Still using the tired, clunky Web browser that came with your phone? Allow me to introduce you to Opera Mini, Opera Software's killer free browser for mobile devices. The latest version, 4, now in public beta, comes with an "intelligent zoom" that lets you scan an overview of a Web page and then zoom in for a closeup. This gives you a good chance of viewing just about any Web site, not just those that are formatted for mobile devices. And it also gives ordinary feature phones the same kind of browser power you'd get on, say, a Nokia E61i.

For this review, I tested the Opera Mini 4.0 beta on a Sprint Motorola SLVR L7c. To grab the beta, use your phone's current browser to navigate to www.operamini.com. The beta installation procedure is a little wonky. If it doesn't recognize your phone, it asks if you want the high-bandwidth or low-bandwidth version and then offers a broken link if you select Low. On the SLVR, I selected High, installed it, and all was well. (I tested the browser while the beta was still private, so this bug may be gone by the time the public beta launches.)

If you're new to Opera Mini, here's how it works: Opera Mini takes a page request, compresses the page using a remote server, and then sends the result to your phone. This way you pay less in data charges if you're not on an unlimited data plan. It also loads faster and works on phones with severe CPU and memory constraints.

With the intelligent zoom feature, I was able to view all manner of desktop-formatted Web pages. Some of them placed graphics and text blocks in odd spots; there's only so much Opera Mini can do with a 220- by 176-pixel screen. But for the most part, the app turns your phone into a miniature desktop browser, complete with a "mouse" arrow cursor that you can move around using your phone's control pad. And it's fast: Even when downloading notoriously large pages, I rarely found myself waiting more than a few moments on the SLVR L7c (which, admittedly, uses Sprint's fast EV-DO data network).

On some pages that don't work well with the zoom feature, head to Menu -> Tools -> Settings and choose "Fit to Width"; this is essentially the Small Screen Rendering (SSR) mode that Opera Mini 3.0 and earlier used. For now, there's no way to tell what mode is better for which pages, so it's great that Opera gives you both choices. I'm willing to suffer through some formatting issues if I can get this kind of power on such a low-end phone. I do hope it's easier to switch back and forth between modes in a later version of the beta, though. The same goes for adding bookmarks; it currently takes too many clicks to accomplish that task as well.

Opera Mini 4.0 also has a spiffier interface, though it drops RSS feed support. This is no big loss, because version 3 handled feeds poorly. (Opera Software said that it's working on a revamped version of RSS support for inclusion in the final version 4.) Like versions 3.0 and 3.1, it supports secure Web pages for online banking, checking e-mail, and shopping from online stores.

So if Opera Mini is free, runs on feature phones and smartphones, and works so well, why would anyone want to buy Opera 8.6 for Windows Mobile for $24? There are several key advantages to that browser, though they're all targeted at power users: AJAX support, RSS, widgets, and tabbed browsing. The current version of Opera Mobile, however, doesn't have the intelligent zoom function that Opera Mini 4.0 does. You'll have to wait for version 9 for that. And Opera Mobile works natively only on Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 phones; users of the Palm OS, BlackBerry OS, and all feature phones have to stick with the Java-based Opera Mini.

Still, that's no big loss. With its two solid viewing modes and blazing speed, Opera Mini 4 is a great option for anyone who wants to power up his or her handset browser at no additional cost.

To download Opera Mini, navigate to www.operamini.com directly from your cell phone's current WAP browser.