Gadgetory

hello again ladies and gentlemen I'm Joe handy the Android authority app guide opera max has been in beta for a long time and it's now getting a stable release which means we're going to take a look at it ok so what does opera max actually do it is a standalone application that routes your internet traffic through its servers and compresses the data before it gets sent to your phone this sounds complicated but it really isn't when browsing the web you are essentially just downloading a bunch of stuff videos images advertisements webpages etc and all are downloaded to your device using your data connection and then displayed to you what opera max does is takes all of that stuff and makes it smaller before sending it to your device that means you use less of your data to essentially get the same content this may not sound like a big deal but when you're on a 1 gigabyte per month data plan anything that helps you stretch that data further it's something that could be useful and in this case it's opera max along with the data compression service opera max lets you see what apps are using data and when there are time stamps to show when apps use data so you know something is borrowing your data connection when you're not using it there's also a function to block apps from using data so that ones that update frequently and we're looking at you Facebook can be kept under control and that's really it folks you install it open it and enable it and it pretty much takes care of everything else on its own it should be noted that it cannot save your data on encrypted apps because encrypted data is not rotted through opera servers that stuff gets sent straight to your device so how can you use this application it's very simple really this is a classic fire-and-forget application so there's not really much for you to do you enable opera max and it essentially just works in the background to save you data you can then use the app to block access from applications that you don't want using your data all the time and overall it gives you more control over your own data usage as we noted earlier it does not work on encrypted applications so in order to get the full benefit of opera max you may have to relegate a lot of your activity to your browser this means using the browser for things like YouTube Facebook vine Instagram and others that the app itself may not fully support that way the data can be compressed and you can start using less data on more stuff ok so here's what we liked about opera max it is a really good idea for an application we live in a world where many carriers still restrict how much data you can use and sometimes a couple of gigabytes per month simply won't cut its and for many opera max can help we found that we really like the block apps feature even if they can't save you data on encrypted apps it can still prevent them from accessing the internet without your permission and this alone can save you hundreds of megabytes per month especially from social media apps that like to update constantly for the most part it's fairly easy to use you open the application you enable it and then you go about your business as usual there are no over complicated setup processes lastly we like the level of information that it gives you you can see exactly which apps use what data and when this can be a real eye-opener for people because a lot of applications use more data than they would initially think or use a lot of data in the background without their knowledge even if you don't engage in opera Max's data saving services it's still pretty nifty to see what is using your connection and here's what we didn't like so much it doesn't support ipv6 and that is a real bummer when it detects that you have it it suggests that you simply change your APN settings for some this won't be a big deal but for many this is a complicated task you can still use the other features of the application like block apps but you won't be able to get any data savings until they either support ipv6 or you decide to go through the learning process on how to change your APN there isn't a readily available list of popular applications that are encrypted and even the screenshots are a little ambiguous so figuring out when and how to save data can be a little bit of a pain in that same vein most savings take place on the mobile web browser and not so much in the applications so many may be turned off by the prospect of using their mobile web browser instead of applications for doing things since the app is essentially a VPN service you may experience slower web browsing depending on things like your distance from the nearest server also because it does compress data you may also notice some lower quality images and video overall opera max is a solid application it has its problems but none of them are really bad enough to decrease the overall value if used properly this app can save you quite a bit of data if you're on a limited data plan and are on a carrier that uses overage charges this app may very well save you some money and that's never a bad thing even without the data saving mechanism the app is still pretty useful being able to block applications from using your data alone makes it worth checking out because we all use applications that use our data religiously for updates best of all it's free to use so there's really no reason not to check it out once again I'm Joe handy the Android authority app guys don't forget to subscribe to Android authorities YouTube channel and if you want to follow Android Authority myself or the rest of the video crew you can find our social media links in the video description below if you're hanging out for a minute we have a couple of awesome videos for you to watch right over there including our review of the Opera browser and our review of the Opera browser for tablets finally don't forget to check out the written companion in the video description below because that's where you're gonna find the download link as always thank you for watching and have a wonderful day