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Microsoft runs a new test trashing Google’s claims that latest Chrome 53 has increased battery life

by Felix Omondi

It would appear Microsoft’s fight to make its Edge browser relevant is unrelenting. Following last Google’s release of a video showing its latest browser Chrome 53 versus an earlier version; Chrome 46; released in 2015. Version 53 ran on Surface Book for more hours on a single charge than version 46.

It does raise some questions why Google chose to compare latest build of Chrome with one they released last year in its benchmark video above and not a head-to-head comparison with Edge (from Anniversary Update).

Microsoft took this opportunity to trash Google’s claims that its latest Chrome 53. It did the same test it did earlier, running a looping video on Netflix on four Surface Book computers each running Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Edge.

The company claims the Surface Book running Edge browser ran on battery for 8 hours and 47 minutes, while Chrome 53 lasted for 6 hours and 3 minutes. Again, from this Microsoft test, Edge is 45% battery efficient compared to the latest Chrome browser; 69% better than Firefox and 23% better than Opera. It is only Opera that came close to beating Edge lasting 7 hours and 8 minutes on the Surface Book.Microsoft runs a new test trashing Google’s claims that latest Chrome 53 has increased battery life

Microsoft ran another benchmark test, the second time using a video loop from Vimeo. Edge still ran longer than Chrome by over an hour, but it’s hard not to notice that Chrome 53 has narrowed that gap by 11% on Vimeo platform.

On a global scale, Microsoft claims to have users’ statistics that show power consumption for each browsers for the millions of devices running Windows 10 OS. From these stats, Edge browser consumes about half the power Chrome consumes; something Microsoft says is consistent with test it ran in its lab.

Nonetheless, stats show that Chrome is still the most popular browser on desktop, and its popularity keeps increasing. To put Edge against Chrome, Microsoft has a long way to go to making it popular. Battery consumption though critical, users just want a fast browser with intuitive extensions.

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2 comments

Jonas N September 21, 2016 - 7:55 am

The large advantage on Netflix is probably because Microsoft cherry picked Netflix in particular, which is a special case due to Edge using PlayReady Content Protection and Protected Media Path, Windows 10 DRM technologies to among other things offer 1080p content exclusively on Microsoft Edge. Not a bad thing per se, but a comparison of streaming technologies and video hardware acceleration more than browser engine performance.

Let’s see what the results are in a YouTube competition, a site that is arguably even more popular than Netflix anyhow. Or maybe results from a (scripted) web browsing session, which I think is what people are thinking of more when it comes to “battery use in web browsers”, not a pure 100% video watching marathon…

Felix Omondi October 1, 2016 - 10:56 pm

So normal browsing experience on other sites not Netflix might give different battery hours? Talk about intentional half-truths to mislead (bribe) people away from Chrome. Thanks for the feedback.

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