Google previously admitted that its Chrome browser actually consumes a lot of laptop battery life. The company also promised to address the issue and has been conducting several battery tests.
Reportedly, browsers Windows Edge and Mac OS Safari offer long battery life compared to Google Chrome. In its recent campaign, Microsoft is emphasizing on how much Google Chrome is draining laptop batteries by featuring two tests.
The Verge noted that Microsoft came up with two tests that quantify the power consumption of various browsers. The first test involves a laboratory-controlled setting which measures typical browsing behavior on popular sites. The second test measures the length of streaming HD video time.
Based on the results, Google Chrome lasted four hours and 19 minutes on the streaming video test. On the other hand, Microsoft Edge lasted seven hours and 22 minutes. Firefox lasted five hours and nine minutes, and Opera lasted six hours and 18 minutes while on battery-saving mode.
The tests also showed that Chrome, Firefox and Opera all consume more battery power compared to Microsoft Edge when doing various internet browsing activities like opening websites, viewing images and videos, reading articles and opening new tabs. Furthermore, Microsoft also presented data from millions of Windows 10 computers proving that Edge and Firefox are more power-efficient compared to Google Chrome.
ArsTechnica stated that Microsoft measured the power draw of the CPU, GPU and Wi-Fi of the different web browsers, showing that Edge garnered 2.1W, Chrome drew 2.8W, Opera drew 3.1 and Firefox garnered 3.2W. The lower figure means that it consumes less battery.
Microsoft has been actively promoting its Edge browser in the past months, with the aim of winning over Google Chrome clients. The Windows 10 Anniversary update provided more adjustments that boost its power efficiency, networking changes that hasten the initial server connection and more aggressive re-requesting of data that seemed to have timed out. Plenty of changes have been introduced that will allow the Wi-Fi connection to be set in low power mode more frequently.
Microsoft Edge has shown significant improvements through its updates. However, the majority of users still opt for Google Chrome, which has the advantage of having more features, extension support and setting options. Mobile users may be the first to make the jump to Edge, considering its excellent battery-saving capacity. Regular PC users and those who primarily use web browsers for work and other online tasks may still stay with Chrome in the meantime.