Microsoft Edge boasts longer battery life than Chrome or Firefox

The Microsoft Edge browser hasn't been picking up steam despite the fact users have been warming up to Windows 10 at a record pace. Now, however, the Redmond company has published a comparison that may make laptop and Windows tablet users finally switch over from Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Opera. The power efficiency of Edge gives it significant boosts in runtimes compared to the competition.

Laboratory Tests

According to Microsoft's test environment, the manufacturer compared four identical Surface Book detachables with each running a different browser. They were otherwise subjected to the same web pages, videos, scrolling actions, and tabs including popular destinations like Facebook, Google, Youtube, Amazon, and Wikipedia. The average baseline power consumption was a recorded 318 mW and the results show Edge outlasting its competitors by 36 to 53 percent. Interestingly, it also shows Google Chrome being dead last in terms of runtime.

Video Streaming

As for video streaming, Microsoft showed off the same four Surface Books streaming identical content only to find the system with the Edge browser coming out on top by as much as 70 percent over the Chrome system, 43 percent over the Firefox system, and 17 percent over the Opera system. 

Telemetry Data

As a nod to those concerned about how this can apply to real-world usages, Microsoft has evaluated millions of Windows 10 devices worldwide and the trend is that Edge is much more power efficient than Chrome and just slightly better the Firefox.

Further Improvements Coming this July

The big one-year anniversary update for Windows 10 is expected to bring even more power-saving features to Edge. In particular, changes will be made to embedded Flash content, background tabs, and the UI with support for browser extensions. The networking stack of the OS will also be revised for improved energy efficiency.

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