Named "Ice", it presents a radical departure from what we're used to seeing with
the stock Android Browser, Chrome, or even Safari. Shown off in an internal
meeting right before Christmas, the folks at Pocket-lint got their hands on a copy
and now we all can have a look.
Besides the UI, which we'll get back to in a moment, it's important to recognize
that "Ice" won;t be using the same Presto rendering platform that Opera's current
Android apps use. With Ice, Opera has moved to WebKit, the same engine that
Chrome and Safari, as well as the stock Android browser and all the custom
browsers in Google Play, are using. This should give Ice an edge, as most mobile
pages and web apps are designed with WebKit in mind.
The new Opera Ice browser will be based around hiding the technology as much as
possible and embracing rich applications. It will ditch all buttons and instead use
gestures to control key elements like forwards and backwards. "This is a full touch
and tablet-focused browser," said the product manager in the video we've seen.
"Most are taking a PC browser and squishing [it] into a tablet, or they are taking a
mobile browser and blowing it up to fill the space."
Yes, the UI looks very different. I'm not sure how I feel about "hiding technology"
from the end user in favor of gestures and big icons, but I'll have to give the
finished product a look before a final judgment.
Ice is not set to replace Opera mini, the small browser that compresses data to
save time and bandwidth, but we expect that it may push the standard Opera
Mobile for Android browser into retirement. Word is we'll know more at Mobile
World Congress, which is coming right around the corner. We'll be there, and keep
an eye out.
source: androidcentral.com

I was enjoying my safari before sha, wasn't really missing opera.

Anyway let's wait and see what the ice has to offer. It might turn out to be far better than chrome or safari.