

Vivaldi doesn’t have its own extensions site, but instead lets you get them from the Chrome Web Store. In our speed test, it came a close second for page-loading times, and it feels smooth and stable as you browse. It also gives you impressive control over your privacy settings, and lets you clear all your private data in one go.

Most browsers support keyboard shortcuts, but Vivaldi goes one step further by letting you create your own. Web pages can be displayed in pull-out panels, navigated using mouse gestures, annotated for future reference, captured with the screenshot tool, grouped into tab "stacks" to save space or tiled to view them side by side. When you first run Vivaldi, you’re invited to choose from six attractive themes, decide the position of your tab bar (top, left, right or bottom) and set a background wallpaper. Dig deeper and you’ll discover manner of clever features, customisation options and time-saving tricks. Its default interface might not look particularly groundbreaking, but that doesn’t mean the browser is derivative or old-fashioned. While most browsers now mimic the pared-down design of Chrome, Vivaldi more closely resembles older versions of Opera. It was a close race for the top spot in our roundup, but in the end we gave it to a bright new hope.
