Opera releases browser for Samsung smartwatch

Browser builder Opera has released a variant of its Mini browser for the Gear S, Samsung’s upcoming smartwatch with Tizen and the ability to function without a phone. The browser is adapted to the 2″ screen of the watch.

The browser is based on Opera Mini 7.5. The Norwegian browser builder seems to have made little changes to the smartwatch: it is a regular version of Opera Mini for Tizen. Opera makes its Mini Browser for phones with both large and small screens, so the application has previously run on phones with screens roughly the same size as the Gear S’s 2″ screen.

It is a version of Opera Mini for touchscreens, with large icons for favorites and Opera’s usual technology of reducing pages by sending them through its own servers and compressing images there.

Samsung will release the Gear S sometime this fall. The smartwatch runs on Tizen and has a curved AMOLED screen. The SIM card slot allows the smartwatch to connect to the internet itself and function without a phone to sync with.