Opera is going to release a “gaming” browser, that’s right a gaming browser! But what does that mean?
Well, first off, I got prompted by Opera to try out this new browser when I opened Twitch (I’m currently using Opera’s default browser). It made me giggle initially, but then I said, why not? Surprisingly, the features it’s trying to bring up are somewhat interesting and can actually help me with the problems I had with other browsers (RAM usage). If they’re going to nail it, that’s other subject.
It’s currently in beta test and I would like to invite you guys to try it as well and tell us what you think. This is also an important time to try since you can provide feedback to the developers.
Right now their features are:
RAM & CPU Limiter
Twitch Integration
GX Corner
Customization*
Messenger Integration*
Video Player Popout*
Ad Blocker*
VPN*
Video Over Game**
* Previously featured on their default browser
** Feature not yet released
Check it out and download here: Opera GX | Gaming Browser | Opera
Scroll down or mouse over the right side to get all the topics in the site.
Protip: The GX Corner is an useful tool that provides information on release dates for games, new and interesting games so that you don’t miss out, ongoing deals / giveaways and news for games, tech and entertainment.
Right now the only downside for me is that I was unable to import my settings from Opera, but you’re able to do so for some other browsers. I’ll have to do it all over again.
Also, they’re still missing discord on the messenger integration, but oh well.
I tried out opera for a little while a few years back when I decided to abandon chrome and fished around for another browser. Can’t really remember exactly why, but it didn’t make the cut then. Is it still chromium based like pretty much everything else?
My main concern is that by focusing on lowering RAM consumption they’re going to have to cut out a lot of maybe important, useful and surely plain comfortable features that we’d expect from a browser. Much of the ram consumption complaints seems to often come from people with 200+ tabs open and 50+ plugins running. I’m pretty sure even this one will need ram to load up all that stuff you want to fill it up with.
Well lets hope at least it’s not just another “gamer” branded marketing thing and I suppose we’ll see if they can create something actually useful.
I believe it’s still chromium based. The problem for me is that on low end potatobook, you can’t really have just the browser open with a game (sometimes not even spotify for example), it’s pretty noticeable and I’ve had game crashes or system freezes. But if you’re on a high end desktop with lots of RAM to spare, it’s nothing.
On a high-end desktop with lots of RAM to spare, you probably also don’t have a need for a specialised browser with a RAM and CPU usage limiter :/ So, aside from what is basically a built-in ad page (GX Corner) and Twitch integration, this doesn’t really do anything.
Well, at least for me who was already an Opera user, it’s an small upgrade. I get it that most people won’t change their current browser for something like this. But we never know what this could lead to, Google Stadia is coming and is possible that they could tweak their browser towards gaming as well, who knows.
And as always, you can customize what you have, if you don’t want to see news or ads, whatever on that page, you can disable it. I had disabled some stuff when I started using Opera because it was irrelevant to me.
Does anyone here know if there’s a way to disable the “gx corner”? I wouldn’t browse these “news” sites willingly much less have a dedicated tab for them.
Edit: Took me a while to figure out but there is an option to only display gx corner in the sidebar, then you can disable the sidebar. But I guess you’re out of luck if you actually want the sidebar.
Saw angryjoe advert this. It looks like all the promised features from OP are in and it is in early access. Even integrated discord.
But I want to know what @Enki thinks about it. Are you still using it? Is anyone else? I’m on the brave browser but I’m always on the lookout for alternatives.
Yeah, I’m still using it. Did not have any problems with it and feels much more performance-friendly compared to other browsers I used before. Highly customizable, the features I use the most are GX Control (Limiters), Discord/WhatsApp integrations and Forced Dark Pages (tries to convert every webpage into dark mode, does a good job most of the time). It’s chromium based, so you can use most chrome extensions without issues.
The limiters are a bad idea in practice. If your browser needs more power and memory, but is being commanded not to receive it, it’ll crash the browser.
I only have it active while I’m playing something, so I usually only have one or two tabs opened and maybe discord, never experienced any crashes. You can just turn it off when it’s not necessary.
While in the past, I couldn’t even afford to play some games with a browser opened because I don’t have much ram.
Personally I see integrations of various services and such a deal breaker, I really do not want to use discord or whatsApp or whatever else so why would I want a browser with these things loaded up, integrated and primed to collect data on ALL my browsing activity?
If those sites want to offer plugins to integrate themselves into your browser then their users can use those, why bundle it into the browser itself?
