trashfire, but at least we can block ads now to make it bearable.

Since Opera Mini is just a Java application, the client part of the equation will probably remain executable for a long time, but once Opera decides to close the server side of things, it will stop being useful. Perhaps one day someone will reverse-engineer the protocol and APIs, paving the way for a custom server we can all run as part of the retrocomputing hobby.

There’s always someone crazy and dedicated enough.
https://www.osnews.com/story/142463/the-flip-phone-web-browsing-with-the-original-opera-mini/

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