Following the previous announcement of an availability date for the Opera browser for the Nintendo DS, Game Watch Japan has posted a more in-depth preview of the software. First, there will be two separate SKUs for the DS Browser, one for the original DS, and one for the DS Lite, with the main difference being the physical size of the memory expansion. The DS original version will work for both the DS and the DS Lite, but the memory card will stick out by about 1/2 inch, similar to legacy GBA carts on the device. The DS Lite version matches correctly, but can’t be used on the original DS obviously.

As previously noted, the browser will make use of both screens, but will also provide a couple of different rendering modes to try and best fit content on the browser screen, most likely in a similar fashion to the wrap modes on Sony’s PSP. Opera DS also provides 5 levels of zoom, however, from 50% to 150%, so users can scale the screen to their preferences. Unfortunately, it looks like multimedia formats like Flash, PDF, movies, and sound are not supported on the DS; the PSP browser recently added Flash to its browser, and of course, has built in sound and movie playback support.

The Japanese version includes pop-up keyboards for Japanese and English characters, and also includes a character recognition mode for free form writing. Japanese character entry was shown, but it looks like there is also an option for English characters as well. Apparently, there will also be password protection for the browser, most likely to act as some kind of parental lock feature.