Microsoft: Edge good, Chrome bad for battery life

Microsoft Edge is the best performing, Google Chrome the worst performing web browser when it comes to battery life performance according to Microsoft.

If you are using a laptop or tablet for some of your computer-related activities you are probably aware that browsers may have a big impact on battery life.

While it depends on use of the browser when using the mobile device, it is clear that the choice of browser may impact battery life by hours rather than minutes.

Opera introduced a new power saving mode in the web browser recently that promises to improve battery performance significantly when it is used.

Microsoft too has been working on improving battery performance of the company's Edge browser, and conducted a series of studies and tests to highlight that.

To understand the impact, we compared today’s leading browsers across three independent dimensions.

First, we measured their power consumption in a controlled lab environment. Second, we examined the real-world energy telemetry from millions of Windows 10 devices. Finally, we recorded time-lapse videos of each browser performing the same tasks until the battery dies.

The four browsers Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Opera faced off against in each playing streaming video non-stop on Microsoft Surface Books using the same configuration.

Microsoft Edge came first in the test with a battery time of 7:22 hours followed by Opera with 6:18 hours, Firefox with 5:09 hours and Google Chrome with 4:19 hours.

The company notes that Opera's battery saving mode was enabled for the test, and that the latest versions of each browser were used.

We streamed the same high-definition video wirelessly on each device and set up a video camera to record the laptops until each one died, noting the time when each device stopped playing.

Microsoft Edge latest three hours longer than Google Chrome, Opera two hours longer than Google Chrome, and Firefox 50 minutes longer.

Microsoft did look at aggregated telemetry data from millions of Windows 10 devices to find out more about power consumption.

According to the inforamtion, Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox use on average 465 and 493 mW while Google Chrome a staggering 719 mW.

Surface Books and all four major browsers were used in the final test again. Microsoft connected a Surface Book to specialized monitoring equipment and measured "typical browsing activities" by spending time on Facebook, Google, YouTube, Amazon or Wikipedia reading articles, opening websites, watching videos or opening new tabs.

Edge did best again while Chrome came in second this time, Opera third and Firefox fourth.

Closing Words

A test conducted by Microsoft that highlights that Microsoft Edge is more power optimized than other browsers needs independent verification. But that is only possible of the test setup is known. For instance, which versions were used, and did Microsoft keep all default preferences or modify some?

Now You: What's your experience in regards to power consumption and browsers?