Vivaldi has unveiled version 7 of its web browser, which includes a complete visual overhaul and a new dashboard feature.
The browser, which is built on the same browser engine as Google Chrome, has long been the best browser available for my money. This latest revamp merely extends its lead over an increasingly competitive pack, which has seen strong rivals such as Arc emerge in recent years.
Revamped Interface
The most obvious change to Vivaldi 7 is the redesigned interface. Tabs now appear to float at the top of the window, encapsulated in rounded bubbles as opposed to the squared-off design of previous versions.
The icons for the browser’s many features — such as the integrated email client, feed reader and calendar — have also been redesigned, with each given more space to breathe in the panel that runs down the left-hand side of the browser window.
Almost everything in Vivaldi is customizable, so if you prefer the more compact design of the previous version you can jump into the browser’s settings and adjust the user interface density.
New Dashboard
Another big change for Vivaldi 7 is the introduction of the Dashboard. The company describes this as a “command center for everything”, allowing you to pin a range of widgets to the Start page you get when you open the browser, in a similar vein to the widgets in macOS.
These widgets can display a snapshot of your email inbox, upcoming appointments in your calendar, tasks, sticky notes and a variety of other information. It’s also possible to pin feeds or even websites to the Dashboard, making it easier to scan the latest news from favorite websites.
Feeds definitely work better than websites on the Dashboard, which often struggle to format properly in the small space afforded to each widget. You can also click on feed items to open the full web page in a new tab if you’re interested in reading more.
Cleaner Feeds
Talking of feeds, Vivaldi 7 has also improved the way these are handled. Feeds can now been organized into folders and have been cleanly separated from the email client, not awkwardly merged as they were previously.
Synchronization with Vivaldi browsers on other devices has also been improved, with real-time sync of tabs, bookmarks and other settings across devices. Previously, sync could take several minutes to refresh across devices, meaning it was often necessary to force a sync manually to, say, continue reading a page on mobile that you had previously opened on your desktop.
Why Vivaldi Remains The Best Web Browser
Vivaldi has been around for more than a decade now, but it definitely remains a niche player compared to heavyweights such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Apple Safari.
Its huge range of features, privacy protections and almost endless customizability should appeal to power users who find the others too restrictive, but even if you only want a basic browser, it has a stripped-back mode that hides many of its advanced features.
Vivaldi’s based on the same Chromium engine as Chrome and Edge, so if you have favorite browser extensions they should work in Vivaldi too, and all of your bookmarks, history and passwords can be effortlessly transferred across (although you ideally shouldn’t be storing passwords in a browser at all).
If you’ve not changed your browser in a while, it’s definitely worth checking out Vivaldi 7, which is of course free and available to download now.
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