Recs.
Updated
SpecsUpdate
Pros
Pro VPN onboard
Free VPN onboard (but it's slow and it leaks your IP), includes Germany, Canada, USA, Netherlands, Singapore.
Pro Strong HTML5 feature support
Opera scores highly on HTML5 feature support.
Pro You can install extensions on the sidebar
Unlike other browsers, you can install add-ons such as tabs, bookmarks, history, sessions, notes, and extension manager in the sidebar. So you have the flexibility to use it for your purpose.
Pro Opera Sync
Opera Sync allows you to synchronize your bookmarks, passwords, and more from any computer, phone, or tablet.
Pro Customizable
Opera is full of user controlled settings. Everything can be imported and exported even RSS feeds. It can be skinned in a variety of different themes or it can be extended through the use of a large number of plugins available.
Pro Opera can have extensions from Opera Addons & Chrome Store websites
Opera supports cross-browser extensions. Opera Addons site keeps quality up compared to Chrome Store. Full of useful extensions, Opera also supports extra APIs like Speed Dial API, Extension Sidebar API and Stash API meaning wider variety of extension possibilities than in Chrome.
Pro Fast video loading
Opera loads videos faster, making it useful for slow internet connections.
Cons
Con Owned by a Chinese consortium
Who certainly need to conform with Chinese government requirements to let them infiltrate everything you do online.
Con WebKit/Blink is not customisable or lightweight
Opera is built on WebKit/Blink, which means it shares cons of Chromium: high RAM usage (Not lightweight), lack of customizability.
Con Uneditable default search providers
It can not delete or replace already built-in search services such as Yahoo, Google, DuckDuckGo, and Wikipedia.
Con Proprietary
While Opera is currently available gratis (without monetary charge), it is currently not libre (meaning that it does not allow users to view the source code used to create, to modify that code, or to redistribute modifications) and is therefor neither free nor open-source software.
Con Basically a Chrome clone
The latest versions of Opera are basically Chrome clones, so they really don't add anything new.
Recommendations
Comments
Flagged Pros + Cons
Con Chinese company
Pretends to be Norwegian company, but it is actually owned by a Chinese company. Not trustworthy!
Con Limited default search service
Opera can not remove or replace the default search engine.
Out of Date Pros + Cons
Pro Several builtin features
Opera has a lot of builtin features by default which are found only as plugins in other browsers. Some of these features include: email, BitTorrent, RSS and IRC clients.