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Opera web browser has included a simple free VPN for a very long time, but it only protects your browser traffic, almost no specialty and is usually very slow.
Opera has now unveiled Opera VPN Pro, a true system-wide VPN, which allows you to secure all your app traffic on six Android, Windows or Mac devices.
The service is accessed with opera browser instead of the standalone app, in the same way tap and connect a button on the address bar. But this is a completely different service.
Now you can choose countries (and sometimes cities) with 33 countries. You are capable of choosing Openvpn or IKEV2 protocol based on platforms. And instead of rooting its traffic through Opera’s overload free server, Opera uses the same network of VPN Pro NordVPN, which gives much better speed (more on it).
There are still not a lot of features (even more, too), and there is no iOS app yet, but the price is definitely correct. Opera VPN Pro is the $ 5.99 bill monthly, which is half the price of some monthly plans. This becomes $ 2.99 per month on a six -month plan, and only $ 1.99 bill, a small $ 23.88 for the whole year’s protection.
Secrecy
Most VPN provider makes a lot of efforts to explain your bullet-proofity to you, and that you will be completely safe with their service. Opera, okay, is a little more alert. Here is the relevant part of its privacy policy:
“VPN Pro is provided by a third-party service provider … Data through VPN Pro will be encrypted and rooted through one of the thousands of servers … however, we do not promise that the service is absolutely safe. Our provisions, criminals or other evil actors can still be able to reach your data.”
Is it worrying, unusually honest, or both? We are not quite certain, but it’s something to keep in mind: Opera VPN Pro does not make any major privacy promises, and it is probably not the best option for privacy-mating tasks.
Opera says that VPN Pro is not a log service, stating: “We do not gather or store the records of the web pages you see or click on the server dedicated to this service.”
sounds promising. And as Opera VPN Pro is based on NordVPN’s multi-shrimp server and network, we will definitely ensure that nothing is harmful here. But Opera has not placed its own app or infrastructure through its own audit, so there is no evidence to return it right now. We have been left to take the company’s words on the trust.
Windows app
While the Opera VPN Pro can now protect your entire Windows device, it is still fully accessed from the opera browser. You have to download and install the opera, whenever you need security, launch it, and click on the VPN icon at the address bar to control the app.
It is a relatively heavyweight solution (requiring far more resources than a simple standalone client to install the entire browser), but once you launch the app, it looks like and feels any other VPN offering.
Opera VPN’s dashboard is simple and free from chaos, which we like to see. There is a connect button, and tapping the location option displays a list at the top with all your recent connection points, as well as the server list of opera VPN. This is where you can choose and choose where you want to put your pin in the map.
However, there are no city-level locations, and there is no favorite system. It is not a huge red flag, but it is a small quality of life that most top-rated VPNs include as standard, these days.
The only other feature is a setting icon. Tapping it shows a VPN Pro section in the general settings page of opera. This location is more basic than the list, slightly higher than a couple of account management options and a re -connect feature (which is automatically restarted when VPN fails).
The app does not mention the protocol. Our investigation revealed that it used a standard Windows IKEV2 connection, which is slower than wiregards, but has been properly configured for maximum security.
kill switch
There is no mention of Kill Switch in Opera VPN Pro website, and our tests showed why this is not one. When we forcibly shut down our Windows VPN connection, Opera displayed a ‘disconnected’ message and joined within seconds, but it did not block our internet and our device was not preserved.
This re -connect facility is welcome, and reduces your data exposure. This is no alternative to a working kilo switch, however, and our tests showed that it had a strange ‘feature’ (or bug).
Suppose you are finished with opera VPN, the browser is closed, and you are connected to something else through a separate Windows network connection – perhaps a safe login for a working system. We will call this service x.
We saw that if we forcibly shut down the X connection, the opera VPN Pro worked in such a way that it was a failure in its service, popped up a warning and tried to join his own network. But the X was also trying to join again. Sometimes opera first, sometimes X, and sometimes that connection failed after a few seconds, possibly because two systems were fighting on what were in charge, and they would try to join again again.
It cannot be much in real life. If you are not using another connection, it can never happen. But the only fact that the app can make such a fundamental mistake, is a concern, and we are wondering what other issues can be in its code.
Display
We tested the speed of Opera VPN Pro with Windows systems in both UK and US locations, using several speed tests in several sessions. This is a minimum of 120 individual checks, and it is often quite high.
The results were relatively simple at 230–280mbps. It is about what we expect for an IKEV2 connection (ATLAS VPN also manages 230-240Mbps in Hotspot Shield 220-260Mbps). However, VPNs equipped with virgard are usually rapidly two to three times faster, and Surfshark and Torgard reached 950Mbps+ in their final tests.
Opera’s VPN has always been more confidentiality and safety than reaching the geoqewalking material, so we did not expect much from our unblocking tests. And of course, it gave us very mixed results in both the UK (unlocked BBC iPlayer, IPlayer, ITV or channel 4) and Australia (successful with 9Now, failed with 10 plays).
But this service surprises us everywhere by unlating Netflix in the US, Britain, Australia, Canada and Japan, as well as Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus: a very enabled record.
If you are looking for even more, however, expresswpn, hide.me, ivacy, nordvpn, purevpn and Surfshark all unlocked 100% of our sample sites in their final tests.
Help
The Opera Pro VPN support site is just as basic as we have seen, with very few low articles, which have almost no useful details.
We opened the article ‘Can I use Opera VPN Pro on my laptop/desktop computer?’ For example, the service is expected to find a step-by-step guide to establish the service. Expressvpn alone has seven intensive tutorials on Windows alone, but Opera’s article was 58 words, and said ‘This Windows 8 and McOS 10.15 or later, download Opera browser to use it.’
Live chat is available, but only Monday to Friday, 8 am to 4 pm (Cest). You can leave a message and support the aid team will respond by email, but it may officially take up to 48 hours.
We posted a test question that stated that Opera VPN Pro is connected to us, but then we were not able to reach the Internet on any app until the connection stopped. This is usually a DNS-type issue, but will the agent give any detailed reaction to help us find it?
The good news is that the answer came more early in about 18 hours. The evil news is that it does not include anything, but the most common recommendation is that anyone with VPN experience over five minutes will find out for themselves: uninstall and restore, or try it on another device.
final call
Opera VPN Pro is a good expansion of free opera VPN service. It is capable of unblocking Netflix, thanks to a good proliferation of the server, but dedicated streamers will be disappointed with its overall unblocking power. Opera VPN is somewhat basic when it comes to features, especially compared to our top-rated services. If you are looking for an all-rounder, you will be happy elsewhere.
