Yes i’ve heared many people saying that opera works faster than chrome and its lite but from my personal experience there is nothing in opera that can match chrome, and the difference only can be seen on slow networks such as 2g net. Because on faster connection you will not be able to determine whether which browser is working good. However the extensions and overall google sync that chrome comes with is great, and chrome rocks anyway.
Perhaps opera works good on mobiles but I don’t recommand this.
I don’t know why people admire this red buffoon.