Opera GX: The Rock Concert of Browsers

Opera GX doesn’t tiptoe into the room; it kicks down the door, clad in black leather and neon accents. The dark theme is its battle armor, and the red highlights scream, “I’m here to slay tabs and chew bubblegum—and I’m all out of bubblegum.”  It’s like Batman decided to design a browser. It supports themes in a way I have genuinely never seen before… During onboarding, Opera GX throws choices at you like confetti: shaders, wallpaper, background music (yes, you read that right). It’s the rebellious teenager of browsers.

Google Chrome, on the other hand, is like vanilla ice cream. It’s familiar, reliable, and doesn’t surprise you with neon sprinkles. The interface is clean, white, and about as exciting as a tax form. But hey, it works! No frills, no spills. Both browsers share a common lineage—they’re based on the Chromium project. At this point, I’d like to point out Microsoft Edge, the new default in Windows, is also based on the same foundation and sits in the middle of the two. It’s also my preferred browser and default on just about all of my devices.

Features

Opera GX does bring some interesting “gamer specific” features to the table. GX corner is a hub of sorts with notices on game sales, free games, and gaming news. GX Control lets you limit RAM, CPU usage, and even throttle network performance with a few simple clicks. Opera, the company, also bought the popular Gamemaker game engine and has made it free for non-commercial use, pushing their gamery..ness even further.

Am I really doing a review on a web browser? Use whatever you like, throw on a good ad block plugin, some games, sidebars, maybe an email client if that’s your thing, whatever makes the most sense to you. But don’t get bogged down so much in the name of your browser.

Privacy Concerns

Opera has a bit of a reputation for being “Chinese owned” and therefore spying on users of their browser (and I guess the Gamemaker engine now?). While I don’t work for Opera and have no real insight into their company structure, I will say that Opera is still a company located in Oslo, Norway, which makes them subject to GDPR and some very strict privacy laws. Even if you don’t live in the EU, these privacy laws benefit you and guide the data collected through their software. Bottom line: I would not worry about it unless something real proves it.

VPN

OperaGX does have a pretty useful VPN built in, with different countries selectable if you want to appear to be from a different region. Their VPN service claims to be no-log and doesn’t share your browsing data. There are a lot of VPN providers out there, like ProtonVPN, that might satisfy your needs better. So shop around if price and privacy are your main concerns.

The Verdict

Web Browsers are free software, which in most cases means that you and your data are the product. I would be wary of any product that is free and collects data on your use, even if anonymous, aggregated, GDPR protected, or able to be disabled. You are getting a lot of things for free, except your data is extremely valuable to companies trying to sell you stuff and track you. OperaGX, like the original Opera browser, does a great job at pushing the limits to what I browser can do. Microsoft Edge is catching up in crazy buttons and built-in flimflam, but if you’re like me and you like new buttons, it is absolutely worth a try. Download it for free here!

Disclaimer: No browsers were harmed during the making of this blog intro. But a few cookies might’ve been devoured.