Microsoft is taking a swing at their competition with their latest lab test video showing just how far ahead their Edge browser is when it comes to battery life. In their test, Microsoft Edge smashes its competition with plenty of time to spare…literally.
The video depicts four identical laptops running in similar condition, each with a different browser open, streaming HD video content on the device’s battery alone. After just four hours and 19 minutes, Google’s Chrome bites the dust, followed by Mozilla’s Firefox an hour later and Opera the subsequent hour.
Microsoft’s Edge, on the other hand, lasts a whopping seven hours and 22 minutes before completely depleting the laptop’s battery life. That’s quite impressive how well Microsoft’s Edge stacks up against the competition as its able to last 70% longer than a similar PC running Google’s Chrome — a browser I use daily. But is that enough to get you to switch over to Edge from whatever browser you’re using right now?
I use Chrome because it has everything I need and a whole lot more that I don’t. It lets me sync my browsing information across my devices, has the themes I like and, crucially, all my extensions. When I first heard about Microsoft Edge, I was quite excited and that was the first thing I tried when I updated my PC to Windows 10. But it clearly didn’t work out as I’m back on Chrome once again.
With this test, Microsoft is clearly trying to win some people over to their new and improved browser but the lack of key features like browser extensions, and for me, the seamless integration across multiple devices via my Google account, may be the deal breaker.
Still, there is hope for Edge as the upcoming Anniversary update for Windows 10 will bring browser extensions to team Edge. Microsoft also promises further power-saving enhancements to Edge thanks to less memory consumption, controls on background activity and flash ads, plus fewer CPU cycles.
For now, if you didn’t already know this, should you find yourself needing to extend the battery life of your laptop during a long work day, you know which browser can do it best.
