The recently released video by Microsoft demonstrating the battery life of laptop running different browsers has caused quite a stir. While it is no secret that Google Chrome is a power hungry beast which takes a toll on your laptops battery life, the difference stated by Microsoft is quite alarming. The video compares Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome and Opera on similar laptops running same the video with battery saver mode enabled.
The video can be found here
The experiment showed that battery life on a PC running Microsoft Edge runs up to 70% longer than Chrome, 43% longer than Firefox and 17% longer than on Opera browser. This makes a very compelling case for Microsoft Edge especially when you need to squeeze ever last minute from your laptop battery.
While Opera disputes these claims by saying that running Opera browser with native Opera ad-blocker enabled and power saving mode fetches you up to 22% more battery life than Edge, which again gives it an edge over Microsoft. (here)
In the past many have pointed out that Chrome has a very negative impact on battery due to its high processing power usage. While you are browsing internet on a typical browser, the total CPU use accounts by far as one the biggest factors determining the battery life. Screen usage isn’t considered as it as a common parameter for all browsers in the same resolution. Google Chrome is said to run a lot of parallel Java-based processes in the background, which though speed up the load time drastically impact your battery life. Also, due to all the add-ons available for Chrome many people tend to overuse them which further piles up the CPU with additional processes.
Even though Edge may stand out in battery life it has significant drawbacks before it can boast of being a premium browser for the average user. Chrome surpasses Edge in stability by far.
Mozilla Firefox is a great browser with a lot of customization possibilities and offers a great battery life while maintaining the overall performance of the browser.
As of now even with a very poor battery life Google Chrome Is the most popular web browser out there. With a gamut of user-friendly features and a simple interface Chrome has been the people’s choice. Microsoft should take note; people don’t want a crappy browser with a great battery life.
Opera or Edge which do you think is better? Or is battery life that big of a problem considering the gamut of features/add-ons available in Chrome.
