Microsoft Says Edge Beats All Browsers In Battery Life

This is very likely true, and will very likely become less true when Edge finally allows extensions after the anniversary update.
 
That's nice, but my desktop doesn't have a battery, except for the one on the MB.
 
Im sure if you use Firefox or Chrome with adblock and no script your battery life would be well past Edge.
 
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I suspect they're cheating somehow, like using a codec none of the other browsers support hardware acceleration for.
 
Terpfen said:
This is very likely true, and will very likely become less true when Edge finally allows extensions after the anniversary update.
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Testing it right now. Having AD Block is a blessing. ;) The browser actually feels fluid for pages other than MSN now.
 
What in the hell does browser brand have to do with battery life? If it's disk usage for temp files/cache/cookies then I assume an SSD makes this test pointless?
 
Not popular on this board, but Apple claims Safari is more efficient that Chrome on Macs. I guess the have less crap running. (Plus Safari has Flash disabled by default)
 
I've found Chrome uses a lot more resource on my desktop than Edge, especially watching video.
 
yeah, battery life is a major concern when i select browsers. :rolleyes:
 
Autoplaying ads and scripts running rampant is very infuriating. I won't ad block places i like but if you start autoplaying some stupidly loud commercial? i'm going to block the hell out of it.
 
Burticus said:
What in the hell does browser brand have to do with battery life? If it's disk usage for temp files/cache/cookies then I assume an SSD makes this test pointless?
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You are aware that different browsers use different rendering engines and therefore process web pages differently, correct? It's not the brand that matters, it's the underlying code. And, yes, there is a difference between the performance and footprint of, say, Firefox and Chromium.
 
Of course it does. When I open it, it just displays a blue background and then closes again.
 
Burticus said:
What in the hell does browser brand have to do with battery life? If it's disk usage for temp files/cache/cookies then I assume an SSD makes this test pointless?
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CPU usage driving your processor to a higher performance state, draining significantly more battery resources.

This stuff first started coming out six years ago, when Chrome described changing the system clock tick rate, which later became a significant source of drain:
https://www.belshe.com/2010/06/04/chrome-cranking-up-the-clock/
Google's Chrome Web Browser Is Killing Your Laptop Battery

Chrome got a fix for most instances of this problem over four years later: Issue 489793003: Fix logic on high Windows resolution timer and have - Code Review
 
Steve said:
Microsoft put out a video today that shows Edge beating the competition in battery life. How much longer does Edge last? According to the video, 70% longer than Chrome, 43% longer than Firefox, and 17% longer than Opera.
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Not surprising when you have 70% less features than Chrome...

Since Edge is integrated into the OS, I'd bet they're using undocumented Windows programming interfaces as well.
 
Often it's because microsoft uses more hardware acceleration and handles system timers better and whatnot. Much like how ios get's better battery life than android on similar hardware and mac os often gets better battery life than windows on dual-boot macs and linux get's worse battery life than windows on dual-boot laptops.

It can be pretty substantial. Honestly I wish Microsoft was at the apple level on battery life and I wish android and linux where much improved in that regard as well. All that said, this video doesn't really tell us much as it's a single use case and doesn't appear to be representative of actual browsing behavior.
 
Quix said:
I suspect they're cheating somehow, like using a codec none of the other browsers support hardware acceleration for.
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Chances are it's because Chrome defaults to VP9 if it's available whereas Edge will prefer H265. Processors with hardware video acceleration handle H265 far better than VP9, often times VP9 hardware acceleration just isn't present and when it is it's not as good.
 
Reminds me of the last diehard Blackberry holdouts among my friends circa 2013 that would proclaim "but the battery lasts longer than your iPhone/Galaxy!".

Yeah, great battery life because it didn't really do anything beyond text based email/BBM.
 
DPI said:
Reminds me of the last diehard Blackberry holdouts among my friends circa 2013 that would proclaim "but the battery lasts longer than your iPhone/Galaxy!".

Yeah, great battery life because it didn't really do anything beyond text based email/BBM.
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Good thing you do not use a real computer then but a toy tablet. Desktops do not count because we are talking battery life here.
 
DPI said:
Reminds me of the last diehard Blackberry holdouts among my friends circa 2013 that would proclaim "but the battery lasts longer than your iPhone/Galaxy!".

Yeah, great battery life because it didn't really do anything beyond text based email/BBM.
Click to expand...

