The Opera browser has been prancing around with the same ol’ theme for several years now, which can easily be seen from our look back at older versions of popular browsers. Needless to say a makeover has been long overdue, and it’s now here! The new theme is dubbed Sharp, and is currently available in the latest snapshot release of Opera 9.5.
As you can tell from the screenshot above they decided to go with a more metallic look this time around. There are a few aspects that I find rather intriguing, most of which lie in the tab bar. The first thing that I’m sure you noticed is the shrunken close button that has been aligned near the upper-right corner of each tab. That’s unlike anything else we’ve seen in other browsers, but I’m left wondering whether it’s actually a little too small? And then there’s the new tab button that is always located after the very last tab… that’s probably my favorite part of the whole theme. It looks, well, sharp. 
I actually think that the entire theme is easy on the eyes, except for that darn refresh button. I know that they wanted to make it stand out, but that’s a little much if you ask me. When I asked Ashley what she thought of the button her response was “it looks like the recycling icon.” Come on Opera, make the refresh button look like the others. Consistency is important.
Post your thoughts on the new theme below. Is it too dark? Do they need to add more color? Is it something that will just appeal to geeks, or would a casual user find it attractive as well? What could they do to make it better?
Grab the latest Opera 9.5 snapshot and checkout the new theme yourself.
I’m not much of an Opera fan, but I think the new theme is really cool. The metallic finish enhances the dark look of the theme.
Not to bash Opera, but wow that looks like crap.
I am an Opera fan, so you might think I am biased but I LOVE the new theme!
I understand the emphasis on the restart button, well it is the STOP/restart button, and as a stop button I do find it the most important. I also like the fact that one button has a totally different color, it makes the whole theme more modern I think.
As for the black color of the theme: if you go to either Firefox or Opera themes and sort them by popularity you will notice that the black/dark themes are the most popular ones. I guess it has to do with the fact that it is the actual webpage that one needs to concentrate on and not the browser itself, hence the dark colors.
I think it needs a light version of the tabbar in conjunction with the colour scheme as an option. I use the tabbar along the bottom, rather than at the top. So it looks weird – light address bar and dark tabbar.
That’s nice! The one part I really like is that if you fill the tab bar with tabs then the “New tab” icon fits exactly in the “Trash” icon slot. Kinda cool ..
I love how Opera and Safari try to claim they matter in the web browser world, and I really do appreciate the competition, but Opera is just not worth even downloading to me. Especially since I can get Speed Dial on Firefox and it works so well. Opera and Safari never do anything innovative and I always hear Opera fans crying that their browser should be in the mix of the top web browsers. Let’s face it, there’s nothing really compelling about Opera. Firefox has some of the best programmers in the world working on it and the open source nature is compelling to any computer geek.
Sorry to harp on this – just venting!
I actually didn’t think it looked half bad. I like this over the existing XP theme that Firefox created.
I don’t think the button looks bad when it is the “stop” portion. The background changes to red, and I think that fits in decently. But I think the button’s “resting state” needs to match that of the other buttons.
I definitely see where you’re coming from there. I didn’t think about people who might move the tab bar around. It does look best along the top though.
I noticed that as well, and that’s one of the reasons I liked how they designed the tab bar. I like that the new tab button is in that position anyway, because that’s where I normally double-click on the empty area to get a new tab. So it is intelligently placed as well.
It really depends on where you’re looking to base the popularity of the browser. For example, the last I heard Opera is the second most popular browser in Russia (only behind Internet Explorer). And Safari has somewhere around a 6% overall market share, which is far from insignificant.
I am an Opera fanatic (I’m using it for this comment and all of my browsing) but this doesn’t really do much for me since it is so easy to customize the theme yourself or with the themes users make available. Just get version 9.5 (or will it really be called 10.0?) out!
No, it definitely won’t be called 10.0 when it’s released. They’ve already pegged that as a huge milestone, and lots of changes will be making their way into that release.
i like the firefox 3 theme a lot better
Are you crazy or just uninformed? They’re one of the most innovative browsers around, especially Opera. You even mentioned one invention in your own post: Speed Dial, an Opera invention. And er.. ever heard of tabs? Opera invention. Lots of innovation going on in the mobile market for both as well. They’re both more standards compliant and faster than any other browser out there too, leading the pack. And more..
Firefox is aimed at becoming a standards compliant mainstream browser, where the “mainstream” limits them in being innovative, as this means some inventions will fail and that doesn’t work well when you want to become mainstream. I think Firefox is a good balance between careful innovation and copying successful innovation from other browsers, bringing it into the mainstream market.
Anyway, I like this theme a lot. Feels more modern than the old theme, though I have to agree with Ryan about the resting state of the refresh button. I see no reason why this button would have to stand out from the rest. I would like it if they would release a version of this skin that fits in Windows Classic
The reason I use tabs along the bottom is because I got into Opera so long ago, that the only other thing that used tabs was Excel. They were aligned along the bottom, so I adjusted Opera to match.
It scatters parts of the GUI around the window. It’s not a chore to use because I hardly ever use the mouse pointer to navigate tabs – I use either right-click and scroll or the FlipBack/Forward (or the keyboard) gestures to switch to the tab on the left/right.
I like the new theme a lot. Concerning the refresh button it’s important to remember that this is the same button that changes to the stop one and turns bright red. It’s important for it to be very different to enable contrast from when it’s a refresh button to when it becomes a stop one.
After using it for a day I can tell you the close tab button doesn’t feel to small. You adjust quite fast. The classic and standard themes are available within the browsers for those who can’t stomach the new UI Skin.
Opera is my primary browser, and has been so for a long long time. I love the skin but has some small issues. The tab bar is too thick, close button is too small and the positioning of new tab button is bad.
I had blogged about this earlier today.
Anyway, desktop team just released another build with a more polished version of the skin. Do check that out.
To be fair tabs weren’t exactly invented by Opera, but I think they were the first to really make it a mainstream feature.
That’s a really interesting observation. I never really thought of people placing tabs at the bottom of the browser because they became accustomed to it in Excel. You must have/do use Excel a lot.
Personally I would never switch back to the old themes… this one is way better in my opinion.
Wow… that was a quick turn around. Nice to see them taking in the feedback and making changes accordingly.
Now I’m the one uninformed
It seems more logical to have the tabs along the bottom.
The GUI is already fairly dense up there; the menu, toolbars and the Windows titlebar. I also have the sidebar on the right (OK, you might start thinking I’m weird
) because whenever I toggle the side bar, it shifts the website content a few centimetres forcing me to re-orient. But if the sidebar is on the right, it has much less impact on the site you’re viewing.
Screen shot needed, methinks…
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Yes and no. I like having the tab bar along the top (I’ve tried it on the bottom and on the sides) because that’s where the address bar is. That way I can quickly switch between tabs and change addresses all in generally the same spot.
I’ve been using this new theme for a couple of days now and noticed that the scroll bar has little contrast, it’s easier to locate the scroller there, I think it would be better if they could make it stand out a little more.
Also, I do not like much the idea of the new tab button becoming a mobile target but hey, with Opera you can change that easily.