Microsoft Edge consumes less energy than Firefox, Chrome and Opera

Microsoft’s browser has an edge over other major browsers when it comes to energy efficiency. If you want to use the most of your battery life, then Microsoft has just demonstrated that it’s Edge browser is the best at making your machines stay productive for longer, after being unplugged. Microsoft established the battery consumption of various browsers in a blog post. Microsoft used a number of methods to explore the energy efficiency of browsers. https://twitter.com/windowsblog/status/744877916614365184 A series of controlled lab tests were conducted, where the browsers were made to surf various sites including Facebook, Google, Amazon, Wikipedia and YouTube. The browsers were in default settings, and new tabs were opened for every site. Telemetry information from millions of machines around the world running Microsoft Windows 10 was another source of data. The third source were the four browsers pitted head to head with a video, and no electricity. Microsoft just waited it out till every machine died, and the one running Edge outlasted everything else. [caption id=“attachment_321552” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Microsoft Edge consumes least power when compared to other browsers.[/caption] The tests showed that using Edge gave users 36–53 percent more battery life. Microsoft is however, not stopping there. The Windows 10 Anniversary Update is expected to include an update that further streamlines the energy footprint of Edge. There are efficiency improvements for background tabs. The trick is to execute JavaScript requests in the background tabs only once per second.

Flash is sandboxed, and Flash content will be monitored for energy consumption. If it starts draining too much, the Flash process is halted without affecting the web page. Non critical Flash content will be automatically paused by Windows 10 after the Anniversary Update. Chrome and Safari have also taken steps to restrict the impact of Flash on the browsing experience. There have been tweaks to the UI to make the animations more energy efficient. Those participating in the Windows 10 insider program can preview these changes already.