The test was literally just streaming one fullscreen video. I'm not sure what the other browsers could be doing that anyone would *want* them to be doing that would reduce battery life. If I'm streaming a fullscreen video I don't really want my browser doing anything else. As I pointed out, I imagine the reason Chrome did so poorly is that it defaulted to VP9.
 
rezerekted said:
My PC doesn't run on batteries so do not care.
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Really? My Surface Pro 3 PC does run on batteries when it is not plugged in and it is a full fledged PC. Guess you do not have any mobile PC equipment at all then.
 
Betaboy1983 said:
No.
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No, he does not have any mobile PC equipment, that is probably right. Now, if you are claiming my Surface Pro 3 is not a PC, you are full of it. Lets see: Could hook up multiple monitors, keyboard, mouse, printer, connect to a domain, or any other USB device. Heck, I could probably play Minecraft on it if I wanted to but I do not.

Oh well, guess maybe you simply misundersto.... no, you did not misunderstand and where just trying to start an argument. :eek::rolleyes:
 
ManofGod said:
Really? My Surface Pro 3 PC does run on batteries when it is not plugged in and it is a full fledged PC. Guess you do not have any mobile PC equipment at all then.
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I have an Asus tablet but I use it for reading game manuals and Persicope and not browsing the web. For reading news I use a google news app. Browsers suck on small tablets IMO. In the past I have owned a Nexus7 and an iPad mini too.

Full fledged PC? LOL

Let's see you run BF4 on it.

Minecraft? A potato can run Minecraft.
 
pause the video at a random time and you will see the EDge laptop sometimes is on the same frame as the other laptops and sometime it not. aka the render speed is different.. could be they just simple did a slow down the rende be inserting a sleep 0 or sleep1 after every renderede frame. it will be unnoticable under nromatl use 30 or 60fps. but when you cramk it upp full speed it will render slower and give more breathing room for the CPU.
Not claiming anything but its a possibility.
 
I'm glad I use Opera. Too bad for Chrome users. :) Extra features are useless if you don't use them all. Nice thing about Opera is that if there is an extension I want, I can easily grab them from Chrome's list of extensions.
 
"Johnson! We need to advertise a way that our new Internet Explorer Microsoft™ Edge© Browser® is better than other browsers, but they all wipe the floor with ours in speed and usability!"

SIR! We can use the native nature of the browser to open and load quickly, stay on top of HTML5 and java trends, and even open up the environment to allow extensions!

"Godamnit Johnson! Why did you even show up today!? You're fired! Seymour! Help me out here!"

We can advertise the BATTERY LIFE ADVANTAGE!

"Mother of god! that's brilliant! what is this information based on!?"

Absolutely nothing, sir...

"PERFECT!"





Another day at Microsoft™
 
OMG finally an unbiased review from Microsoft. Take that Chrome and FireFox with your plugins and Linux and Mac ports.
 
rezerekted said:
I have an Asus tablet but I use it for reading game manuals and Persicope and not browsing the web. For reading news I use a google news app. Browsers suck on small tablets IMO. In the past I have owned a Nexus7 and an iPad mini too.

Full fledged PC? LOL

Let's see you run BF4 on it.

Minecraft? A potato can run Minecraft.
Click to expand...

If the requirement to be a full fledged PC is to run Battle Field 4 on it, then a majority of the PC's out there are not full fledged PC's. Seems you are just trying to start an argument and that will go no where. Oh, and the Surface Pro 3 is hardly a small tablet nor is it a slow Asus tablet but, then again, you are just starting an argument and nothing else.
 
Microsoft has failed to establish equality between the 4 laptops involved the test.
Were the hard drives exact image copies of each other? It doesn't say.
Where is the control experiment with the exact same laptops executing a battery life tester application or all running the same web browser to establish a baseline difference between the laptops before starting this smoke and mirrors showpiece?
For all I know, the batteries inside each laptop aren't exactly the same quality/capacity. Or maybe MS Defender decided to run a scan in the background on one of them. Or Windows Update decided to run in the background on one or two of them. Or Candy Crush Saga decided to update itself in the background on one of them. Or....
Hell, a better test would have been to use the same laptop for each test. At least the hardware would be the same and the battery capacity/life wouldn't change that much over 4 charge/discharge cycles to affect the test beyond a couple of seconds.
Also, is this test result true for all laptops/battery powered devices, or just this one laptop with certain hardware? Again, it doesn't say.
Useless marketing drivel.
 
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