I think the title says it all: Opera Mini 2.0 is here… If you unaware of Opera, here’s a short introduction: possibly the most advanced web browser available (yep, you read it right… I say it is better than IE or Firefox in technical sense; personally I tough prefer Mozilla Suite)

The great part with Opera Mini is that it runs basically on all phones capable on running Java (see full list). There’s of course a catch - some phones simply don’t have what it takes to run Opera Mini 2.0. For example, Samsung X480 says “This phone works ok but is very slow“.

So what’s new? Under the hood are several improvements that make Mini less bloat; still there is something to improve as few users have reported crashes and failures.

On the usability side, Opera has once again done a very nice job. The possibility to buy premium mobile content by clicking a button instead of sending SMS message is a great. If you wonder how they do it the answer is simple: Opera sends the SMS message for you. Hopefully the folks at Opera have also considered possible missuse attempts and security risks.

Another new feature are downloads. Now saving music and images trough Opera Mini is possible.

In addition the possibility to choose Opera Mini’s default search engine is great. I still prefer Google, but on some occasions MSN and Yahoo provide much better search results. Closely related to moving between web sites is the new speed-dial bookmark capability that allows users to assign two-key codes that will open up a Web page.

I think this is a must have for any cell phone user (if your phone is on the supported models list and there are no known problems).

PS. I recommend PC for downloading Opera Mini 2.0, and then transferring it to cell phone (Bluetooth, cable) for installation. And of course backing up sensitive data is goog practise (just in case…)