Vivaldi browser in-depth review: a powerful customized browser for senior users
Core points:
Back in March, we reported a new browser called Vivaldi, built on the basics of Opera 12 and aimed at veteran users. It was still in the preview stage at the time and was not stable enough, but recently after 4 technical previews, the Vivaldi Beta version was officially released, adding many features and countless improvements were made at the bottom.
Vivaldi is based on the Chromium open source platform and runs on the Blink rendering engine (which also uses by Opera and Chrome). Its interface is built using JavaScript, CSS and Node.js, making it cross-platform and customizable. You can install Vivaldi (the .deb and .rpm packages are provided) on Windows, OS X and Linux systems.
Apart from the underlying technology, Vivaldi's philosophy is completely different from Chrome and other browsers. Google's original intention of creating Chrome was to create a simple and easy-to-use browser that would allow users to focus on content consumption. The creators of Vivaldi want to provide a powerful and highly flexible browser because they believe that not all users want the browser to run silently in the background.
However, you may not notice this immediately when you open Vivaldi for the first time. Its interface is simple, clear and flat, almost similar to the Metro style. You need to dig deeper to discover all the cool features that make it unique.
The first time I opened Vivaldi, the first thing I noticed was that the color of the tab and address bar would vary depending on the main color of the page you visited - similar to what Chrome does on mobile. It allows the UI to blend seamlessly with content while helping you quickly find the currently active tab page when opening a large number of tabs.
A big feature of Vivaldi is that it does not require leaving the keyboard if you operate almost everything. Almost all operations have corresponding shortcuts—and better yet, these shortcuts are customizable.
If you want to select a link and don't want to use the Tab key one by one, try the space navigation feature, which allows you to navigate the link in all directions by holding down the shift key and using the arrow keys to navigate the link in all directions . The selected link will be highlighted in orange.
and then the quick command—remind me of Apple’s Spotlight search—will pop up when you press the F2 key. Here you can search for open tabs, bookmarks, history and different shortcuts. I like this feature so much that I find myself pressing F2 in Chrome much more often than I want to admit.
As a browser for veteran users, Vivaldi offers a large number of customization options. You can change the interface according to your preferences, starting with the location of the tab, address bar, bookmark bar, and sidebar. In addition, you can change the interface color, background image of the start page, tab loop order, and speed dialing. Almost every feature has customization options, and you can enable or disable them as you like.
I prefer to put the tabs at the bottom because it is easier to navigate and more intuitive to me. You can also stack tabs together – which is very useful when you search for a specific topic and don't want to mess up the tab bar.
A new feature introduced at the time of beta release is extension support, which gives you more control over how your browser is set up. It supports almost all extensions in the Chrome web store, so your customization options are very wide.
Vivaldi adds fast forward and backward buttons next to the normal return and forward buttons. The back button can jump to the first website you visited on that particular domain name, while the fast forward button uses an algorithm to take you to the "next natural page", which is very useful in forums and multi-page comment sites – Although it sometimes deviates completely from the target.
Vivaldi also offers on-demand image and plug-in controls that allow you to turn off images or load only cached images. Page operations allow you to display the page in grayscale, tan or invert colors, disable transition effects, display outlines, change fonts to monospace fonts, and a few other features.
Other features I like include displaying tab page previews and web panels when hovering, where you can add your website to the sidebar for quick access. Another feature I like most is page size: a widget will show the megabyte size when each web page is loading. You'll be surprised at how big some of your favorite sites are.
Surprisingly, Vivaldi adds support for mouse gestures—mouse is not very practical, but can be very useful on devices with touch support.
After the beta version, Vivaldi added HTML5 support and I decided to compare it to other browsers to test it. Unsurprisingly, Vivaldi scores almost the same as Chrome, as they both use the Blink engine and are basically better than other browsers on the market.
In terms of JavaScript performance testing, I used the new JetStream test (SunSpider's successor). Judging from the results, Vivaldi seems to be slightly faster than Chrome (60.416 vs. 58.937), but this is within the deviation range. On the other hand, neither is far from Microsoft Edge, with a score of 70.152.
To my surprise, Vivaldi surpassed Chrome in the Browsermark test, scoring 3034 while Chrome only scored 2868 points. Obviously, the Vivaldi team made some improvements at the bottom.
It used to be a little slower than other browsers, but now it's significantly faster and is as fast as any other browser to use.
Vivaldi is positioned as a "browser for friends" - it seems to be delivering on that promise by letting users express their concerns and vote on what features should be implemented next. This makes users feel like they are part of the project and hopefully helps the Vivaldi team provide a better browser for everyone.
I originally thought Vivaldi would have some rough spots as it is still a beta product. But it actually feels stable and smooth, and I haven't had any major issues that would prevent me from using it as a daily browser.
Vivaldi offers higher privacy protection than Google Chrome. Unlike Chrome, Vivaldi does not track or collect your browsing data. It also offers built-in anti-tracking and ad blocking capabilities. This makes Vivaldi a safer and more private browser choice, especially for those who focus on online privacy.
Yes, you can easily enable or disable JavaScript in Vivaldi. To do this, go to the Settings menu, select the Web Pages tab, and then switch to the Enable JavaScript option. This gives you more control over how your website behaves in your browser.
Vivaldi is designed to be a fast and efficient browser. It uses less memory and CPU resources than other browsers, which can lead to a smoother and more responsive browsing experience. However, performance may vary based on your device and the number of tabs or extensions you open.
Yes, one of the key features of Vivaldi is its high customization. You can change the appearance of your browser, rearrange the layout of your tabs, and even create custom shortcuts. This allows you to customize your browser to suit your specific needs and preferences.
Yes, Vivaldi is based on the same Chromium platform as Google Chrome, which means it is compatible with most Chrome extensions. You can access the Chrome Web Store to add extensions to Vivaldi.
Vivaldi provides a powerful and flexible bookmarking system. You can organize bookmarks into folders, add tags for easy searching, and even add comments to individual bookmarks. This makes it easy to manage and find saved websites.
Yes, the mobile version of Vivaldi is available for Android and iOS devices. The mobile version offers many of the same features as the desktop version, including customization options and privacy protection.
Vivaldi regularly releases updates to improve performance, add new features and fix bugs. These updates are usually installed automatically, but you can also manually check for updates in the settings menu.
Yes, Vivaldi makes it easy for you to import data from other browsers. You can import your bookmarks, history, passwords, and other data directly from browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Opera.
Yes, Vivaldi takes safety very seriously. It offers built-in anti-tracking and ad blocking features and will not collect or sell your browsing data. In addition, Vivaldi is based on the Chromium platform, which is updated regularly to resolve security vulnerabilities.
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