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Opera GX now has the worst feature in a browser – ambient music

When you think about what features you want from your internet browser we’re willing to be ambient music is either not on your list or very far down that list.

But Opera GX isn’t exactly a browser that plays by the rules of what you want and instead looks at what it thinks gamers want.

If this is your first encounter with Opera GX, strap in because this ride gets wild.

Opera GX is billed as a Gaming Browser and features integrations with Twitch, Discord and a few other applications.

Where Opera GX stands out though is in its GX Control suite.

Here, you can configure the browser to use fewer resources such as CPU usage and RAM usage. We have tried this out and while Opera GX does use less resources than Brave (our daily driver) it does begin to go over the CPU and RAM limits when it is necessary, such as having 10 tabs open when you’ve limited RAM to 1GB and CPU usage to 8 percent.

What we can say is that compared to Chrome, Firefox and the aforementioned Brave, Opera GX uses far fewer resources.

Opera GX then isn’t a bad idea if you’re wanting to stream some videos while you game.

What is a bad idea however is the latest feature, ambient music.

“The dynamic background music is an ambient downtempo that will immerse you further in your gaming-themed browser. Actively browsing, clicking and typing intensifies the music, for example, while slowly scrolling and reading will take the music down a notch. This dynamic reaction to your activity blends into the background when you’re in focus-mode, so you often don’t notice it until you miss it,” wrote product manager of Opera, Opera GX and Opera Touch, Maciej Kocemba.

We’ve tested this out and you can hear a sample of the ambient music in the video below.

What irks us is the fact that the music continues playing even when you hit play on other media. Perhaps that’s a fix worth considering for version 2.0.

In truth the music is rather soothing though after about 30 minutes of hearing the same loop over and over again, it gets very annoying.

Thankfully, ambient music can be turned off in options, as can the browser’s other sound effects.

What is nice is that despite music playing in the background, Opera GX still uses less resources than other browsers do.

Unfortunately we can’t recommend Opera GX without mentioning Opera’s less than tasteful past.

Earlier this year Opera was accused of offering predatory loans through its CashBean, OKash, OPay and OPesa platforms. While this is in violation of Google Play Store terms of service, Opera denied the allegations stating the report from Hindenburg Research contained multiple errors and misleading conclusions.

While Opera hasn’t been sued as a result and its apps haven’t been removed from the Google Play Store, we’d rather share this information than not mention it at all.

While Opera GX has a few notable features we’re sticking with Brave, even if it is chowing down on our RAM and CPU as we speak.

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