As if keeping the differences straight between Opera's Mobile and Mini browsers weren't tricky enough already, Opera has added another twist by releasing Opera Mini 5 beta for Windows phones, a mobile platform that has previously only run the Opera Mobile app.

Until now, Opera's mobile browsers boiled down to this: Opera Mini (stable|beta) is the proxy browser for Java-based phones that feeds Web content through Opera's servers. And Opera Mobile (stable|beta), is the full Web experience for Symbian and Windows phones that's written with Web code.

The "Mini" browser doesn't render Web sites as faithfully as Opera Mobile's true Web client (and it still won't for Windows phones) but it does return key content faster.

More: http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-10463991-12.html