Android users and prospective buyers received plenty of good news this week.  Both Microsoft's new Bing search engine and the beta of Opera's Mini 5 mobile browser will be making their way to at least some Android handsets.  Handset makers also continue to advance with plans to step up Chinese sales of Android handsets.

Opera's Mini 5 was at last made available this week to Android users.  The browser is currently in its second beta and is looking great.  It uses page compression to deliver ultra-fast page loads.  On a desktop page loads are less of a concern, but on smartphones some web pages can take anywhere from 10 seconds to a minute to load, so speed is a major factor.

The new browser also offers a host of sweet features like speed dial (a tiled list of favorite websites for quickly jumping to commonly used sites) and full support for tabbed browsing.  These features should be familiar to those who have been trialing Mini 5 on Blackberry smartphones.

The browser is rumored to see a final release coinciding with the CTIA trade show later in March.  By then, Opera hopes to have it approved for the Apple iPhone as well.

You can snag the browser for Android here.

Meanwhile, another traditional Google competitor is finding a warm new home in certain Android handsets.  Microsoft has entered a deal with Motorola to place a Bing bookmark and search widget on the company's Android handsets (the Motorola Cliq and Droid).  The software will come preloaded on new handsets and may be delivered as an update to preexisting ones.

Motorola is eyeing plans to drive up sales in China of Android handsets.  Google is currently considering pulling out of China's search market over hacking and censorship concerns.  If this happens, Motorola should be well positioned, thanks to the fact that its Android handsets now have a Microsoft-powered search.

In the U.S., Android is facing a bit of a headache from competitor Apple who recently filed suit against top Android handset manufacturer HTC for allegedly violating 20 patents that largely cover basic touch-screen principles.  Apple is trying to stop HTC from being able to import handsets to the U.S. from Taiwan.  The company has hinted that it may follow the suit with more litigation against other iPhone competitors (possibly Motorola or Palm).